Penn State Sandusky Scandal

A model citizen of the community, Jerry Sandusky joined the Penn State staff as assistant football coach under Joe Paterno in 1969. He was also a founder of The Second Mile charitable organization to help disadvantaged youth. Sandusky retired from this position in 1999 but still had access to the campus due to him being an emeritus professor (Crandall, 2014). Sandusky was found guilty of 45 counts of child sex abuse in 2012. He sexually abused 10 boys over a 15 year period (Cheppell, 2012).

Penn State football was once the pride of Pennsylvania. The Sandusky scandal changed all of that forever. The University had to learn many lessons. According to Layden, T. (2014), one of the biggest issues that caused the scandal to strive was the fact that those in charge probably felt the football program was too big to fail. In other words, they felt the success of the program was so important to the University and its fans that the scandal needed to be kept on a low profile.

Penn State football is a major brand with a very large fan base. Many areas of the school benefit from the large amount of revenue generated by the success of the football program. One of the major factors in the Penn State scandal was blind loyalty to one individual with total disregard for the children and the lives he was destroying. Many believe the four individuals that had the control to step in and stop this from happening either did not do so for fear of destroying the program or the hopes that it would somehow stop on its own (Crandall 2013). Jerry Sandusky was a top assistant and defensive mastermind for thirty years with Joe Paterno as the head coach.

On November 4, 2011 there was a grand jury report released with testimonies stating that Penn State’s Defensive Coordinator, Jerry Sandusky, had been involved in the sexual assault of at least eight different young juvenile males over a period of approximately 15 years that spanned from 1994 to 2009. There were also allegations that leading officials of Penn State failed to notify law enforcement after learning that some of the incidents had taken place (Viera, M. 2011). In 1977, Jerry Sandusky initially founded a group Foster home for troubled boys known as “The Second Mile.”

Pennsylvania (Penn) State’s assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky who worked under head coach Joe Paterno appeared to be an upstanding model citizen; however, he was found to be a serial child rapist (Crandall et al., 2014). Those who were high in power were responsible for informing other of the past of Sandusky. The Board of Trustees knew about his predatory actions and incidents, yet fail to report them. Jerry Sandusky started out as the assistant coach at Penn State in 1969 and later became the defensive coordinator. He was most known for the establishing of the Second Mile, a charity that developed in 1977 as a group foster home for troubled disadvantaged boys (CNN, 2013).

PROS: The pros of the Louisville scandal were very hard to identify. Being that the scandal was very much the hot topic and caused more bad than good, there are not many pros of this scandal. One pro that I found while reading up on the Louisville Scandal was that it brought the team, school and also the coaches many opportunities of fame and attention. During this time of attention, there was a book published called ‘breaking cardinal rules: Basketball and the Escort Queen.’

In 1998, a mother reported that Sandusky had showered with her son in one of the buildings on campus, which was quietly swept under the rug (Crandall, et al., 2014). In 2001, a football assistant, Mike McQueary witnessed a sexual encounter between Sandusky and a 10 year old boy and reported it to Coach Paterno (Crandall, et al., 2014). Paterno went to the group of four men who were made aware of the situation in 1998 and together, they confronted Paterno (Crandall, et al., 2014). Instead of reporting him to authorities, they told him to refrain from bringing young men to the facilities and informed the director of Sandusky’s charitable organization as well (Crandall, et al., 2014). When President Spanier next met with the board of trustees, he intentionally withheld the information regarding Sandusky’s actions (Crandall, et al.,

“President Graham B. Spanier, Senior Vice President-Finance and Business Gary C. Schultz, Athletic Director Timothy M. Curley and Head Football coach Joseph V. Paterno – failed to protect against a child sexual predator from harming children for decades” (Crandall, Parnell, & Spillan, 2014). These four did not report what they knew to the right people and allowed it to continue for some time, therefore, this cover up is what lead this indecency to become a scandal at Penn State. “An examination of meeting notes and e-males reveals that Spanier, Schultz, Curley, and Paterno had met and discussed the problem with various authorities, and not including the board of

The Jerry Sandusky trial began in 2012 and was held in Centre County, Pennsylvania. Sandusky was found guilty on 45 of 48 counts and sentenced to 30 to 60 years in jail (Curry, 2015). The details of the case are horrific in nature, and worse is five men were made aware of the incidents and no action was taken to alert authorities. During the trial the victims were led through questions that all pointed toward the trust they had in Sandusky. The university is located in a small town setting where people work hard and have little; Sandusky reaching out to someone was considered a big deal.

Penn State restored their 112 football wins that had been stripped from Sandusky and Paterno although NCAA hit Penn State with a $60 million fine to fund child abuse-prevention programs. The University must reduce 10 initial and 20 total scholarships each year for a four-year period. Sandusky was an assistant coach to Paterno for many years and he was greatly looked upon. After this scandal I think that Penn state being punished for their actions were more than okay, the athletic office of Penn state covering up and hiding what Sandusky had been doing is morally not okay. Everyone is taught right from wrong, when you lie about something there will be consequences, Penn State coved up this scandal for too long and got hit hard.

While watching “Happy Valley” it was easy to see how it affected the players, student body, and community at State College, Pa. Sandusky had been so pivotal in the winning seasons at Penn State, it was difficult for people close to him to believe his victims testimonies. The sports scene isn’t known for being open about things such as, sexual orientation or sexual abuse that may occur. Victim blaming is also a widespread practice in universities and colleges across America. Considering those things, it’s not far-fetched to conclude that college football didn’t have any safeguards in place to prevent abuse at Penn State.

In totally shocking news today, Jerry Sandusky's son Jeffrey Sandusky has been arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a minor. TMZ revealed this breaking news today. Jeffrey is 41-years-old and was arrested in Pennsylvania and was arraigned on Monday. Alleged sexual assault is not the only thing that Jefferey Sandusky is in trouble for, though. Documents show he is also being charged with multiple counts of child pornography, child sex abuse and corruption of minors.

In general I would say Richard Nixon was a fairly decent president. During a time where there were many protests amongst the American public (especially the youth) against the troops in Vietnam, Nixon was able to pull the troops out of the war. Nixon also reduced the tensions with the Soviet Union, and helped China join the United Nations. He also helped decrease the amount of racial discrimination by segregating schools in the south. It is a shame though, that those achievements of his are not acknowledged because of the Watergate Scandal.

Colleges are protecting their public record and do not wish to affect their brand be publicly admitting the high rates of sexual assaults. The documentary focused on a student attending Harvard Law School and the administrators insisted that the female victim should remain silent and avoid spreading the incident around. They asked questions such as, "Did you give him the wrong message, why did you choose not to fight back". Victim blaming is presented when the administrators are more interested in what the victim did wrong rather than what the offender's actions

The internal stakeholders in the Sandusky scandal would include Penn State University faculty, Penn State football coaches, and Penn State football players. Crandall, W., Parnell, J. & Spillan, J. (2013), explained how these internal stakeholders were affected. Four members of the faculty were either fired or forced out because of the scandal. Legendary football coach Joe Paterno was one of those who was fired, which shook up the coaching staff. The football players were unfairly penalized by the sanctions that were placed on the team.