Penn State six years after Jerry Sandusky scandal remains divided
Joe Paterno
As school leaders try to move on   Joe Paterno  loyalists  including many university trustees  continue to fight over the coachâs role in  his  assistantâs crimes.
In July  Penn Stateâs board of trustees met to discuss the most important issues facing a school system with 99 000 students and a $5.7 billion budget. It took about three hours before someone brought up Jerry Sandusky and  Joe Paterno .
Supporters of  Joe Paterno   right  question the evidence used to conclude  he  ignored or covered up the assaults committed by Jerry Sandusky  left. (1999 photo by Paul Vathis/Associated Press)
Law enforcement officials  victimsâ lawyers and private investigators â including Louis Freeh  the former FBI director who authored a damning 2012 report that asserted  Paterno âs involvement in a coverup â say the dispute results from stubborn âPaterno-deniers â âJoebotsâ and âtruthers â for whom no evidence will be strong enough to condemn the beloved former football coach.
âThe tragedy of all of this is that it is self-perpetuated and self-inflicted â said Tom Kline  an attorney for one victim. âThey have settled on an endless assault on anyone who dares suggest that there was something that happened that was wrong and that the fault lies at the doorstep of either  Paterno  or the football program.â
But alumni trustees and supporters insist  Paterno  and the school were victims of a rush to judgment that spared other  more culpable organizations â most notably the Second Mile  Sanduskyâs charity for at-risk children â from public scorn. They point to conflicting accounts of the assault at the core of the coverup case  evidence the NCAA may have influenced Freehâs report and doubts about claims  Paterno  ignored assaults as far back as the 1970s.
According to Freeh  in 2001   Paterno  and three university administrators â president Graham Spanier  athletic director Tim Curley and senior vice president Gary Schultz â decided to conceal a report of Sandusky assaulting a boy  to avoid bad publicity for the university and its football team. The men displayed a âcallous and shocking disregard for child victims â Freeh said  as they âempowered Sanduskyâ to abuse boys for another decade.
Freehâs verdict capped an unimaginable downfall for  Paterno   who just eight months before seemed poised to retire as the winningest  most respected coach in the history of college football. In 46 years as head coach  heâd piled up 409 wins and two national championships while professing selflessness and education  fielding teams that wore simple jerseys with no names on the back  his players graduating at rates that outpaced competitors. In the venal world of college football   Paterno  built a reputation as a coach who valued integrity over winning â âSuccess with Honorâ was his motto â and now he stood accused of covering up for a pedophile to protect his public image.
In including  Paterno   Freeh had gone further than prosecutors  who would charge the administrators with crimes but said they did not believe  Paterno  participated. In defending his conclusion  Freeh cited âthe most important evidence in the caseâ: a chain of emails between the three administrators from 2001.
A newspaper with the headline rewritten was left near a statue of  Paterno  outside Beaver Stadium on Jan. 23  2012  the day after he died. (Alex Brandon/Associated Press) Freeh conceded his reportâs condemnation of  Paterno  was made without knowledge of what was said in  Paterno âs meeting with Curley. (Matt Rourke/Associated Press)
The emails showed the men planned to report Sandusky to child welfare authorities but changed course after Curley met with  Paterno . Instead  they banned Sandusky from bringing children to Penn State and informed the Second Mile of the incident. Sandusky was convicted of assaulting four boys after this incident.
In an email  one trustee urged then-Penn State president Rod Erickson to tear down the statue of  Paterno  outside the stadium  if it would pacify the NCAA.
Eleven days after Freehâs news conference  the NCAA announced that Penn State had entered into a âconsent decree â accepting a $60 million fine and the erasing of all of Paternoâs wins after 1998  the year Sandusky was investigated â but cleared â by Penn State police and a state child welfare agency. Freeh had concluded  Paterno  should have suspected then his assistant was a pedophile.
Penn State students protested the schoolâs handling of the Sandusky scandal. (2011 photo by Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press) Students also honored the memory of  Paterno  after  his  death at age 85. (2012 photo by Gary Cameron/Reuters)
The lawsuit also produced communications between NCAA staffers and Freehâs team that prompted some alumni to theorize Freeh catered his report â which  by including  Paterno   put the case squarely in the NCAAâs crosshairs â to appeal to a desired client.
The NCAA is only a part of why some alumni feel the school and  Paterno  took a disproportionate share of the blame  Schmidt said  before explaining theories involving a former governor and the Second Mile.
