An enormous among of the anger surrounding the Jerry Sandusky scandal seems to center around Penn State football coach Joe Paterno.
There is no question that Paterno – who was dismissed as coach Wednesday– should have taken stronger action in reporting the incident. He deserved to lose his job. Should the continuing investigation reveal he knew about this incident prior to 2002, he may even deserve prosecution.
But let’s be clear. This represents far more than a Joe Paterno story. This is far more than a Graham Spanier story.
While Penn State deserves the bulk of the blame for this fiasco, the Sandusky case represents a cover-up of epic, unprecedented proportions, one that involves the entire town/gown community of State College.
Given the length of Sandusky’s terror — potentially 30 years — and the small size of State College’s non-student population, it is simply unfathomable that more people within this community did not know, or at least hear of rumors regarding conduct of the former defensive coordinator.
Happy Valley is not merely a ‘drinking school with a football problem.’ It is a community filled with elites – academics, professionals, and politicians – who operate with anonymity among the student population.
Many of them live if the suburbs such as Boalsburg, which is just far enough away to maintain privacy from campus. Those who live in town – notably on the west side of the borough – have cordoned themselves though a series of roadblocks and other traffic patterns.
They wine and dine at establishments in Toftrees, which rests several miles from campus. They are friends. They gossip. And I have no doubt that many of them were fully aware of tragedy allegedly conducted by one of their own.
Based on the grand jury report, leaders with the Second Mile were well aware of Jerry Sandusky’s actions as early as 1998. District Attorney Ray Gricar – who mysteriously disappeared several years ago – failed to act on the 1998 incident.
In 2000, a group of janitors – including staff supervisors – allegedly witnessed Sandusky in the act.
And all of us know by now of the infamous incident in 2002.
But what we don’t – and won’t know without more investigation – is who else within the tight-knit, tight-lipped State College community knew about Sandusky, but failed to protect those innocent children.
But there are others who likely knew about this. And this list could very well include members . . . of the local media.
WHAT DID THE PRESS KNOW?
I covered local government during my tenure at the newspaper from August 2001 to July 2002. Prior to this, I had worked as an intern for the newspaper in the summer of 1999.
I have no evidence to suggest they covered up knowledge of the Sandusky issues.
But during my internship, I witnessed my newspaper cover-up a story that they believed would negatively impact the university’s football program.
On June 3, 1999, I awoke excited to see the morning edition of the newspaper. I had the night before written my first story about Penn State’s football team – sort of.
News came in that Sue Paterno, the wife of famed coach Joe Paterno, was recovering from hip surgery. She injured herself during a vacation in Spain.
After confirming the story with the university’s sports information department, I wrote a 70-word piece in less than 15 minutes. I was thrilled.
Then came the morning.
After arriving in the office, I was informed by a sports editor that the story was killed at the last minute.
A university official in the athletic department – not JoePa – didn’t want the story published.
Why? The official felt it would cause undue stress to the Paterno family and football program.
Rather than act independently, the newspaper acquiesced.
(The irony of this situation is that the CDT, while keeping it out of its daily edition, failed to kill the story from its library archive. It remains available through search engines such as NewsBank to this day).
Again, I have no evidence that the staff knew anything about the Sandusky case. I certainly knew nothing. And I sincerely hope that no one else on the staff didn’t either.
But I still share this incident for two reasons.
First, it suggests that Penn State ‘s administration – even on issues of little significance – was aggressive in policing its image. They had no issue telling people to keep silent on issues they didn’t want publicized.
If they didn’t want news out that Sue Paterno was injured, one can only image what other issues they were willing to hide.
More disturbingly, this incident suggests that certain people within the State College community were at times complicit in helping the university in managing its image.
WHY A COMMUNITY COVER-UP?
The State College community has just as much to lose from a major scandal. Students alone pump more than $100 million into its economy. On football Saturday’s, it becomes the third largest city in the state, filling with thousands of middle-class consumers.
Any loss to Penn State’s reputation would be a loss to the community’s bottom line. This would give many people just as much reason to hide Sandusky’s abuse.
Did anyone from the local press know about the incident? Did any prominent figures within police, government or business circles hear that Sandusky was a possible sex predator?
Given the length of time of Sandusky’s actions, the small size of the community and the number of public acts Sandusky was alleged to have committed, it is almost impossible that others didn’t know.
Those who did know, but did nothing, are just as deficient as the Penn State administrators who failed to take action.
They too should lose their jobs. They too should face prosecution. And they too must be made to face public opinion for their lack of action in this case.
This investigation should not stop with Paterno. It should not stop with Spanier. Reporters looking into this case need to find out just how wide the blue-and-white wall of silence spreads throughout Happy Valley.
It is only then that justice will truly be served on this matter.
Letrell Deshan Crittenden
Posted on November 9, 2011
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