You can access it by clicking here.

A collaboration among Phillycam, Voices of Philadelphia and the students and staff of Youth Empowerment Services Philadelphia, Pushouts is a documentary created by students who left school, but have enroll in an alternative program.

Our role was to help students learn basic reporting skills. The documentary was produced by the students, and based upon their experiences with leaving school.

Stay turned for our next project. We just received a $2000 grant to help fund it! (more on that soon!)

I agree.

But if that is the case, why has so much emphasis been placed on Joe Paterno, and not Jack Raykovitz?

You probably don’t even know who that is.

More than a week after the scandal broke, the bulk of the media focus – and public anger – remains toward the iconic football coach and assistant coach Mike McQueary.

In case you have been on vacation in rural Kazakhstan, both men have faced well-deserved scrutiny over their failure to report an alleged rape of a child to police in 2002.

Aside from losing his job, Paterno had his name removed from the Big Ten championship trophy, and was subject to a New York Times investigation into the recent sale of his home to his wife.

McQueary has been placed on administrative leave, and has been ridiculed for not being ‘man enough’ to fight Sandusky.

But like Paterno, McQueary and former Penn State President Graham Spanier – whom no one discusses anymore – Raykovitz was informed of the incident in 2002.

Why? Raykovitz was the CEO of The Second Mile – the charity that supplied the kids to Sandusky.

A licensed school psychologist who once treated clients in the State College area, Raykowitz headed charity for the past 28 years. And according to Sandusky’s autobiography, he was instrumental in its founding 1977.

On Monday, via a press release, he resigned from his position, four days after the scandal brought down legendary football coach Joe Paterno. By Tuesday, he, like Spanier, was no longer a topic for discussion.

Paterno deserves blame. But if we are truly invested in finding justice for the victims, far more attention should go toward the one person who had the most power, the most opportunity – and frankly, the biggest moral and professional obligation – to stop this.

What did Raykovitz know?

Based on grand jury testimony, Raykovitz was informed in 2002 by Penn State officials that Sandusky had – at the very least – been caught engaging in inappropriate behavior with a Second Mile child. Yet like Paterno, University President Graham Spanier, and Athletic Director Tim Curley, Raykowitz opted not to inform police about the incident.

What was the child psychologist’s excuse? Since Penn State didn’t act, why should The Second Mile?

It is more than likely that Raykovitz knew about the first allegation in 1998. The Centre County district attorney’s office investigated a charge against Sandusky made by the parent of a Second Mile participant. That charge was not pursued by then Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar.

Unless both he and the police were incompetent, Raykovitz – while not named in the report – had to have been informed about case.

The most inexcusable act of Raykovitz, however, may have taken place in 2008.

According to several news stories, Sandusky told Raykovitz — and the board of directors — he was under investigation for sex crimes against children.

Did he or anyone else from the board go to police? No. Sandusky was told he could no longer see children . . . at The Second Mile events.

But that investigation didn’t’ stop Raykovitz from using Sandusky to as a fundraising tool for the organization.

In a 2009 article published in the Centre Daily Times, Sandusky was interviewed at the organization’s annual charity golf event.

The article, which describes Sandusky as “the soul of The Second Mile,” features a subtle, backhanded pitch from alleged pedophile.

“We don’t rely on government funding. It’s difficult times, and in the world of athletics you usually find out who your real friends are in difficult times. Fortunately, there’s a lot of people who have helped us and continue to help us.”

How strong was the help? The Second Mile announced in January of this year its plan to build an $8.5 million learning center.

“We anticipate because of the expanded space we’ll be able to serve even more children,” a Second Mile represented said in a CDT article.

One would think that a man trained to deal with abused children, a man who understand the psychological damage abuse causes, would have been the most apt to take these allegations seriously. One would think that, at the very least, the CEO of an organization he helped build would distance the program from Sandusky.

But he didn’t. Staying in the background, he continued to raise money. He continued to earn a six-digit salary. And he continued to allow Sandusky to be around children for another six years after the 2002 incident.

The Press and Public’s Role in Scandal’s Coverage

My question is, where is the outrage over this man’s actions? Why were people not demeaning, en mass, severe punishments against The Second Mile, the organization that – contrary to popular opinion – is at the center of this scandal?

The answer is obvious – and sickening.

The media would much rather play this – as the Wall Street Journal did this weekend – as “Penn State sex-scandal” associated “with a charity,” as opposed to the opposite. They would rather highlight the drama of a fallen icon, than investigate the actions of Sandusky’s closest associates.

And if we are truly honest, the public would rather hear about Paterno’s indirect involvement in this, than as opposed to detail involving the staff of The Second Mile.

The high ratings enjoyed by ESPN and other news outlets confirm as much.

