Penn State's Awful Truth/ Statue of Jo Paterno has been removed/ NCAA punishes Penn State with 4 year bowl suspension, loss of 40 scholarships over 4 years and a $60 million fine

PHILADELPHIA -- Joe Paterno and other top Penn State officials buried child sexual abuse allegations against Jerry Sandusky more than a decade ago to avoid bad publicity, according to a scathing report Thursday that exposed a powerful "culture of reverence" for the football program and portrayed the Hall of Fame coach as more deeply involved in the scandal than previously thought.
The alleged cover-up by Paterno, then-university President Graham Spanier and two other Penn State administrators allowed Sandusky to prey on other boys for years, said the report by former FBI Director Louis Freeh, who was hired by the university's trustees to investigate.
He called the officials' behavior "callous and shocking."
"Our most saddening and sobering finding is the total disregard for the safety and welfare of Sandusky's child victims by the most senior leaders at Penn State," Freeh said at a news conference in Philadelphia upon the release of the 267-page report. "The most powerful men at Penn State failed to take any steps for 14 years to protect the children who Sandusky victimized."
The findings of the $6.5 million, eight-month investigation into one of the biggest scandals in the history of college sports could further stain Paterno's reputation. The revered coach who emphasized integrity both on and off the field and ran what was considered one of the cleanest programs in sports died of lung cancer in January at age 85, months after he was summarily fired by the trustees.
Freeh said that while he regretted the damage the findings would do to Paterno's "terrific legacy," the coach "was an integral part of this active decision to conceal," and his firing was justified.
Asked whether the actions of the four officials amounted to a crime such as conspiracy or obstruction, Freeh said that would be a matter for a grand jury to decide.
In a statement, Paterno's family strongly denied he protected Sandusky for fear of bad publicity.
"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," the family said. "Sandusky was a great deceiver. He fooled everyone."
The findings could have consequences for the criminal case against Penn State athletic director Tim Curley and retired senior vice president Gary Schultz, who are awaiting trial on charges of failing to report abuse and lying to a grand jury. In addition, the Pennsylvania attorney general's office is still investigating the scandal, and others could be charged.
Sandusky, a former member of Paterno's coaching staff, is awaiting sentencing after being convicted last month of sexually abusing 10 boys over 15 years.
Freeh and his team, which included lawyers and former law enforcement officials, interviewed more than 430 people and examined more than 3.5 million emails, handwritten notes and other documents. Paterno died before he could be interviewed but testified before a grand jury.
The investigation focused largely on the university officials' decision not to go to child-welfare authorities in 2001 after a coaching assistant told Paterno that he had seen Sandusky sexually abusing a boy in the locker room showers.
Paterno and the others gave various explanations for their decision, saying among other things that they misunderstood the allegations, that they did the best they could and that this was the "humane" way to handle the matter.
But the Freeh report said: "It is more reasonable to conclude that, in order to avoid the consequences of bad publicity, the most powerful leaders at the university -- Spanier, Schultz, Paterno and Curley -- repeatedly concealed critical facts relating to Sandusky's child abuse from authorities, the university's board of trustees, the Penn State community and the public at large."
A number of other factors contributed to the decision to keep quiet, the report found, including "a culture of reverence for the football program that is ingrained at all levels of the campus community."
Spreading the blame around, the report also said the trustees failed to exercise oversight and didn't inquire deeply into the matter when they finally learned of it.
Spanier's lawyers Thursday denied Spanier took part in a cover-up and said Freeh's conclusion "is simply not supported by the facts." Spanier was ousted along with Paterno four days after Sandusky's arrest last November.
Attorneys for Curley and Schultz said that the investigation was flawed and that their clients would prove their innocence in court. Curley lawyer Caroline Roberto called it a "lopsided document that leaves the majority of the story untold."
Freeh said officials had opportunities in 1998 and 2001 to step in.
In 1998, police investigated after a woman complained that her son had showered with Sandusky. The investigation did not result in charges. But the emails show Paterno clearly followed the 1998 case, Freeh said. University officials took no action at the time to limit Sandusky's access to campus.
Then, after the 2001 report of Sandusky sexually abusing a boy in the showers, university officials barred him from bringing children to campus but decided not to report him to child-welfare authorities.
Some of the most damning evidence against Paterno consists of handwritten notes and emails that portray him as having been involved in that decision.
According to the report, Spanier, Schultz and Curley drew up an "action plan" that called for reporting Sandusky to the state Department of Public Welfare. But Curley later said in an email that he changed his mind about the plan "after giving it more thought and talking it over with Joe." Instead, Curley proposed to offer Sandusky "professional help."
In an email, Spanier agreed with that course of action but noted "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."
Freeh suggested it was Paterno's intervention that kept administrators from going to authorities. "Based on the evidence, the only known intervening factor ... was Mr. Paterno's Feb. 26 conversation with Mr. Curley," Freeh said.
Michael Boni, a lawyer for a boy known as Victim 1, called the report a "serious indictment against Penn State's culture and environment of protecting at all costs the football program." He added: "Nothing is shocking anymore in this case ... but the fact that the highest levels of the school made a conscious decision to cover up what Sandusky had done, it comes close. It is shocking."
Karen Peetz, chairwoman of the trustees, said the board "accepts full responsibility for the failures that occurred." She said the panel believes Paterno's "61 years of excellent service to the university is now marred" by the scandal.
The report chronicled a culture of silence that extended from the president down to the janitors in the football building. Even before 1998, football staff members and coaches regularly saw Sandusky showering with boys but never told their superiors about it. In 2000, after a janitor saw Sandusky performing oral sex on a boy in the team shower, he told his co-workers. None of them went to police for fear of losing their jobs.
Reporting the assault "would have been like going against the president of the United States in my eyes," a janitor told Freeh's investigators. "I know Paterno has so much power, if he wanted to get rid of someone, I would have been gone." He went on to assert that "football runs this university."
According to the report, Sandusky was permitted to retire from the university in 1999 "not as a suspected child predator but as a valued member of the Penn State football legacy," thus ensuring his access to football events and campus facilities. That, in turn, "provided Sandusky with the very currency that enabled him to attract his victims."
Sandusky received what Freeh called an unprecedented lump sum of $168,000 when he retired. But the former FBI chief said there was no evidence it was an attempt by the university to buy Sandusky's silence.
The report could influence investigations under way at the NCAA and at the U.S. Education Department, which is examining whether the university violated the Clery Act, a federal law that requires reporting of certain crimes on campus. The Freeh report said Penn State apparently failed to comply with the law. Neither the Education Department nor the NCAA would comment directly on the report.
George Enteen, a retired professor of Russian history, called the Freeh report a "terrible mark" on the character of Paterno, a man he otherwise respected as someone who raised a lot money for Penn State and elevated the school's reputation and academic quality.
"The worst suspicions were borne out," Enteen said. Paterno, he added, "was the key figure. If he had said, 'Report it,' they would have." But he said: "It doesn't negate all the good things he did."
Christian Beveridge, a masonry worker who grew up near Penn State, said the findings will damage Paterno's legacy.
"He built this town," Beveridge said. "All of his victories, he'll be remembered by everyone in town for a long time, but there will be that hesitation."
Scott Berkowitz, president of the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, said the hard-hitting report "is opening people's eyes to the potential liability that schools face if they don't address this correctly."
"Heads of every college and university in the country have got to be taking note of this, and calling board meetings today and saying, 'We need to make sure that we change the way we're doing things,'" he said.
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Penn State's trustees said Thursday they accept responsibility for failures of accountability in the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal but that no members of the board would step down in the wake of an independent investigation report that chided them.

