Every now and then, I come across a story that involves a prominent public figure being accused of and/or charged with sexual misconduct. They can range from the amusing (e.g. Larry Craig or Anthony Weiner), to the embarrassing (Rick Pitino or Marv Albert), to the disturbing (John Edwards). The latest public case that came out over the weekend somehow managed to transcend all three categories and went right to angering.
Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky was indicted by a local grand jury for a long history of sexual abuse of children. As sickening as that was, there was so much more that made me furious. For starters, all the children abused were young boys, typically between 8 and 12 years old. Sandusky allegedly took showers with at least some of the boys, molesting them in the process (Sandusky is 71 years old now).
But wait; it gets worse.
Sandusky met these children from his charity called The Second Mile, which provides aid to underprivileged children through interaction, athletics, and academics. Sandusky had helped found the charity in 1977, and it's a great cause in the local community. So it only further sickens the idea that he would use his own charity as a venue to undermine the entire purpose of the organization.
Oh, but that's not even the half of it.
Sandusky's allegations go as far back as 1996. That's not a misprint; they go as far back as 15 years ago. There are over 40 counts of various misconducts on his part during that time.
But there's even more to this story.
In 2002, a Penn State grad student found Sandusky in a shower room with a young boy. The grad student reported the incident to Joe Paterno, who then informed the athletic director. From there the details are a bit hazy, but a grand jury was formed to investigate the matter. Allegedly, the athletic director and vice president for business and finance for the university both ordered Sandusky to keep his business off the Penn State campus. In essence, they chose to cover up the story instead of contacting the police.
Now the athletic director has taken a leave of absence, and the VP of business and finance has retired. Both men are facing perjury charges for denying the story to the police in 2002, and the entire university's reputation has been tarnished, to say the least (not to mention Second Mile's).
My God, I don't know where to start with this.
It's amazing that grown adults will abuse their positions and connections to serve their own perverse desires. I'm disgusted at the irony of a non-profit organization like Second Mile being a feeding ground for Sandusky. It's really no different than Catholic priests who have abused altar boys behind closed doors.
Then there's the fact that this behavior had been going on for a full fifteen years before any actions were taken on the law's part. There are other reports that showed Sandusky was allegedly caught in the act as far back as 1998. How in the world did anyone in the police department take so long to finally make a move on this guy? Predators like him manage to ruin life after life while running around freely.
Perhaps what's worse of all was the actions (or rather, inactions) taken by Penn State's administration. The choice to cover up the case made everyone look guilty, even parties such as Paterno who likely had done no wrong at all. Their lack of condemnation was essentially a pass given to Sandusky to continue his actions, as long as they weren't conducted on Penn State grounds.
This was one of those cases where a wrong was committed, and another wrong was done to cover up that wrong, and a third wrong was done to cover up the previous one. It's the worst of all worlds. Individually, each sin by itself was reprehensible, but piling each crime on top of one another brought the sum to be greater than the individual parts.
There's another tragic irony to this story. The media tends to protect the identities of the victims here, out of respect to their dignity. It's a generally accepted tactic on their part, and I understand why they do that. However, by not putting names or faces to the victims, all the general public gets to see is the damage done to Penn State and The Second Mile as organizations. We don't get to see the real fruits of the hurt and pain caused by Sandusky over such a long period of time. The true evil nature of these crimes isn't ever fully realized by the public because we don't get to see the actual victims. Maybe it's better that way though, because otherwise we as a society would become desensitized to truly evil people like Jerry Sandusky.
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