Child Abuse Expert: PSU Officials 'Failed Miserably'
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Since the grand jury handed down its indictments last week, there have been plenty of questions.
One of them – why didn't one of the five men who witnessed or dealt with the 2002 shower incident involving former Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky – notify the authorities?
What is the legal requirement?
More than a thousand cases a year of child abuse come through the A Child's Place at Mercy and from Joan Mills' expert view, Penn State could have done more.
"Well, I think they all failed miserably obviously," she said.
Mike McQueary observed the shower assault and reported it to Joe Paterno, and the report went on to Athletic Director Tim Curley and Senior Vice President Gary Schultz and finally to Penn State President Graham Spanier.
"If we are going to talk about the laws in those parameters then they're all just fine and dandy," Mills said with no shortness of disgust at Pennsylvania's lax child abuse reporting laws.
Mills says despite the grand jury's conclusion that the men were required to notify authorities, there is a loophole in this case because the victim was not a Penn State student, but a visitor.
"I am sure [Joe Paterno] probably didn't know really what to do, but I'm sure when he heard that a boy was being sodomized in the shower he knew it was against the law and he had a decision to make and what was more important Penn State football or that little boy?"
Paterno and company get no pass from former Penn State all-American wide receiver O.J. McDuffie. "The university could have avoided other young men being preyed on by this guy," he said.
The investigation is ongoing and the attorney general is not ruling out further charges.
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WARNING Contains Graphic Material: Read The Entire Grand Jury Presentment
VIDEO: Watch The Attorney General's News Conference (11/7)
Attorney General, State Police Commissioner Statements: Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 |
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