Molestation Travesty at Penn State

This weekend we heard about extended child sexual abuse, covered up by many, which should serve as a constant reminder that sexual predators are common, hard to catch, and, in some cases, protected. Sexual abuse is seen as such an embarrassing topic for all involved that sometimes the top brass of a respected institution can conspire to keep a predator from being caught, for the pure sake of trying to save their own reputation.

Enter Penn State University. There are many details sprinkled throughout news stories today, alleging Jerry Sandusky, former defensive coordinator for the Nittany Lions, abused eight young boys over the span of 15 years, even using on-campus facilities to perpetrate his crimes.

That alone is a sad story. Compounding the tragedy was the decision not to take action or even cover up the crimes.

If Sandusky would have gotten a DUI, he would have been fired immediately. If he had been caught with steroids, the same consequence would have been instant. Because of the taboo nature of sex crimes, Sandusky’s acts were covered up by Penn State, rather than dealt with, accordingly. An institution’s clean reputation and winning football program was somehow more important than the well-being of 8 young men (and likely many more). In Don Corley’s case he was charged for crimes against three boys, but as many as 40 may have been affected. We just don’t know the true number, although we know the number is far higher than three.

The reason for this blog post is to re-state that molestation is not a four letter word. Furthermore, this is a crime too severe for parole for many reasons including this one: If we can’t even talk about sex crime as a society in order to protect the innocent, then when caught, the criminals must not go free. Our hope at 30 is 30 is that molesters, particularly Don Corley, stay in jail, but also that we shed our reluctance to talk about sex crime so that the innocent are protected and the molesters are caught, before countless lives are complicated or ruined.