It is easy to talk about Penn State but much harder to talk about the University of Michigan, on which your livelihood depends.

One result of the Penn State scandal was that a UM pediatrician went back to the University administration and insisted that their blocking the investigation of another pediatrician for possession of child pornography could not stand. Only because that person was courageous enough to tell the people in power the truth, the criminal no longer has a license to practice medicine and will spend 3 years in prison.

Penn State published the Freeh report for everyone to see. The UM Board of Regents is keeping the report of the investigation into the delay in reporting the child pornography to police secret under attorney client privilege.

I would have more respect for you if your column called upon the Regents to make the report of the investigation public.

First I would like to note that I rarely make comments on anything I read on the web unless I am particularly moved to do so. After nearly 2 years of following this story I was struck by the truth I heard in Mr. Bacon’s article. Since I haven’t had much luck finding such articles I wanted to thank him for it.

Second, I was wondering why no comments were being made about my post because I thought I had made it clear I was a Penn State supporter. When I reread my post I thought maybe I had not been as clear as I intended. The idea that it is a sports scandal befuddles me because it had little to do with sports. People like Jerry Sandusky will do what they do and use anything at their disposal to groom their victims. It is my understaning that he was involved in sports programs all his life they are what he knows so it makes sense to me that he would use that. I think what Ellen may have been trying to suggest was that it could have as easily been a person of any profession using what he was familiar with to appeal to young boys. Granted, sports is easy because programs are so readily available.

I also was impressed that Mr. Bacon did not use the word scandal and Penn State together in his article. JS was connected with Penn State and he stood under the umbrella of it’s well deserved reputation in academics and sports. He used the reputation that had been carefully and lovingly nurtured over the decades by countless people ,and by association their reputations as well,to give him more credibility. If it were not for that association with Penn State I’d bet there would have been only a few articles written and a few fleeting mentions on the news or sports stations and I’m pretty sure we wouldn’t still be talking about it today. That association is what made it a story and the news and sports media ate it up with a big soup spoon. Most importantly, nobody in a position to speak for the school either wanted to or were capable of (I still don’t know which) defending it so the media had free reign. I care about Penn State and I admire certain individuals that I think helped shape that reputation by words and actions. I can not express how helpless I felt as the media circus got worse by the days, weeks and months. I have two sons the same ages as some of the victims. I was ill over the thought of what happened but I could not and still do not understand what can be accomplished by painting everyone and everything associated with JS with a broad brush of guilt. Mistakes were made on the part of some individuals, of that I am sure, but I think the understanding of the nature and deliberateness of those mistakes has been delayed by the unanswered frenzy in the media

I agree with Mr. Johnson that Penn State has a responsibility. I don’t think we agree on what it is though. As an institution of learning, the responsibility is to get things right so as to be informed, reform and educate. Something awful happened to little boys at the hands of a monster. That monster used what he was familiar with and in doing so groomed an entire community and we’re talking a wide spread community not just a sleepy little town in the midst of tree covered hills. Many Penn Staters are angry and hurt and will not let it go. They can’t help themselves from commenting on the web and have a little trouble controlling their passion. The reason is ,believe it or not, because when we say “We Are …Penn State” we really mean it. It’s more than a place on a map or a piece of paper in a frame on the wall or a team record. It represents a philosophy to live by and includes all that sappy crap about doing things The Penn State Way and Success With Honor. Some people don’t understand this and frankly I feel a little silly reading it back after I’ve typed it here but I won’t deny the truth of it. I can’t speak for all as to why it’s true but for meI think I identify with it because it is reflective of the way I was raised and the things my parents taught me.

Finally, I need to know how we missed this monster of a man harming children in association with an institution and world wide community that I care about, not just because it hurt my feelings but because the safety of children is at stake. Knowledge of the truth no matter how difficult, is the only way to protect them. All that being said, it frightens me to think that if it could happen under these circumstances that it really truly could happen anywhere. We cannot afford to miss this opportunity to learn because we blaming everything on the easy, obvious things. Nor do I think it is fair to dismiss peoples ideas and feelings because they express them differently.

Your article hits on many points given its brief length.

That you identified that 1 of PSU (my alma mater)’s biggest short comings is the BoD structure is what has created a massive divide within the Penn State community.

I doubt that the indictment in Nov ’11 was out of the blue and that many people across the Ath. Dpt, Administration, and Board at PSU knew that something was coming. Their inability to effectively respond to the indictment was astonishing.

The unfortunate matter in all of this is that, outside of the victims (and I mean that genuinely), the people most affected, the PSU student community, was never given a chance to react or have a voice. Should they have? I don’t know. But what I do know is that the PSU student community, like many university student bodies nationwide, is given the opportunity to respond that their collective voices and actions can effect change and awareness. The best example, at least at PSU, is the student run Dance Marathon that raised over $10 million towards pediatric cancer.

At the end of the day, no one will know what Joe “knew”, but we all now know what Joe could have known. Hindsight is amazing that way. An example in a totally different arena is the recent Navy Yard shooter who had all sorts of red flags yet he had the access and the clearance to a highly sensitive naval station.

Looking back at much of what has come out of the investigation, there seem to have been quite a few red flags:
within PSU athletics (McQuery’s alerting those above him),
the PSU Admin (Graham Spanier’s knowledge and involvement in granting Sandusky Emeritus status, which was signed off on by current interim President Erickson)

and then outside of Penn State, whether it was
the Children & Youth Services (to whom early allegations were reported),
The Second Mile (Sandusky’s grooming grounds that was alerted on several occasions of his peculiar behavior).

Unfortunately, Sandusky was not fiction and I doubt that Hollywood’s finest could not have invented this story.

The only silver lining that I see is that children, especially in Pennsylvania, for the past 2 years have been asking their parents, “dad/mom, I don’t understand. What happened to JoePa? What did that Sandusky guy do?” and now parents can’t beat around the bush and must tell their kids about how horrible adults can be and that if they are ever in such a situation that their parents are there for them to protect them.

My faith in the Penn State community (not the administration or the Board) is that it isn’t an ashes to ashes, dust to dust story; but that the blue and white community will recognize that no one is infallible and that there is always a chance to rise, especially when under a spotlight…or a microscope.

P.S. U all in Ann Arbor better beat up on those Buckeyes :)

My only issue would be… I can see how you would compare it to churches except this man no longer worked there and wasn’t the one in charge when he was. It would be less like the priests taking advantage of children and more like the retired choir leader doing it. Which in that case wouldn’t have the same giant splash so instead everyone trying to sell their story blames it on the entire school and Paterno.

Secondly, Jerry Sandusky was not found guilty of any crimes on the Penn State campus. “Victim #2″ has come forward and stated that he was not molested in the shower that night which calls into question what Mike McQueary actually told anyone. He obviously didn’t see anything if even the victim says that, while he was abused by Sandusky, it never happened at Penn State. Also, before McQueary told Joe, (who in turn made him report it to the person in charge of the Penn State Police force Gary Schultz) he told his father and his father’s friend Dr. Dranov. The Doctor is a mandated reporter who has stated that if they thought it was serious enough to call the police immediately they would have. The one thing that pretty much everyone agrees on is that what McQueary told them was not molestation but it was inappropriate. Which seems to be why they decided to talk to him rather than file a report. McQueary’s testimony has changed several times. He even thought it was an entire year later that this incident occurred. If he really saw what he says he did how could he confuse the date by an entire year and why would his story keep changing?

Here is a link about victim number 2 that sheds a little more light on the situation.
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