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	Opinion: Penn State Scandal Opens Floodgates By Rich Lewis The Sentinel November 21, 2011 http://www.cumberlink.com/news/opinion/columnists/rich_lewis/article_65f4f9c4-110c-11e1-8b9d-001cc4c002e0.html The sexual-abuse scandal at Penn State is a horrible, depressing nightmare for the millions of people who love the school and admired those now accused of crimes or unpardonable ethical failures. The pain is far from over as new revelations, trials and lawsuits loom ahead. Perhaps the whole story will be confined to this one school in this one state - a sorry, isolated example. But it is equally possible the case has touched off a fire that will engulf colleges and universities across the country. Pennsylvania's nightmare could become a national nightmare. A second flame has already flared at a prestigious military college in South Carolina. In 2007, a 19-year-old boy told officials at The Citadel that in 2002, when he was 14, he had been lured into sex acts by Louis ReVille, a counselor at the college's summer camp. According to an editorial in The (Charleston) Post and Courier, instead of reporting the allegation to police, "The Citadel did its own investigation, during which Mr. ReVille denied the allegation that he had lured campers into his room to watch pornography and engage in autoeroticism." The incident then just disappeared - until Oct. 28, when ReVille, now 32, was arrested and charged with molesting at least five boys. Three of the assaults occurred between November 2010 and October 2011. On Monday, Citadel President John W. Rosa, a retired Army lieutenant colonel, admitted the school had failed the boy, the community and ReVille's later victims. "At the time we took what we thought were the necessary steps. It's now clear we should have done more," Rosa said at a press conference. "We're profoundly sorry." Sound familiar? Joe Paterno, too, said he wished he "had done more" to follow up after assistant coach Mike McQueary told him he saw Jerry Sandusky molesting a boy in a Penn State shower stall in 2002. The disturbing question is whether there is anything odd or unique about the culture at Penn State, or The Citadel, that would make those schools especially likely to be the scene of either the crime or its cover-up. The answer is clearly no. In both cases, grown men were in positions that gave them the power to first abuse and then silence young boys - one a coach, the other a counselor. Both enjoyed affiliation with a prestigious institution. Both were overseen by officials with a stake in protecting the institution's reputation. These conditions exist at virtually every college and university in the country. It doesn't seem credible that the story starts and stops in State College or Charleston. Surely other presidents, vice presidents, coaches and so on have closed their eyes when their school's reputation was threatened - who would see what they "should have done" if called to account, but somehow did not see it when it mattered most. The situation is tellingly similar to the sexual-abuse scandal that rocked the Catholic Church - and that may shed light on where this one is headed. The church had been receiving reports of abuse for decades, and covering up most of the cases. Very few received public attention - until 2002, when stories in the Boston Globe drew national attention to the problem. Those stories opened the floodgates on investigations across the country, from Boston to Los Angeles - and around the world, from Canada to Ireland and beyond. Things long hidden were suddenly revealed. The Penn State story may serve as the same kind of catalyst. How many reporters are now digging into old rumors and allegations? These things feed on themselves. For better or worse, reporters follow the hot news, especially scandalous news - and surely the Penn State story is both. So suddenly, a lot of reporters are looking very hard at an issue that wasn't on their radar before. They are very good at what they do. The details of The Citadel story emerged after the Post and Courier filed a Freedom of Information request for documents and details on the incident. The school at first refused to release the materials, then complied. Then apologized for what they showed. In addition, many experts have noted that the Penn State case is very likely to encourage other victims of abuse to come forward. This certainly was true in the church scandals, where one or two victims in a case quickly became five or dozens. Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who has represented hundreds of victims of sexual abuse by clergymen, said, while discussing the PSU case on CBS, that once a sexual-abuse victim comes forward, "It empowers others to come forward. They feel encouraged ... and they feel as though they are not alone." He specifically mentioned the "the Catholic cases" to make his point. Indeed, Sandusky was charged with molesting eight children, but 10 or so other alleged victims have spoken up since the indictment was handed down. This could all be completely off base, and I sincerely hope it is. Maybe something truly unusual happened at Penn State - a strange gathering of circumstances and personalities unlikely to be repeated elsewhere. Perhaps the challenge to address a report of child sexual abuse has never been faced at most other schools - or was met openly and honorably. But my gut tells me otherwise.
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