Pennsylvania State University, home of the storied Nittany Lions football team and its legendary coach, Joe Paterno, was rocked by allegations that one of Paterno’s former assistants, Jerry Sandusky, was charged with sexually assaulting eight young, disadvantaged boys.
The point of the article I posted earlier today, about former Pennsylvania State Senator Vincent Fumo, was abuse of power. This sex abuse scandal is a variation of the same theme. Sandusky’s inappropriate behavior went on for years, probably because no one wanted to challenge a football dynasty.
According to the grand jury report:
• In 1998, Sandusky brought an 11-year-old boy into a Penn State locker room shower and behaved inappropriately. The boy’s mother reported it to Penn State University police. After a lengthy investigation, the Centre County District Attorney decided there would be no criminal charges.
• In 2000, a janitor saw Sandusky in the showers with an 11- to 13-year-old boy pinned against the wall, performing oral sex. He was distraught as he told his fellow janitors and his supervisor what he witnessed. But most of the janitors were new employees, and they were afraid that if they reported what had happened, they would lose their jobs.
• In 2002, a Penn State graduate assistant witnessed Sandusky having anal sex with a 10-year-old boy in the locker room showers. The graduate assistant told Joe Paterno. Paterno told his supervisor, Athletic Director Tim Curley. There were a few meetings, but no official investigation. In the end, all that happened was that Sandusky was told he could no longer bring boys to Penn State. Then, when the grand jury investigated, both Curley and the university’s Senior Vice President for Finance and Business Gary Schultz, downplayed the incident.
For more, read reporting in the Philadelphia Inquirer:
Ex-Penn State coach charged with sex crimes
Paterno says all at Penn State were fooled by Sandusky
Oxy:
Oh, dear. I have a feeling the wife knew. Just my gut. Why would she have called the victim if she didn’t know?? And the article does say they weren’t able to have children of their own. I wonder if it’s because there were no sexual relations between the two? Who knows, right?? I’m just waiting for the adopted children to come out and say something about being abused, but even if they were, they will probably never say. Tragic.
Dear Louise,
One of the adopted boys tried to kill himself shortly after being in their home….he was a “troubled” older kid at the time they took him in though so not sure what was going on.
Charles “Jackie” Walls III who molested over 1500 (that is fifteen HUNDRED) kids over a 20 year period, including HIS SISTERS SONS used the Boy Scouts of America to recruit his victims. His family was also in denial when he was first “accused” and would not believe him guilty….but eventually they saw the truth, and went NC with Jackie, but I can’t even imagine the pain they must have felt, first for it having happened, and secondly for NOT BELIEVING WHEN they first suspected. But, I think that we (lovefraud bloggers) can many of us if not all, can relate to that DENIAL of what we see and don’t want to believe. I think If they crowned a “queen of denial” I would WIN THE TITLE hands down, so if the wife is in denial and/or the kids as well (and apparently this adopted son is in denial, he went to visit Sandusky’s home and took his 3 kids there to visit as well. His (Matt Sandusky) ex wife got a restraining order to prevent her kids from going there to the Sandusky home or being ALONE with the elder Sandusky.
I would find it remarkable if Sandusky did NOT molest these boys that he and his wife “adopted.” The narcissistic bent of “I can get away with anything” seems to be common to child molesters.
Here is another example the RESULTS of NOT FOLLOWING UP ON A “MINOR” ALLEGATION….the perp gets more “active” and gets “worse.”
http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/13/justice/south-carolina-citadel-abuse/index.html?hpt=hp_t3
Oxy:
You are right…no telling if the suicide attempt from that boy was because of abuse by Sandusky or because of his other emotional turmoil. Or both. Maybe he thought, wow, I just left a troubled life and I walk into this??
I can understand the denial also; it comes without even realizing we are doing it really. Something usually makes us see the light, thank God. It’s like a light bulb literally goes off in our heads. Thank God the son’s ex wife got a restraining order against that perv!!
I agree…I have no doubt he did something to those adopted children. I almost feel like that was his main purpose for “adoption.”