“We are accountable for what's happened here,” trustee Kenneth Frazier said.

“Our hearts remain heavy and we are deeply ashamed.”

The trustees spoke hours after the release of a report from special investigator Louis Freeh, who concluded beloved late coach Joe Paterno and other top administrators covered up Sandusky's conduct to avoid bad publicity.

The Freeh investigation concluded Paterno, university President Graham Spanier, Vice President Gary Schultz and athletic director Tim Curley failed to protect the welfare of children over a 14-year span beginning with a 1998 abuse complaint involving Sandusky.

It faulted Spanier for failing to keep the board informed of the Sandusky investigation but also found the board failed to take action once it became aware of a grand jury probe.

Trustees chairwoman Karen Peetz said no current members of the board would step down, however.

“A few Trustees already stepped down, a natural change that happens every year,” she said.

The lengthy tenure of board members has been an area of criticism for some alumni angered by the board's actions in the frantic weeks following Sandusky's arrest in November _ including the firing of Paterno.

“We were satisfied to see that the Board of Trustees was called out for their lack of oversight and leadership and engagement in such critical matters,” said Maribeth Roman Schmidt, spokeswoman for Penn Staters for Responsible Stewardship, an alumni group that called for the entire board to resign.

Freeh's report found that Spanier during his 16-year tenure “discouraged discussion and dissent.”

“To have a rotating group of 32 people, over more than a decade, act like that's OK, I think that's an enormous problem,” Schmidt said.

The report elevated Paterno's complicity in the scandal to the same level as Curley and Schultz, who are each charged with perjury and failure to report suspected abuse.

Peetz said the result is that Paterno's ``61 years of excellent service to the university is now marred.''

Paterno's family denied the legendary coach took part in any cover up and didn't know Sandusky was a pedophile.

The Freeh report portrayed Penn State as a place where a group of powerful figures exerted too much influence. But when asked if the football program had too much power under Paterno, President Rodney Erikson downplayed that suggestion.

“I think that we should be careful that we don't paint the entire football program over a long period of time with a single brush...these things happen in schools, in churches, in youth camps...all over,” he said.

The trustees said they will use recommendations from Freeh's report to set a course that will prevent such abuse from ever happening again at Penn State.

