It has to be an oversight that Penn State missed a pedophile among the hundreds, no thousands of people working for the school. On the other hand, he had a supervisor. Everyone has one in a sprawling state school, someone is responsible for the actions of someone else in that tier below.
Penn fired beloved coach Joe Paterno, and others, too, for failing to stop Jerry Sandusky. Mr. Paterno passed away, a nation grieved (certainly a state and a university), and the rest of us are left wondering how the winning head coach could not have known, and if he did, why didn't he send his friend to the locker room for good. (Perhaps a bad choice of words).
We would have preferred that someone sent Jerry Sandusky for help, but help becomes a criminal investigation when it comes to pedophilia. This is the terrible double-bind that loved ones face. Blow the whistle and the head of the family, sometimes the sole support, is sending a perpetrator to trial.
So no, of course Mrs. Sandusky kept it quiet, refused to expose Jerry as a rapist of children, assuming she knew about her husband's unpleasant, disturbing sexual habits, and how could she not? She didn't talk because she knew that he will likely either kill himself in prison or be killed. And yet, it caught up with him, her denial, his denial, the denial of a university.
He should have been evaluated so many years ago, even if he did spend time in prison, and it is possible he would have avoided that, working for a prestigious school under prestigious coaches. He could have been treated, watched by authorities, denied access to working with children. He had a charity called The Second Mile. He could have started a Second Life.
Now we'll just wait for the next episode, some new scandal or new information about Sandusky. Hopefully a movie, maybe one about the Sandusky family. That's the kind of exposure that exposes this problem, encourages people to report early, as soon as there's suspicion.
Do schools need a better understanding of this problem? As the kids like to say, "Do ya' think?"
Linda Freedman, PhD, LCSW, LMFT
