BishopAccountability.org
	Group Asking Penn State Football Team to Support Victims in Sex Abuse Scandal By Paul Schankman Fox 2 November 14, 2011 www.fox2now.com/news/ktvi-group-asking-penn-state-football-team-to-support-victims-in-sex-abuse-scandal-20111110,0,6074825.story [with video] The St. Louis based group, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, is asking members of the Penn State football team to show the world they cares about the victims of the sex scandal rocking that campus, by doing something for the victims that the whole world can see. "We don't normally go for symbolic gestures but we have asked that the Penn State football team and the Nebraska football team wear something symbolic in support of the victims," said Barbara Dorris, a SNAP spokesperson. A sticker, a patch, an armband; whatever the players might wear is not as important to SNAP as the message they hope such a gesture would send. "Victims can't tell, especially if they are young ones because they are afraid they will be teased or someone will question their sexuality and if a football player stands up and says the right thing to do is to tell, it might encourage the kids to come forward and allow them to get help," Dorris said. Meanwhile, the reaction by students to the firing of coach Joe Paterno is almost as upsetting to members of SNAP as the alleged abuse itself. "No one was rioting for the child. They are talking about football, they are talking about legacies, no one is talking about the children who have been raped, that have been sodomized," Dorris said. Although SNAP devotes itself to those abused by clergy, they see institutional similarities with the Penn State case, and they are outraged, especially about the alleged abuse spotted by a grad student. "Amazing. This isn't a borderline call. You have an eyewitness to a rape, of course you call the police. This isn't a matter of chain of command or authority this is a horrific crime and the police should have been called immediately." "It has become that the institution, the reputation of the institution and of those involved with the institution is far more important than the safety of innocent children. It is what we are seeing with the bishops and now we are seeing at Penn State, that the reputation of their football program was far more important than the children," Dorris said. So far, SNAP has not received a response to its request from either Penn State nor Nebraska. The two teams face each other this weekend at Penn State. "You would think they could learn from those mistakes but again, institutions feel they are so powerful they cannot be touched, and I think Catholic church officials felt they were beyond the reach of local law enforcement and I think Penn state thought they were too," Dorris said.
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