“Penn State's best days are in front of us,” Erickson said.

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PHILADELPHIA - Once one of the most highly regarded college presidents in the nation, Graham B. Spanier emerged in Thursday’s investigative report on Pennsylvania State University as a main villain in what experts said could best be summed up as a complete failure in university leadership.

Spanier knew about allegations of inappropriate behavior by former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky in 1998 and 2001 but failed to inform the university’s board of trustees, according to the exhaustive report prepared by former FBI Director Louis Freeh and his team.

Even when a grand jury was preparing to release its presentment and indict Sandusky on charges that he abused young boys sexually on and off Penn State’s campus - and to indict two Penn State administrators on charges of perjury - Spanier was seeking to downplay the case and the amount of information that trustees were told about it, the report says.

The university’s 32-member board of trustees, investigators said, also failed by not monitoring its president more closely and asking more penetrating questions when it first learned of a grand jury investigation in spring 2011.

Just days before Sandusky’s indictment in November, Spanier told then-board chairman Steve Garban that the university’s counsel, Cynthia Baldwin, was going to speak to the state Attorney General’s Office to try to convince investigators they had no case.

"Mr. Spanier resisted the board’s attempt to have more transparency," the report said. Even when Sandusky and administrators Tim Curley and Gary Schultz were arrested, "Mr. Spanier was unwilling to give the board any more information about what was going on than what he was providing to the public."

"The goal," the report said, "should be to create a more open and compliant culture, which protects children and not adults who abuse them."

Spanier’s attorney, Peter F. Vaira, did not return calls for comment.

While he was dismissed as Penn State’s president in November, Spanier, whose academic specialty is family therapy, is a tenured professor of sociology. He is on sabbatical, and in April the Chronicle of Higher Education reported that he was working for "the U.S. government on a special project tied to national-security issues."

In a statement to investigators, Spanier maintained that he was never told that any sexual activity or abuse had occurred.

National groups immediately weighed in, condemning the apparent breakdown in leadership at Pennsylvania’s once-immaculate flagship university and oversight by the board.

"It’s a complete failure of institutional decision-making and an abdication of responsibility," said Terry Hartle, senior vice president in the division of government and public affairs at the American Council on Education.

The American Council of Trustees and Alumni issued a statement calling the case "what happens when boards are rubber stamps for the president."

At a news conference Thursday afternoon, the board’s chair, Karen Peetz, and trustee Kenneth Frazier, the board’s liaison to the investigation, took responsibility for the board’s failure and promised a new way of business going forward.

Frazier acknowledged that the board had a "huge degree of trust" in Spanier and therefore did not probe as deeply as it should have after first hearing of the grand jury investigation.
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Graham B. Spanier

Tim Curley and Gary Schultz

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — The release of the results of an eight-month probe into the Jerry Sandusky affair Thursday showed that the school’s top leadership, including late football coach Joe Paterno, knew about what Sandusky was doing and actively covered it up for the better part of 14 years to avoid adverse publicity. Reaction to the Freeh report was swift, stunning and direct.

Two of the four leaders named in the Freeh report, Senior Vice President Gary Schultz and Athletic Director Tim Curley, await a criminal trial. Head football coach Joe Paterno is dead, leaving former President Graham Spanier.

READ: Bombshell Sandusky Report Released

Attorney Jeffrey Fritz, representing one of Sandusky’s victims, believes Spanier should face criminal charges.

“Failure to report and especially at the level of the position that he’s in with actual knowledge of abuse of a child is criminal.”

The report’s bottom line? Top leaders wanted to protect the reputation of the school and its football program. To what degree? Cathleen Palm, head of the Protect Our Children Committee, an umbrella group of victim advocates, cites just one example:

“To have e mails that refer to these children as guests of Mr. Sandusky, I think, was tough to read because that, in itself, seems to have minimized just how much these children needed adults to step up on their behalf.”

A grand jury continues an investigation and Attorney General Linda Kelly says the Freeh report won’t impact their work. But will things really change in Happy Valley? From victim advocates to Penn State alumni to lawyers like Fritz came a united response: they have to.
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The president of Nike Inc. said Thursday he has decided to change the name of the Joe Paterno Child Development Center, a child care facility at the company's headquarters outside Portland.

Chief executive Mark Parker said he was deeply saddened by the news coming out of the Louis Freeh investigation on the child sex abuse scandal at Penn State. Freeh says Paterno and other top school officials disregarded the welfare of Jerry Sandusky's victims as they failed to report abuse allegations against the longtime assistant coach.

"It is a terrible tragedy that children were unprotected from such abhorrent crimes," Parker said.

Nike founder Phil Knight, who defended Paterno at the coach's memorial service, said "it appears Joe made missteps that led to heartbreaking consequences. I missed that Joe missed it, and I am extremely saddened on this day."

Knight said Paterno strived to put young athletes in a position to succeed in sports and in life.

