EDITORIAL: Penn State protected university's 'brand,' instead of vulnerable children

The report by former FBI Director Louis J. Freeh on the sexual abuse scandal at Penn State has fully exposed how the cult of Joe Paterno led to a cover-up of horrendous crimes.

After years of building Paterno's reputation as a football coach, Penn State officials feared negative publicity. And so they did nothing even as one of Paterno's lieutenants, Jerry Sandusky, sexually attacked young boys over several years.

The most stunning parts of Freeh's report involve Penn State's handling of a 1998 university police investigation. Although Paterno claimed he had no knowledge of that investigation, Freeh's report shows he not only knew about it, but closely monitored it. Then in 2001, Paterno persuaded university officials not to report Sandusky to authorities after the assistant coach had violently assaulted another boy in the showers.

University officials knew they were exposing themselves to liability by not acting, but showed little sign of caring for Sandusky's victims, past, present or future. The report suggests that "protecting the brand" was the top priority. "The only downside for us is if the message isn't 'heard' and acted upon, and we then become vulnerable for not having reported it," lamented Graham B. Spanier, the former president of Penn State, in 2001.

Penn State supporters certainly have some soul searching to do. After the Sandusky scandal broke late last year, many of them condemned Sandusky yet still rallied behind Paterno.

Even into this year, Phil Knight, the co-founder of Nike, was attacking Penn State trustees who had forced Paterno to retire before the coach passed away in January. Nike announced Thursday that the child care center at its headquarters would no longer be named after Paterno, and Knight issued a pathetic statement saying "it appears Joe made some missteps."

Penn State will pay a steep penalty for the actions of its former leaders. But don't assume that Penn State is an outlier in harboring a culture that allowed such abuse. This kind of cover-up could happen in any university, business or institution where a charismatic leader has become the stuff of legend, making every other consideration -- including protecting kids -- secondary.

Young people will go unprotected whenever those at the top abandon ethical decency and choose to protect their "brands" over the most vulnerable.

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Source: http://www.fresnobee.com/2012/07/13/2908590/editorial-penn-state-protected.html

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