By The Beacon Editorial Board
More than a decade passed before anyone said a word.
"Nothing happened. Nothing stopped," Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Frank Noohan said about Penn State University officials failing to report former football defensive guru Jerry Sandusky's alleged sexual assault of at least eight boys, with some of the abuse taking place within the university's football complex.
Last week, Sandusky was charged with molesting eight boys.
University police investigated the former coach in 1998 for showering with an 11-year-old boy. He promised it would not happen again.
It did.
Two years later, according to the grand jury report, a janitor caught Sandusky performing oral sex on a boy in the showers. The janitor told his supervisor, who did not report it.
In 2002, another Penn State employee, Mike McQueary, found Sandusky raping a 10-year-old boy in the locker room showers. McQueary reported it to Head Football Coach Joe Paterno, who passed along the information to Athletic Director Tim Curley. Weeks passed before the university president, Graham Spanier, was told about the matter.
Penn State took away Sandusky's keys to the locker room and the incident was reported to The Second Mile, the charity Sandusky started in 1977 to help at-risk children.
The effort to end the sexual abuse stopped there.
Now, Sandusky is facing 40 charges of child sexual abuse. Spanier and Paterno were ousted from Penn State last Wednesday for their role in the scandal. After students learned of Paterno's firing, the response was ferocious. Students rioted in support of the legendary coach – the winningest coach in college football history.
"You call him a legend, treat him like a legend," a Penn State student told ABC News.
But, what about the eight victims whose lives were drastically altered because nobody was willing to do the right thing?
Paterno may have celebrated 409 wins on the football field, but he lost when it came to doing the right thing. He should have told police what he knew.
According to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN), every two minutes someone in the U.S. is sexually assaulted. It is estimated that nearly one out of every three girls and one out of every six boys will be assaulted by age 18.
That's grotesque.
According to research conducted by sociology professor Martin Monto, nine percent of female students (from a sample of 297 students) at the University of Portland reported being sexually assaulted. This statistic is considerably higher than the two forcible sex offenses reported at UP during 2010.
Sexual abuse is the nation's most underreported crime. It damages the victims and community alike. However, 60 percent of sexual assaults are not reported to police, according to RAINN. Victims of sexual assault need to be encouraged to report the crime, and if you see suspicious behavior, it is your duty to report it. It is never easy to be the whistle-blower regardless of who you are, but someone must step up.
In its sexual assault policy, the University says it will not pursue potential policy violations (i.e. alcohol, intervisitation, etc.) against the victim if they occurred in the context of the sexual assault. However, students are still intimidated by the University's sexual intimacy policy. The University should go above and beyond to encourage students to report sexual assault when it happens and to let them know they will not be re-victimized by the system.
Though it may hurt the University's reputation if more sexual assaults are reported, we can all learn from the Penn State scandal that universities are bigger than their name. A university is made up of students, not brick and mortar or football wins. The institution should serve to protect and educate its students, not bury their concerns because a reputation is more important.
The eight boys who were molested face a lifetime of emotional damage because the reputation of Penn State came first.
Joe Paterno is a name that will be remembered. It won't be because he did the right thing.
Doing the right thing means not staying silent: Do not underestimate the power you have in stopping sexual assault.