"My love for Joe and his family remains," Knight said.

In a television interview with ESPN correspondent Tom Rinaldi on Thursday, Paterno's son, Jay, said he understood Nike's decision.

"I think Nike is a public corporation, they have stockholders and a board, and this is an emotional issue," Jay Paterno said. "I understand they have pressure to do things. Phil Knight is a family friend and will continue to be a family friend."

Nike has not released a new name for the Joe Paterno Child Development Center, which opened in the early 1990s and was remodeled in 2008. Company officials did not respond to requests for more information about the center or its new name.

The company is known for naming its buildings after sports figures including Michael Jordan, Bo Jackson, Nolan Ryan and Mike Schmidt. Nike's headquarters is located on Bowerman Drive, named for Bill Bowerman, Knight's track and field coach at the University of Oregon who co-founded the athletic-wear giant.

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The statue of Paterno at Penn State should come down asap too.
Nike did it right!

Boy do I agree!!! I don't think his wife is as innocent as she stated she was in not knowing what was going on. MOO!

This kind of thing leaves me feeling and I have no respect for these type of people.

It is pretty sad what goes on and has gone on for a long time in college sports. They cover everything up instead of taking a stance and letting it be known that things will not be tolerated. With the athletes or the coaches.

What gets me is he did this under the nose of all these people and NO ONE cared???????

I am wondering if the school will go completely broke and have to shut its door. The lawsuits are going to pile up.

It's all very sad. I can't defend any of them for not going to authorities, but I wonder what the victims' feelings are concerning Joe-Pa? Have you read any articles on this subject?

We have not heard much from the victims yet. I think once the civil part of this is over we will start to hear from them. For those of you who read The Daily Beast here is what Diane had to say about it
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This is also The Daily Beast. Worth the read!
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All I see is some photos and comments LM.....no story on either of those links.

Is this the story you were talking about, LM?

In January 2011, Joe Paterno learned prosecutors were investigating his longtime assistant coach Jerry Sandusky for sexually assaulting young boys. Soon, Mr. Paterno had testified before a grand jury, and the rough outlines of what would become a giant scandal had been published in a local newspaper.

The former coach Joe Paterno, with his son Scott Paterno, left, being greeted by supporters at his home in November 2011. His firing led to an angry backlash against Penn State’s trustees.

That same month, Mr. Paterno, the football coach at Penn State, began negotiating with his superiors to amend his contract, with the timing something of a surprise because the contract was not set to expire until the end of 2012, according to university documents and people with knowledge of the discussions. By August, Mr. Paterno and the university’s president, both of whom were by then embroiled in the Sandusky investigation, had reached an agreement.

Mr. Paterno was to be paid $3 million at the end of the 2011 season if he agreed it would be his last. Interest-free loans totaling $350,000 that the university had made to Mr. Paterno over the years would be forgiven as part of the retirement package. He would also have the use of the university’s private plane and a luxury box at Beaver Stadium for him and his family to use over the next 25 years.

The university’s full board of trustees was kept in the dark about the arrangement until November, when Mr. Sandusky was arrested and the contract arrangements, along with so much else at Penn State, were upended. Mr. Paterno was fired, two of the university’s top officials were indicted in connection with the scandal, and the trustees, who held Mr. Paterno’s financial fate in their hands, came under verbal assault from the coach’s angry supporters.

Board members who raised questions about whether the university ought to go forward with the payments were quickly shut down, according to two people with direct knowledge of the negotiations.

In the end, the board of trustees — bombarded with hate mail and threatened with a defamation lawsuit by Mr. Paterno’s family — gave the family virtually everything it wanted, with a package worth roughly $5.5 million. Documents show that the board even tossed in some extras that the family demanded, like the use of specialized hydrotherapy massage equipment for Mr. Paterno’s wife at the university’s Lasch Building, where Mr. Sandusky had molested a number of his victims.

The details of Mr. Paterno and his family’s fight for money seem to deepen one of the lasting truths of the Sandusky scandal: the significant power that Mr. Paterno exerted on the state institution, its officials, its alumni and its purse strings.

Since Mr. Paterno’s death in January, Mr. Paterno’s family, lawyers and publicists have mounted an aggressive campaign to protect his legacy. The family and its lawyers have hammered the university’s board of trustees, accusing members of attempting to deflect blame onto a dying Mr. Paterno. This week, they angrily disputed the conclusions of an independent investigation that asserted Mr. Paterno and other top university officials protected a serial predator in order to “avoid the consequences of bad publicity” for the university, its football program and its coach’s reputation.

On Friday, Wick Sollers, a lawyer for Mr. Paterno and his family, said that it was Penn State that last summer proposed the lucrative retirement package, and that many of the aspects of the proposal — use of the plane, the luxury box — had existed in prior contracts.

Information about the salary paid to Mr. Paterno, one of the longest serving and most successful college football coaches in history, had for many years been hard to come by. In recent years, though, it became fairly common knowledge that he earned about $1 million annually, not counting his television deals and his contracts with shoe and apparel companies.

