Penn State to Hold National Conference on Child Sex Abuse
ByPennsylvania State University is not leaving any stone unturned to get back on its feet after months of humiliation that left the renowned university in proverbial ruins.
Penn State announced it would be conducting a two-day national conference on child sexual abuse in the wake of Jerry Sandusky's sexual abuse scandal which marred the reputation of the university and its prestigious football program.
The event is planned to be held in October and will be featuring child sex abuse survivors Sugar Ray Leonard and Elizabeth Smart.
The keynote speaker, Leonard is an esteemed American boxer and Olympic gold medallist who will later interact with the delegates in a Q&A session. Smart, a kidnap survivor will be concluding the conference with her speech. Both speakers were the victims of sexual abuse as children.
According to a statement from the university, some of the nation's top experts in child sexual abuse and child trauma research, prevention, and treatment will be convening at Penn State.
"Penn State has made a commitment to becoming a leader in the research, prevention and treatment of child abuse and this conference is an important part of that," Penn State President Rodney Erickson wrote in the statement.
He also added: "What happened at Penn State could - and does - happen in other communities across the country, and we hope that this conference will be a catalyst for furthering the knowledge that can lead to a safer environment for children in our nation and around the world."
The conference will be held Oct.29-30 at the Penn State Conference Center Hotel on the University Park campus and is open to general public. Tickets can be purchased at protectchildren.psu.edu/.
In June, Jerry Sandusky was convicted on 45 counts of child molestation for abusing 10 boys over a period of 15 years.
The university-commissioned Louis Freeh report findings concluded that the university officials aware of the abuse but chose to keep it under wraps and did not report it to police to preserve the school's reputation.
University's ousted president Graham Spanier has not been charged by the prosecutors despite being named in the report as responsible for protecting the school's brand name over the safety of the children, along with other officials. But the experts and lawyers unaffiliated with the case told The Associated Press, that he could still face charges.
In the meantime, lawyers of two of his sub-ordinates Tim Curley, once the school's athletic director, and Gary Schultz, former vice president are arguing in a pretrial hearing Thursday to prevent the cases against them going to trial.