A university-funded report released today takes former high-ranking Penn State officials to task for their "total disregard" for the sexual-abuse victims of longtime assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.
"Our most saddening and sobering finding is the total disregard for the safety and welfare of Sandusky's child victims by the most senior leaders at Penn State," wrote former FBI director Louis Freeh, who led the inquiry. "The most powerful men at Penn State failed to take any steps for 14 years to protect the children who Sandusky victimized."
In June, a jury found Sandusky guilty of 45 of 48 felony and misdemeanor counts ranging from involuntary deviate sexual intercourse to indecent assault. Four additional counts were dismissed.
The 267-page report is the result of 430 interviews with "key university personnel and other knowledgeable individuals," as well as analysis of more than 3.5 million "pieces of pertinent electronic data and documents." It was millions of dollars in the making, according to CNN, though the cost is covered by Penn State's insurance.
It could also serve as a "roadmap" for lawyers representing Sandusky's victims in claims against Penn State, according to Chicago-based attorney Andrew Stoltmann. "It is likely the university will have to shell out in excess of $100 million to resolve these claims," Stoltmann says. "The risks for Penn State in going through discovery and leaving a decision in the hands of a jury could be cataclysmic to the university."
Freeh cited four individuals in particular for their negligence: former president Graham Spanier, former vice president Gary Schultz, former head coach Joe Paterno, and former athletic director Tim Curley.
"They exhibited a striking lack of empathy for Sandusky's victims by failing to inquire as to their safety and well being, especially by not attempting to determine the identity of the child who Sandusky assaulted in the Lasch Building in 2001," the report states. "Further, they exposed this child to additional harm by alerting Sandusky, who was the only one who knew the child's identity, of what [Mike] McQueary saw in the shower on the night of February 9, 2001."
On Wednesday, current PSU officials approved a new policy, effective immediately, limiting access to athletic facilities to student-athletes and athletics personnel, and recreation facilities to the holders of university ID cards.
Paterno, who died in January, had written a statement late last year that only recently surfaced. "This is not a football scandal and should not be treated as one," Paterno wrote. "It is not an academic scandal and does not in any way tarnish the hard-earned and well-deserved academic reputation of Penn State."
Earlier this week, Penn State reported donations of $208 million for the fiscal year that just ended - the school's second-highest annual total in its history. Where the university's reputation or development efforts go from here is anybody's guess, but initial fallout came only hours after the report's release. Longtime Penn State marketing partner Nike, which indicated last November that it had no intention of removing Joe Paterno's name from its Child Development Center, reversed course Thursday. "I have been deeply saddened by the news coming out of this investigation at Penn State," Nike president and CEO Mark Parker said in a statement. "It is a terrible tragedy that children were unprotected from such abhorrent crimes."
Likewise, Nike's board chairman and co-founder Phil Knight - who drew a standing ovation at Paterno's memorial service when he said, "If there is a villain in this tragedy, it lies in that investigation, and not in Joe Paterno" - has recalibrated his take on the situation, if not the coach. "According to the investigation, it appears Joe made missteps that led to heartbreaking consequences. I missed that Joe missed it, and I am extremely saddened on this day," Knight said in a statement released Thursday and reported by The Daily Collegian, an independent PSU student newspaper. "My love for Joe and his family remains."