But speculation about just how long he was going to remain the well-compensated coach of Penn State had been going on for a decade or more. Mr. Paterno survived an attempt to force him into retirement in 2004, and before the Sandusky revelations, his most recent deal ran through the end of 2012.

According to university records, Mr. Paterno first expressed a desire to revisit his contract in January 2011. It was very early in that month that he learned he had been subpoenaed to testify before the Sandusky grand jury.

But it was not until summer — after Mr. Paterno, the university president and two other senior officials at the university had all testified before the Sandusky grand jury — that the idea that Mr. Paterno might retire in exchange for a multimillion-dollar payout gained traction.

By August, a deal had effectively been reached, though it and the idea that Mr. Paterno might make 2011 his last season had not been announced at the time. Details of the agreement were known to a handful of board members but not shared with the full board, according to people with knowledge of the events.

On Nov. 5, 2011, Mr. Sandusky was arrested, and two Penn State administrators — men who were Mr. Paterno’s superiors — were indicted on charges of failing to report to the authorities a 2001 allegation that Mr. Sandusky had attacked a young boy in the football building’s showers.

Quickly, it became clear that Mr. Paterno, too, had failed to go to the authorities or even to confront Mr. Sandusky after he had been told in person of the episode. The prospect that Mr. Paterno, a revered figure, might be fired by the board of trustees was suddenly real.

Mr. Paterno quickly issued a statement saying, in effect, that the board need not act, that he would resign at the end of the season. Neither he nor the university revealed that he had effectively agreed to do so already, in return for an expensive financial package.

The board fired him anyway, a decision that caused rioting and led to an angry and often very personal backlash against the trustees, but it agreed to honor his contract. It was then that the full board came to find out what the university was obligated to pay Mr. Paterno.

Over the ensuing months, as revelations about the role Mr. Paterno and other university officials played in the scandal mounted, a schism developed among the board members, according to several people with knowledge of the events.

There were some who argued that it was unseemly to pay the remainder of the money and other perks owed to Mr. Paterno, according to several people with knowledge of the discussions. They wondered whether, given Mr. Paterno’s failings, it might be possible to nullify the contract, or at least renegotiate it and reduce the payout, the people said.

Others worried about the hostility they would face if they tried to strip Mr. Paterno, still beloved in many quarters of the campus, of money that he was contractually owed — a prospect that grew even more worrisome after he died on Jan. 22 this year. During a conference call, one board member worried aloud that failure to make good on what was owed to the Paterno estate could lead to another “reign of terror” by Mr. Paterno’s supporters, according to a person who was on the call.

With rumblings that the Paterno family was thinking of suing the board of trustees for defamation, the board dispatched its lawyer to negotiate the final payments. All the board wanted in return was a release protecting the university from such a lawsuit.

The Paternos refused. Mr. Sollers said in his statement that “the retention of their legal rights in a case of this magnitude and complexity is customary and appropriate.”

The board of trustees ultimately agreed to make good on the full package anyhow, and in April paid what was owed to the Paternos. Additional demands, like the desire by Mr. Paterno’s wife to make use of the athletic department’s hydrotherapy facilities, were met. The board did draw the line at the family’s request to use the university’s corporate jet, arguing that the contract limited that use to the coach himself. And it refused the family’s demand to retain use of the stadium box next to the university president’s, the one reserved for the head coach, offering the family the choice of two other suites on a different floor.

Still, Frank T. Guadagnino, a lawyer hired by the board in November to handle a variety of aspects of the scandal, suggested that the board felt it did not have much maneuvering room when it came to the discussions with the Paterno family.

“We were providing for payments due under the contract,” he said in an interview Friday. “So we weren’t really negotiating.”

He added that, given revelations in the independent report released this week that suggest that Mr. Paterno knew about allegations of child abuse involving Mr. Sandusky as far back as 1998, the question over whether the university could rightfully renege on paying the Paterno family what was owed under the August amendments was “complicated,” and one that “we haven’t looked at.”

At a board of trustees news conference Friday, Karen B. Peetz, the board’s chairwoman, made clear that the issue would not be revisited. “Contracts are contracts,” she said.


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lindamarie wrote:We have not heard much from the victims yet. I think once the civil part of this is over we will start to hear from them. For those of you who read The Daily Beast here is what Diane had to say about it
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There is a whole article at this link. The other one is a photo story.

No but that is a good one BJ. I copied and pasted it here for you.

Mental health experts call it “triggering”—when an event, a sound, an image on television, or even a smell takes a victim back to the moment of their sexual abuse. For those who have survived such a childhood, the next wave of the Jerry Sandusky scandal is about to hit like a tsunami.

