Editorial: Common Lesson in Sandusky, Priest Trials

Goucester County Times
June 24, 2012

http://www.nj.com/gloucester/voices/index.ssf/2012/06/editorial_common_lesson_in_san.html

In this booking photo released early Saturday morning June 23, 2012 by the Centre County Correctional Facility in Bellefonte, Pa., former Penn State University assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky is shown. Sandusky was convicted on Friday, June 22, 2012, of sexually assaulting 10 boys over 15 years. (AP Photo/Centre County Correctional Facility)

The region’s two biggest criminal cases, now concluded, have one appalling feature in common:

They’re both about grown men, men in positions of authority, and abuse of little boys.

The lessons are writ large for parents, teachers and employers. This stuff happens, and it happens in places where it’s least likely to be suspected.

In church.

In a respected college football program.

In a typical American small town.

In Philadelphia, Monsignor William Lynn was convicted Friday of child endangerment for covering up abuse within the Philadelphia archdiocese from 1992 to 2004. A jury couldn’t agree on a verdict for colleague who was charged with trying to rape a 14-year-old boy. The trial came after several guilty pleas and dozens of claims from boys who said they were molested by trusted parish priests.

In central Pennsylvania, former Penn State University assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky was convicted Friday night on 45 counts of child sexual abuse involving 10 boys.

Sandusky founded the “Second Mile” program for underprivileged children. He molested boys in the program, some as young as 10, in Penn State locker rooms, on trips and in his home with his wife asleep upstairs. For preying on his victims for 15 years with a calculated approach of seduction, molestation and eventual betrayal, Sandusky is likely to spend the rest of his life in jail. May he never know freedom again.

In both court cases, some boys had reached out to parents and school officials. In both cases, their pleas were rebuffed or ignored — even though most states, including Pennsylvania and New Jersey, mandate the reporting of suspected child abuse.

A recent high school graduate testified that a school official told him and his mother “Jerry wouldn’t do something like that,” and to “think about it” before reporting Sandusky. A wrestling coach said he thought nothing of seeing Sandusky lying next to a boy on the floor of an athletic room. “I thought, ‘It’s Jerry Sandusky. He’s a saint.’ ”

After the verdict, Pennsylvania Attorney General Linda Kelly said, “One of the recurring themes in this case was, ‘Who would believe a kid?’ The answer is, we in Bellefonte, Pa., would believe a kid.”

To all who care about children: Be watchful. Be aware. And believe a kid.