The scandal at Penn State revolves around Jerry Sandusky who was eventually brought to public light for being a child rapist (Crandall, Parnell, & Spillan, 2014). In 1999, Sandusky was a retired emeritus professor and coach on the university’s football team ran by the legendary head coach, Joseph Paterno. Sandusky also created a charity called “The Second Mile” to help children who were underprivileged (Crandall, Parnell, & Spillan, 2014). This resume provided Sandusky the ability to maintain direct access to the athletic facilities, which is where he sexually assaulted children (Crandall, Parnell, & Spillan, 2014). There is an old saying, “the cover-up is worse than the scandal itself”. Because of the high-level of people involved in …show more content…
This allowed his sexual abuse against children to go on for years (Crandall, Parnell, & Spillan, 2014). The four following high-level personnel all played a significant role in what became known as the Scandal at Penn …show more content…
The campus police did conduct an investigation, but found no criminal wrongdoing. However, authorities formally counseled Sandusky not to shower with children anymore (Crandall, Parnell, & Spillan, 2014). The four leaders mentioned above were all made aware of this incident. In 2001, another incident occurred in the same building. A football coach caught Sandusky sexually abusing another young child in the shower (Crandall, Parnell, & Spillan, 2014). This coach reported the incident to Paterno, who in turn made the other three aware. Nearly a month passed until they made the decision to talk directly to Sandusky about the incident (Crandall, Parnell, & Spillan, 2014). It was the director of athletics, Timothy Curley, who actually spoke with Sandusky and expressed his disdain for his actions with children (Crandall, Parnell, & Spillan, 2014). He not only stressed for him to stop this behavior, but also reported this incident to his charity, Second Mile, who found no merit to the report and took no action (Crandall, Parnell, & Spillan, 2014). The board of trustees was never made aware of the incident. Then, over eight years later, the State of Pennsylvania investigated Sandusky, which brought the scandal to public light and caused the crisis to dramatically expand (Crandall, Parnell, & Spillan, 2014).