There have already been leaks from the lengthy investigation, due to be released Thursday, of former FBI director Louis Freeh, who has been looking into how Penn State handled early allegations of abuse by Sandusky, a longtime football coach there. A string of emails has reportedly been unearthed, dating back to a February 2001 incident reported by former assistant coach Michael McQueary, who claimed to see Sandusky raping a young boy in a campus locker room. These emails purportedly reveal secret discussions between then–Penn State president Graham Spanier, former vice president Gary Schultz (who was in charge of campus police), and the school’s now suspended athletic director, Tim Curley. If the reports are accurate, these emails show that at one point the trio seemed to be in agreement that they must call in local police—but Curley reportedly changed his mind after a conversation with Joe Paterno, the late and legendary coach who led the Nittany Lions for decades.
The leaked messages seem to indicate that Paterno played a larger role in deciding to cover up the scandal than has been previously reported. After the officials concluded they would not contact outside law enforcement, Schultz reportedly wrote, “This is a more humane and upfront way to handle this.” To this day, the identity of the boy in the shower remains unknown.

The release of the highly anticipated report is sure to haunt Sandusky’s alleged victims, many of whom testified against him at the trial in which he was recently convicted. It may even spur legal action against Penn State and Spanier (who recently resigned), attorneys have suggested, if the report appears to prove that abuse could have been prevented.

But even for those not directly tied to the case, the enormity of the Sandusky saga has been felt. For the most fragile of childhood sexual-abuse survivors—those who are new to treatment or have never sought professional help—the spectacle of the Sandusky case may act as a trigger, dredging up memories of their own painful past. According to professionals who work with such patients, a trigger can leave victims with panic attacks or feeling depressed or, in the worst cases, suicidal.

Curtis St. John, former president of the support group MaleSurvivor, expects traffic to the organization’s website to spike this week as survivors (they prefer to be called survivors rather than victims) seek balance after the barrage of news coverage following the release of the Freeh report. “We’ve already been getting a flood into the site,” St. John told The Daily Beast. In November 2011, after Sandusky was arrested, traffic increased 66 percent, according to St. John. “It went up another 50 to 55 percent in May and June as the trial got underway,” he said. He attributes the increase to “those who found us and realized, ‘I am not alone.’”

At the age of 10, St. John was the victim of Albert Fentress, dubbed the “Poughkeepsie Cannibal” after he later murdered a teen and cannibalized his corpse. Today he anticipates the release of the Freeh investigation with a heavy sigh.

There is even more to the article at the link
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The Joe Paterno statue was removed Sunday morning from its pedestal outside Beaver Stadium, and it will be stored in an unnamed "secure location," Penn State president Rodney Erickson announced. Erickson also said the Paterno name will remain on the university's library.

Shortly before dawn in State College, Pa., a work crew installed chain-link fences to barricade access to Porter Road outside Beaver Stadium and covered the fence with a blue tarp.

The work crew then removed the 7-foot high bronze statue by forklift and placed it into the lower level of the stadium. Erickson released his highly sensitive decision to the public at 7 a.m. ET Sunday.

Penn State: 'A Source Of Division'
Penn State president Rodney Erickson, in a news release Sunday morning, called the Joe Paterno statue outside Beaver Stadium "an obstacle to healing in our University and beyond." Complete statement

The decision came 10 days after a scathing report by former FBI director Louis J. Freeh found that Paterno, with three other top Penn State administrators, had concealed the allegations of child sexual abuse made by former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky. The Freeh Report concluded their motive was to shield the university and its football program from negative publicity.

Erickson's decision to remove the statue but keep the Paterno name on the library appears to be the product of compromise. Keeping his name on the library does not entirely disconnect Penn State from Paterno's contributions  from the millions of dollars he donated to his 61-year coaching career to the university's academic life.

Erickson said in recent days he had heard "many differing opinions" about the fate of the Paterno statue and the best way to "memorialize such a revered figure."

"I now believe that, contrary to is original intention, Coach Paterno's statue has become a source of division and an obstacle to hearing in our university and beyond," Erickson said in his 592-word statement. "For that reason, I have decided that it is in the best interest of our university and public safety to remove the statue and store it in a secure location."

If the statue of Paterno, his right index finger raised in a No. 1 salute, had remained in its current location, Erickson said he believed it would "be a recurring wound to the multitude of individuals across the nation and beyond who have been the victims of child abuse."

Erickson's announcement came exactly six months after Paterno died.

Erickson acknowledged that his decision is bound to be an unpopular one in central Pennsylvania. "I fully realize that my decision will not be popular in some Penn State circles, but I am certain it is the right and principled decision," he said.

SportsNation: Where is Paterno welcome?
Do you agree with the decision to remove the Joe Paterno statue but leave the Paterno name on the campus library? Cast your votes!

Erickson did not say where the statue would be kept. He also did not say whether it would be later placed in a public place for viewing or placed into storage. Trustees over the past two days who have spoken with Erickson said two possible locations have been discussed: the Penn State sports museum and the library, which still bears the Paterno family name.