As school leaders try to move on  [TGT] loyalists  including many university trustees  continue to fight over the coachâs role in  his  assistantâs crimes.
In July  Penn Stateâs board of trustees met to discuss the most important issues facing a school system with 99 000 students and a $5.7 billion budget. It took about three hours before someone brought up Jerry Sandusky and   [TGT]  .
Supporters of   [TGT]    right  question the evidence used to conclude   [TGT]   ignored or covered up the assaults committed by Jerry Sandusky  left. (1999 photo by Paul Vathis/Associated Press)
Law enforcement officials  victimsâ lawyers and private investigators â including Louis Freeh  the former FBI director who authored a damning 2012 report that asserted  Paterno âs involvement in a coverup â say the dispute results from stubborn âPaterno-deniers â âJoebotsâ and âtruthers â for whom no evidence will be strong enough to condemn the beloved former football coach.
âThe tragedy of all of this is that it is self-perpetuated and self-inflicted â said Tom Kline  an attorney for one victim. âThey have settled on an endless assault on anyone who dares suggest that there was something that happened that was wrong and that the fault lies at the doorstep of either  Paterno  or the football program.â
But alumni trustees and supporters insist  Paterno  and the school were victims of a rush to judgment that spared other  more culpable organizations â most notably the Second Mile  Sanduskyâs charity for at-risk children â from public scorn. They point to conflicting accounts of the assault at the core of the coverup case  evidence the NCAA may have influenced Freehâs report and doubts about claims  Paterno  ignored assaults as far back as the 1970s.
According to Freeh  in 2001   Paterno  and three university administrators â president Graham Spanier  athletic director Tim Curley and senior vice president Gary Schultz â decided to conceal a report of Sandusky assaulting a boy  to avoid bad publicity for the university and its football team. The men displayed a âcallous and shocking disregard for child victims â Freeh said  as they âempowered Sanduskyâ to abuse boys for another decade.
Freehâs verdict capped an unimaginable downfall for  Paterno   who just eight months before seemed poised to retire as the winningest  most respected coach in the history of college football. In 46 years as head coach  heâd piled up 409 wins and two national championships while professing selflessness and education  fielding teams that wore simple jerseys with no names on the back  his players graduating at rates that outpaced competitors. In the venal world of college football   Paterno  built a reputation as a coach who valued integrity over winning â âSuccess with Honorâ was his motto â and now he stood accused of covering up for a pedophile to protect his public image.
In including  Paterno   Freeh had gone further than prosecutors  who would charge the administrators with crimes but said they did not believe  Paterno  participated. In defending his conclusion  Freeh cited âthe most important evidence in the caseâ: a chain of emails between the three administrators from 2001.
A newspaper with the headline rewritten was left near a statue of  Paterno  outside Beaver Stadium on Jan. 23  2012  the day after he died. (Alex Brandon/Associated Press) Freeh conceded his reportâs condemnation of  Paterno  was made without knowledge of what was said in  Paterno âs meeting with Curley. (Matt Rourke/Associated Press)
The emails showed the men planned to report Sandusky to child welfare authorities but changed course after Curley met with  Paterno . Instead  they banned Sandusky from bringing children to Penn State and informed the Second Mile of the incident. Sandusky was convicted of assaulting four boys after this incident.
In an email  one trustee urged then-Penn State president Rod Erickson to tear down the statue of  Paterno  outside the stadium  if it would pacify the NCAA.
Eleven days after Freehâs news conference  the NCAA announced that Penn State had entered into a âconsent decree â accepting a $60 million fine and the erasing of all of Paternoâs wins after 1998  the year Sandusky was investigated â but cleared â by Penn State police and a state child welfare agency. Freeh had concluded  Paterno  should have suspected then his assistant was a pedophile.
Penn State students protested the schoolâs handling of the Sandusky scandal. (2011 photo by Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press) Students also honored the memory of  Paterno  after  his  death at age 85. (2012 photo by Gary Cameron/Reuters)
The lawsuit also produced communications between NCAA staffers and Freehâs team that prompted some alumni to theorize Freeh catered his report â which  by including  Paterno   put the case squarely in the NCAAâs crosshairs â to appeal to a desired client.
The NCAA is only a part of why some alumni feel the school and  Paterno  took a disproportionate share of the blame  Schmidt said  before explaining theories involving a former governor and the Second Mile.