Freeh Report Blames Penn State University Officials for Inaction in Sandusky Child Sex Abuse Case
ByThe Freeh report released online Thursday blamed the Penn State University's top officials for their failure to inquire into sexual abuse allegations against Jerry Sandusky.
Former director of FBI Louis Freeh was hired by the university's board of officials to probe into what the university officials knew about the child sex abuse case.
In the report, Freeh stated that the university's officials including President Graham Spanier, former senior vice president of finance and business Gary Schultz, athletic director Tim Curley and football head coach Joe Paterno repeatedly concealed facts from authorities about Sandusky's activities and failed to protect the child victims because of fear of "bad publicity". [Click here to read the full report]
The report also held the university's board of trustees responsible for not performing their duties, by giving the former football assistant coach unlimited access to all university facilities related to the football program thus paving him way to continue with his sex abuse act with other child victims in the campus and other football events.
The report also indicated that Penn State is lacking awareness in handling child sex abuse issues and using the Clery Act, which requires all colleges and universities to keep informed about any crime incidents that take place in their campuses.
Sandusky was arrested in 2011 for abusing 10 boys over a period of 15 years. He is convicted on 45 of the 48 counts by a jury and is awaiting sentencing in the case.
Curley, Schultz and Spanier had initially planned to inform the charity "The Second Mile" run by Sandusky and the Department of Public welfare, but allegedly covered up the incidents after consulting with Paterno. Paterno died in January this year following a prolonged lung cancer.
Paterno's family denied the report on the football coach saying that Paterno would never cover up such child abuse incidents. In a statement released by the family, they stated, "The idea that any sane, responsible adult would knowingly cover up for a child predator is impossible to accept. The far more realistic conclusion is that many people didn't fully understand what was happening and underestimated or misinterpreted events," reported Associated Press.
"Sandusky was a great deceiver. He fooled everyone," the family said.
Following the release of the report, Penn State's board of trustees too released a statement accepting responsibility for the failure to overseeing these incidents and also assured to take action by preventing such incidents from taking place.