Thomas J. West Music

Yesterday, I published an editorial about my perspective on the child abuse scandal in the Penn State Football program. I received many positive comments of appreciation from both fellow alumni and "non-Staters" who thanked me for an insight into this affair. One person, however, called me out as "naive and sentimental." I decided that it was time to learn more about the legal procedings of this case so that I could understand this situation with as little conjecture as possible. I took it upon myself to read the 23-page Thirty-Third Statewide Investigating Grand Jury's Findings of Fact, and I am horrified and disgusted by its contents.

I will not link directly to this document from my website - I don't want it associated with me in any way. If you choose to read it, Google "grand jury finding of fact file penn state". Fair warning: if the contents of this document were made into a movie at the level of detail contained, it would be at the very least be rated X.

I admit to not understanding this judicial process at all, so I looked it up. This site has an excellent description of what an investigating grand jury does in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Basically, they investigate activities that could constitute a criminal act or acts and report the facts and suggested criminal charges in a document called a "pronouncement". Prosecuting attorneys, in this case the Pennsylvania Attorney General, can then indict individuals based on these facts so that a trial may begin.

In short, the facts presented are that Jerry Sandusky sexually abused eight seperate male victims between the ages of 9 and 12 both during his tenure as Defensive Coordinator and after his retirement, most of which happened on university property. The boys were recruited through Sandusky's non-profit charity Second Mile. Second Mile has been involved in the investigations, cooperated fully with the law, and testified that they had no knowledge of Sandusky's actions.

There are many people involved with these incidents, and it goes beyond Penn State to the Centre County District Attorney and State College police back in 1998 as well. In my mind, there is certainly enough evidence here to go to trial, and there certainly will be indictments for several individuals besides Sandusky.

The grand jury concluded that Athletic Director Curley and University Vice President Schultz should have reported the 2002 incident to the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare and/or to University or State Police. As administrators in a state educational entity, they are mandatory reporters of this kind of activity. Two of their staff did their legal duty and reported it to them. Failure to report is a violation of state law.

This is an unconscionable series of events, and an absolute disgrace to everyone directly involved. This isn't just one or two isolated incidents. This is a pattern of sociopathic behavior that was allowed to exist. It would be a newsworthy story if it had happened anywhere in the country. The fact that it happened at an institution with the level of public visibility and integrity as Penn State is outrageous.

As a public school music teacher, I am a mandatory reporter of any student who is engaging in at-risk behavior or exhibits signs of abuse. That report goes to my immediate superiors, and it is their job through the school's administration to report it to the proper authorities. This is the same procedure for higher education, and it was not followed in the 2002 case.

It appears as though the Penn State Football program had a vastly different set of standards for its student players than it did for its staff. When Joe Paterno became head coach during the Lyndon Johnson administration, incidents such as these weren't dealt with. They are now.

Fridays at my school are dress down days. I am wearing my Penn State sweatshirt today and will be asking the art department for some blue ribbon. I am proud to see that members of the Penn State Blue Band along with fellow students will be holding a candlelight vigil at Old Main Administration Building tonight at 7:30 PM to remember the victims of abuse. Penn State students are holding a "Blue Out" at tomorrow's Nebraska game to show support for the victims. The tradition has been to do a "White Out" by wearing all white to the game. This game will be a sea of blue. I and the rest of the country will be watching.

Understanding the legal procedings and the facts brings a certain amount of closure in my mind, but the facts stated are so abominable that this will be going on for a long time, perhaps years. There is no possible way that the Penn State Board of Trustees is going to make all the right decisions here - I wish them the best of luck in determining their continued course of action.

There is a grassroots effort to raise funds for RAINN (Rape and Incest National Network) on Penn State's behalf. Visit the Proud PSU for RAINN webpage to contribute. Share it on Facebook, and tweet #ProudPSUforRAINN to help spread the word.

This article (c) 2011 Thomas J. West. All content on ThomasJWestMusic dot com is licensed under a Creative Contributions Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Please contact the author before publishing on or off-line.

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