Quite frankly, people like to see people crash and burn. It’s human nature. It’s drama.

But if we want justice in the case, we need to refocus our perspective, refocus our reporting and get to the bottom of how extensive this scandal was throughout the State College community.

We need less Paterno, and more Raykovitz.

– Letrell Deshan Crittenden

To watch the interview, click here.

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

The Philly pushouts took the opportunity to reflect on their project, which has helped to showcase the dilemma that many at-risk Philly public school students face.

You can watch the video here.

The Pushouts, along with Voice of Philly co-founder Letrell Crittenden, YESPhilly founder Taylor Frome and instructor Jeannine Cook, were featured on NBC10′s Education Nation Tuesday. Here’s the video:

http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/politics/Yes_Philly_Teens_Philadelphia-123433694.html

The Pushouts documentary screening last Thursday featured community members, educators and other stakeholders interested in solving the city’s dropout/pushout problem.

As the video below shows, those who attended the screening were an enthusiastic audience.

When Voice of Philly partnered with PhillyCAM and YESPhilly for the media literacy training of six YESPhilly students, few of us imagined that the trainers would learn more than the students.

Yet the students’ persistence in learning how to report, produce and edit for print, broadcast and multimedia – culminating in last week’s premiere of the documentary – showed us how determined they were to make the most of their opportunity. This was their chance to tell stories not covered by mainstream media or included in the Philadelphia School Reform Commission report on dropouts – the basis for this project.

In the coming days, we will update Voice of Philly to reflect the student produced content, as well as follow-ups on the participants and their next steps.

The Voice of Philly will also continue its own transition from a news reporting site to a media literacy and education site featuring stories and perspectives from the communities we have sought to represent since our founding over a year ago.

Portions reprinted from PhillyCAM and YESPhilly

After months of preparation, the Pushouts project, coordinated by Voice of Philly, Philly CAM and YESPhilly, will premiere Thursday at 5:30 p.m. at the Painted Bride Art Center (230 Vine St.).

The event will feature the screening of the documentary produced by six YESPhilly students that features reporting, interviews, and commentary on the dropout problem in the city’s public schools.

The project, which began in January, is funded by J-Lab. Throughout the project, Voice of Philly has posted updates by the students and after the premiere, will post their essays and blog posts on the site.

In sum, the Pushouts project explores why young people of color are failing to graduate from Philadelphia public schools and what is being done at the community level to address the problem. A recent report released by the Philadelphia School District’s School Reform Commission focused on the lagging rates of graduation among Black and Latino men. The report provides a broad-brushed assessment of this issue and offers ways to improve retention in Philly public schools.

The Pushout project participants found through their research that the dropout rate in the city is a lot more complex than some of the reasons mentioned in the report. And in the process they literally redefined the term “dropout” and adopted their own term “pushout.”

“Pushout” refers to a young person who either for personal reasons pushed themselves out of school or found themselves pushed out due to school policies or negative experiences in school. In interviews with their peers and in blog posts, the pushouts have also noted the importance of family support.

Reprinted with permission from RHD

Mayor Michael A. Nutter and Gov. Tom Corbett were among the luminaries the 2011 Philadelphia Citywide Career Fair today, bringing together the largest gathering of resources aiding in the employment and re-entry of ex-offenders and homeless individuals in the city’s history.

The Citywide Career Fair was sponsored by Resources for Human Development, the Philadelphia non-profit who is also Voice of Philly’s fiscal sponsor. The Citywide Career Fair was held at the Philadelphia Municipal Services Building, making this the largest single provider of resources for underserved populations seeking employment, independence and re-entry into society.

“Providing ex-offenders with opportunities to re-enter the workforce is absolutely necessary to combat recidivism,” Nutter said. “I would like to thank RHD for sponsoring this job fair and helping job seekers reach their career goals.

“Working for the re-integration of people who did their time and now want to move forward could not be more important for the city, for the state and for the nation. The public sector and the private sector can do something in a coordinated way to help people re-integrate and not get caught up in the circumstances that get them back in trouble. The best anti-crime tool we have, is a job.”

More than 50 employers dedicated to providing opportunities to ex-offenders and homeless individuals will attended the Citywide Career Fair.

“We are seeking participants who have the determination to confront barriers and execute a plan to overcome them,’’ said Jennifer Arthur-Lewis, RHD Corporate Assistant manager. “The Citywide Career Fair is available for people with an inner drive to change their life situations and create a new, successful reality.

“We want to develop employment resources that will promote and build better lives for our participants and their communities and make sure people get the second chance they dearly need.”

The Citywide Career Fair was inspired by a job fair for homeless and ex-offenders at RHD in November. Nutter was on hand to address an overflow crowd, and the success of that day began the effort to expand the event to include even more employers and a greater array of resources.