Louise, we can never completely know what the “mind set” of another person is, “mind reading “is of course only for magicians, but we can look at the behavior of someone and see what might be the motive. Even the Bible tells us that “by their fruit you shall know them.” (Actions speak louder than words.) If a person is dishonest in small things, why would you trust them in bigger things? If a man abuses children in his case, takes them to his home and abuses them, why would you doubt he could and probably did abuse those he “adopted” as his sons?
We can never fully predict what a person will do in the future, or what their feelings are, but at the same time, we must be able to assess the potential for danger just in order to survive just as a rabbit who sees a cat or a fox sneaking up on them better figure that the cat or fox has predatory intentions, or they won’t survive very long, we too need to be able to see from someone’s past history that they have predatory tendencies and that we can not trust them to be honest, kind, caring or compassionate with us or others.
The best indicator of future behavior is past behavior.
Thanks Oxy, and to everyone else who has posted additional links on the Penn State case. I think it’s very sad but also very interesting. The behavior of all those involved is classic and predictable behavior when a psychopath is in the midst. We’ve all been there, in the situtation where we tell people of the audacious and reprehensible behavior of the spath in our lives and NOBODY CARES.
Why is that? It’s because the spaths have already arranged their lives to have access to the inner workings of those people in the highest authority. This brown-nosing comes naturally to them. It’s second nature. They are just like the fictional Eddie Haskell.
For most of us, we choose our friends and associates among people with common interests and common values. Spaths are opportunistic, they don’t have values. Their interests are fickle: whatever is most advantageous at the moment. They are the ultimate networkers. They naturally seek to align themselves with people in power.
Since that is their nature to seek power and powerful associates, then it’s no surprise that people in power are overwhelmingly spathy. These people are going to protect themselves and each other.
Though it’s true that we cannot read another person’s mind, we can learn from these patterns of behavior and know what to expect.
The other thing that we can do is to use the spath as an example of how not to be. If a spath is doing it, look at the motivation and re-think if it’s the best way to live your life.
Louise: I was poised to leave the spath in 2003. Then he was diagnosed with cancer and the O in FOG popped up — Obligation. I just couldn’t be like Newt Gingrich and divorce someone going through cancer treatment, even though he was awful to me even in a hospital bed — example: I just came across an old diary entry of mine that reminded me that he literally yelled at me for fluffing his pillow wrong. He also accused me of not spending enough time in the hospital with him during his 3-day stay, even though (for obvious reasons) I was the only one earning an income at the time, and so I had to work.
Long story short, it took me until 2007 to leave the spath. I had broken my arm cycling, and was on heavy painkillers, feeling very nauseated by them. His alcoholism had spiraled out of control at this point, so I had stopped giving him sex for several weeks prior to that night. And he walked in and just very casually raped my drugged, unable-to-consent, unwilling body. I couldn’t fight him off, so there wasn’t a mark on me. I was too terrified to report (after all, he had just physically harmed me), so I left him at the next possible opportunity, with the help of a posse of wonderful friends.
@skylar — You are so right — how not to be. When my spath moved out of town after the separation (some 2000 miles away, to my infinite relief), he ditched all his old friends from this part of the country — those people whose needs he had so frequently put before mine. Now I make it a point to use social media to stay in touch with people and keep up with their lives. When I go back to my old hometown for Thanksgiving, I’m hoping to hang out with a high-school friend. The spath was intensely paranoid about people in general; after leaving him, I learned how wonderful people can be.
Oxy:
I totally agree with you. That’s why I think without a doubt Sandusky abused his adopted children. They were there and he had easy access to them.
LadySweetG:
So it took six years after him telling you at Thanksgiving of 2001 that he was going to divorce you until you finally left him. I know sometimes it just takes time to get away from these things and thank God you finally did. Especially after he raped you…any man whether married or not who would do that is an absolute CREEP!! That’s no man at all. I am glad he is very far away from you!
Louise, yeah, by then he pretty much had me trained to believe I couldn’t survive without him. Toward the end he was telling me flat-out that my disabilities (spinal crap and a seizure disorder) were so burdensome that nobody else would ever want to be with me. Happily, he was wrong.
However, currently I am sort of frothing with rage, because it turns out the judge who set a ridiculously low bail for Jerry Sandusky and let him walk free without an ankle bracelet was a volunteer for his charity:
http://deadspin.com/5859075/