Erickson's decision comes at an especially sensitive time for the university. Trustees and administrators are the subject of an NCAA investigation, and several trustees have said that if the statue remained it could weigh as a negative symbol in the NCAA's discussions on a punishment for the football program. In a conversation Thursday night and in follow-up discussions, trustees have expressed worry that the NCAA will level an extreme punishment against the football program. The former chairman of the board, trustees Steve Garban, resigned on Thursday under pressure by trustees who were angry that he knew about the Sandusky matter as early as April 2011 and never discussed it with his colleagues.

Some critics had also called for the Paterno family name to be removed from the library. But Erickson said no.

"The library remains a tribute to Joe and Sue Paterno's commitment to Penn State's student body and academic success," Erickson said, "and it highlights the positive impacts Coach Paterno had on the university. Thus I feel strongly that the library's name should remain unchanged."

The issue of the appropriateness of the Paterno name on the library has received far less attention as the future of the statue, which was paid for by a group of about 35 alumni and their spouses in the late 1990s. Many of those same trustees have said they believe the statute should remain. Indeed, after their two-day meeting on July 12-13 in Scranton, Penn., most of the trustees had concluded that it was their decision to make, and the statue would remain.

The issue quickly divided the country and the Penn State community. Commentators argued about the symbolism of the statue, from college coaching legends like Bobby Bowden to iconic stars of the football team like Franco Harris. For three days last week, a small banner pulled a banner over State College that read, "Take the statue down or we will." Several nights last week, a handful of students guarded the statue from vandals. On some days, a campus auxiliary police officer guarded the statue.

The bronze statue of Paterno has been a place for supporters to rally and pray since the coach's death on Jan. 22. One late night after Paterno died, one of his sons, Jay Paterno, visited the statue and had his photograph taken with fans. Supporters have placed flowers and signs at the statue's foot, most supportive of Paterno. On Friday, Joe Paterno's widow, Sue Paterno, visited the statue with two of her daughters, accompanied by Harris and trustee Anthony Lubrano. The Paternos took pictures of the statue.

Late last week, the trustees and Erickson decided the statue should be an administration decision. As recently as Friday, some trustees expressed fury that the statue might be taken down. "People want to kick Joe's bones," a long-time trustee said Friday. "It's outrageous."

What made the decision especially difficult for university officials were the Paternos' philanthropy to Penn State. He and his wife, Sue, donated more than $4.5 million to the university to help with the library's construction, and they have paid for scholarships.

The Freeh Report found that Paterno, ousted long-time university president Graham Spanier, athletic director Tim Curley and vice president Gary Schultz worked to keep the Sandusky child sexual abuse allegations from becoming public across a period of 14 years. Paterno and Spanier were fired last November by the Board of Trustees.

Erickson said the decision to remove the statute but keep the Paterno name on the library is one that "both recognizes the many contributions that Joe Paterno made to the academic life of our university while taking seriously the conclusions of the Freeh Report and the national issue of child sexual abuse. Today, as every day, our hearts go out to the victims."

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Good. I for one am glad they took the statue down. The victims have enough garbage to deal with.

I couldn't agree more LM.

Penn State football was hit with a four-year postseason ban, the loss of 40 scholarships over four years and a $60 million fine as a result of the cover up in the Jerry Sandusky scandal.

In addition, all Penn State wins from 1998-2011 will be vacated. The fine is equal to one year's gross revenue. The NCAA discussed the death penalty, according to president Mark Emmert, but it was not applied.

Emmert made the announcement Monday morning in a landmark press conference at the NCAA headquarters. Never before at the highest level of college athletics has a school been penalized this severely without a formal investigation by the enforcement division and a hearing before the infractions committee.

Emmert explained that his authority to apply the sanctions came from association's two governing bodies – the executive committee and board of directors.

The penalties cripple Penn State football, putting it as close to the death penalty without the NCAA actually applying the rarely-used sanction. The program will be limited to 15 scholarships beginning for the next four years beginning in 2013. The normal limit is 25 per year.

Current Penn State players will immediately be allowed to transfer without sitting out a year, Emmert said. One coach told CBSSports.com last week that Penn State recruits were already calling him trying to gauge interest in their talents.

Never has the NCAA penalized a program in case that was based in criminal acts. Critics pointed out that the association's jurisdiction only pertains to athletic concerns – i.e. extra benefits or a competitive advantage. However, Emmert put Penn State on notice in November when he sent a letter to acting president Rodney Erickson stating that Penn State could be investigated for lack of institutional control.

That act circumvented the traditional investigative process. On the day the Freeh Report was released, July 12, the NCAA issued a statement saying that Penn State had to answer four questions about its compliance contained in the letter.

Later, Emmert said on a PBS television interview that death penalty was not off the table. While Monday's sanctions are not a formal death penalty, they severely alters the program's ability to compete at the highest level.

The penalties could be a test for how many scholarships schools at the top level need in order to remain competitive.

