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	University Athletics Officials Need to Learn Lessons of Church Sex Abuse Scandal By Ed Stannard Middletown Press November 20, 2011 http://middletownpress.com/articles/2011/11/20/news/doc4ec89e917155f582380220.txt The risk of sexual abuse against children increases when an institution's image is all important and adults use their power to manipulate the defenseless. That's the lesson of the clergy abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church, which went unheeded by officials at Penn State University, say several people with knowledge of the issue. Those working within the church to prevent abuse, as well as a onetime victim of priest abuse, say university athletic officials need to pay attention to the hard lessons learned by the church and adopt the safeguards that Catholic and other religious institutions have done. The message: Everyone has responsibility to stop predators and report anything they've witnessed to law enforcement. "I don't believe the sexual abuse in college athletics is anywhere near the problem as in other organizations, for example the Catholic Church, the Boy Scouts, the Mormon Church, etc.," said Thomas McNamara, who has represented numerous sexual abuse victims. "However, the cover-up in the Penn State case is what we have seen in these other organizations." Penn State's legendary football coach, Joe Paterno, and its president, Graham Spanier, lost their jobs after charges became public that defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky had forced himself sexually on a boy in the locker room shower. The man who witnessed the attack and reported it to university officials, Mike McQueary, was put on leave while his claim that he stopped the assault and called police is investigated. Late last week, Syracuse University assistant basketball coach Bernie Fine also was put on leave amid accusations that he molested two former ball boys for years, which he denied. "One of the first things I thought of is this sounds very familiar," said Beth McCabe of Canton, a member of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests. "I think it's similar in the abuse of power and the issue of how money plays into that," she said of the Penn State scandal. While she sees similarities with the clergy sexual abuse scandal, McCabe also sees differences. "I think there's been an outcry from the alumni and some of the student body … that were screaming for change," she said. That took too long in the church, she said. "It's a crime," she said. "It shouldn't matter whether it happens on a college campus or in a church or in a rectory or someone's home. A crime's a crime." According to McNamara, McQueary, as well as anyone who witnesses a sexual assault, should take immediate action. "First of all, he should have interceded and stopped the rape. … absolutely, physically stopped the rape, called the police and helped the boy." Besides police, state authorities and parents should be brought in, he said, "to make sure, if one entity decides to turn their eyes away, hopefully the other ones won't." Allen Sack is interim dean of the College of Business at the University of New Haven, director of the Institute for Sports Management and a critic of "big-time college sports." He played football at Notre Dame and earned his doctorate at Penn State. Sack believes McQueary felt pressure not to come forward, based on the examples of others who have reported cheating or other wrongs and lost their jobs or worse. "The history of big-time college sports has been if you say anything … they're going to ruin you," Sack said. "Big-time college sports has taken on the aura of a religious entity, something that you don't question or you're taken out and burned at the stake." Sack said he was shocked to hear the news about Penn State, especially since he had held up Paterno and his Notre Dame coach, Ara Parseghian, as "paragons of virtue." He had called for Penn State to cancel last week's game against Nebraska, saying the university should have said, "The game cannot go on, the show cannot go on today because we're going to stop and reflect. … It would have had an effect across the entire nation." Instead, the Penn State team walked arm in arm into their home stadium and a Nebraska coach said a prayer in the center of the field before the game, which the Nittany Lions lost. ZERO TOLERANCE Michael Strammiello, spokesman for the Diocese of Norwich, said the church has taken the lead in the last decade, calling the Catholic Church "the most proactive institution in the country on this issue." "Whether it's Penn State or Syracuse or whatever we're all reading about, I think a good place is to look to the church to see how an organization the size and scope of the church has really had the fortitude to handle this," Strammiello said. Brian Wallace, spokesman for the Diocese of Bridgeport, pointed out that Bishop William Lori was one of the authors of the Dallas Charter of 2002, which brought about "a zero-tolerance policy for any kind of abuse." The diocese conducts criminal background checks on anyone who works in the church and "we've trained about 20,000 people in the state of Connecticut," Wallace said. Both dioceses follow mandatory-reporting requirements, bringing in law enforcement and child-protection services to ensure "an immediate, impartial and unfiltered response (to) protect the innocent." McNamara said he believes the Catholic Church hasn't done enough, despite its efforts to create a safe environment. "I have never ever seen the Catholic Church contact the victims to offer help to these victims," he said. "They have been without a doubt more concerned about the welfare of the abusing priest and the image of their church." He also said the church did not comply with mandatory-reporting laws when child sexual abuses came to light, although spokesmen for the dioceses of Norwich and Bridgeport said those laws are strictly followed. Michelle Cruz, the state's victim advocate, said what priests, coaches and other adult mentors have in common is the respect and authority they project. It is difficult for children to reject a trusted adult's advances, "especially children who are often intimidated, scared and often threatened … they aren't going to be able to tell somebody," she said. Even when adults in official positions are given background checks, there may be others who have not been vetted, Cruz said: a hot dog vendor at the ball game perhaps. "We need to look at who are we allowing around the kids. … There's an expectation that everyone working with our kids has a background check and that's not the reality," she said. Erin Neil, director of the Bridgeport diocese's Office of Safe Environments and victim-assistance coordinator, said she sees similarities between the church scandal and Penn State's. "It's very much what we discussed in our training, that it is everywhere," she said. "We just hope that every institution will take it as seriously as we have."
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