Former coach Joe Paterno spent 61 years at the school, 45 as head coach winning two national championships. He was master of the “Great Experiment” showing the ability to win with honor while stressing academics.

Paterno's legacy was damaged forever when the Freeh Report stated that the coach had knowledge of Sandusky's sexual abuse of young boys going back to 1998. Since then, the coach's statue has been removed on Sunday. Word leaked of the impending NCAA sanctions within the hour of the statue coming down.

With the vacating of the wins, Florida State's Bobby Bowden now becomes all-time FBS wins leader.

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The elimination of PSU wins will have a dramatic effect on Joe Paterno's all-time carer win record. In fact, he will lose 109 total wins from his record -- dropping him BEHIND Florida State football legend Bobby Bowden and Alabama's Bear Bryant. Paterno will go from #3 all time to #12.

Penn State's football team will also have its football scholarships reduced from 25 to 15 per year for the next 4 years.

All PSU football players are allowed to transfer out of the school to any other school as soon as possible ... while keeping full eligibility. In other words, a PSU player can transfer to Ohio State next season and start immediately.

Football players are also allowed to quit the football team and keep their scholarships while continuing to attend the university in pursuit of a degree.

The PSU athletic program will be on probation for 5 years.

The NCAA said it reserves the right to launch an investigation into individuals to impose even more sanctions, if necessary.

The $60 million fine is equivalent to the football program's gross revenue for 1 season.

The NCAA said the money "must be paid into an endowment for external programs preventing child sexual abuse or assisting victims and may not be used to fund such programs at the university."

The NCAA said it considered the "death penalty" -- the elimination of the school's football program for 1 season -- but decided the punishment it chose will have a deeper impact in changing the culture at Penn State.

PSU signed a consent decree -- which means the University is on board with all of the sanctions.

UPDATE:

6:26 AM PT -- Well, that didn't take long -- a PSU football recruit has ALREADY decommitted to the school.

Ross Douglas -- a cornerback from Ohio -- will no longer attend PSU in the Fall. No word on where he will play.

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Wow between that fine and the civil suits will the school be dismantled all together?

Although I do agree that all the punishment is appropriate and necessary, I do feel sorry for the students and alumni that had nothing to do with this that are affected by it.

Posted by BJ Monday, 23 Jul 2911 at 9:42

All PSU football players are allowed to transfer out of the school to any other school as soon as possible ... while keeping full eligibility. In other words, a PSU player can transfer to Ohio State next season and start immediately.

Football players are also allowed to quit the football team and keep their scholarships while continuing to attend the university in pursuit of a degree.

The PSU athletic program will be on probation for 5 years.

I am glad to see the above put into place for the athletes of Penn State. It is not their fault that this happened. From having two sons that did play sports while in college I never understood why they would be punished by losing their eligibility if they chose or even had to leave a college for financial reasons to attend another college.

In this situation at Penn State, I am also glad to see that the athletes can still stay at Penn State to finish their degree and keep their scholarship money.

On another note, I am still scratching my head as to why this was covered up in the first place and why these victims took this and did not report it to authorities. If and when they did report it and got no response then why did they not keep trying to report it to the police somewhere. I know they are threatened to keep quiet and must have trust in these type of people, but still I have a hard time understanding this in this day and age. I am not walking in their shoes though.

Joe Paterno broke down and cried the day after he was dismissed as Penn State's coach, according to excerptspublished by GQ from the biography Paterno written by Joe Posnanski.
Posnanski, a former writer for Sports Illustrated, spent the 2011 season with Paterno as the Jerry Sandusky scandal unfolded and the longtime Nittany Lions coach lost his job before succumbing to lung cancer in January.
The current issue of GQ includs some pertinent passages from the book, which will be available Tuesday.
Among them was the scene at Paterno's house the day after he was fired by the Penn State board of trustees:
On Thursday, Paterno met with his coaches at his house. He sobbed uncontrollably. This was his bad day. Later, one of his former captains, Brandon Short, stopped by the house. When Brandon asked, "How are you doing, Coach?" Paterno answered, "I'm okay," but the last syllable was shaky, muffled by crying, and then he broke down and said, "I don't know what I'm going to do with myself." Nobody knew how to handle such emotion. Joe had always seemed invulnerable. On Thursday, though, he cried continually.
"My name," he told Jay, "I have spent my whole life trying to make that name mean something. And now it's gone."
In another excerpt, Paterno's son, Scott, reads the grand jury case against Sandusky for the first time:
Scott Paterno was the first in the family to understand that the Pennsylvania grand jury presentment that indicted Jerry Sandusky could end his father's career. This wasn't surprising; Scott tended to be the most realistic - or cynical, depending on who you asked - in the family. He had run for Congress and lost and along the way tasted the allure and nastiness of public life. He had worked as a lawyer and as a lobbyist. He would sometimes tell people, "Hey, don't kid yourself, I'm the asshole of the family." When Scott read the presentment, he called his father and said, "Dad, you have to face the possibility that you will never coach another game."

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