Fooled

It's been few weeks since the President of the Second Mile Charity Jerry Sandusky and former assistant coach/defensive coordinator who retired in 1999 at Penn State University was arrested for a series of child molestation charges. The popular immediate reaction was very emotional as the molestation of children is universally appalling but we need to remember that right now the allegations are just that allegations with no in court proof which is necessary to make a legal judgement against this horrific act.


The ugliness of this crime was it occurred for over 14 years that is documented who knows if it last less or more if the crimes indeed occurred. One of the most important factors was if these crimes did indeed happen than a lot of people were fooled and these were the exact words of 61 year PSU employee and former head football coach who lost his job due to the new by law which was made up by Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Frank Noonan for not meeting his "moral obligations" despite following rules and the law on second hand information.

The people who were fooled starts with Ray Gricar and the Centre County Police Department. Gricar is the district attorney who dismissed 1997 charges against Sandusky for taking showers in the nude with minors. Despite admission of showering incidents this huge scandal might have been stopped there and than but it nothing was done by law enforcement at the time possibly due to Sandusky's status as a Penn State assistant coach. Regardless I have to make another special mention to State Commissioner Frank Noonan to publicly reprimand the Centre County Police Department for not "meeting their moral obligations". Can't say much to Ray Gricar who has been mysteriously missing and presumed dead since April of 2005.


Next up on the fooled by Sandusky list is the adoption agencies that allowed him to adopt 6 children. One of the responsibilities of adoption agencies is to do a thorough background check on adopting parents. If Sandusky is found guilty than these adoption agencies who are paid to investigate the backgrounds of prospective adopting parents failed miserably by sending children to a person capable of child molestation.

We cannot forget about the foster care agencies that allowed for Jerry to take in foster children over the years. As a matter of fact The Second Mile Charity was applauded by politicians from former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum to George Herbert Bush.

I still recall sitting in a sports bar back in the 90's with a former Penn State alumnus and friend while watching an Ohio State/Penn State game while ABC-ESPN was doing a special on Sandusky about all his great work. When you adopt six kids you have to have good character considering paid professionals investigate the person but this one got past one of the major networks for their on air pseudo canonization of Sandusky on air for all his work with foster kids, the Second Mile Charity, and association with the Penn State football program. Hey we all make mistakes if you were fooled.

The Penn State University board of trustees were fooled because it's the board of trustees that approved of Jerry Sandusky's retirement package that included emeritus status, full use of PSU facilities and an office and phone in a University building to conduct fund raising for The Second Mile Charity.

The State of Pennsylvania Governor's office: Former Governor Democrat Ed Rendell approved of a $3 million dollar grant for the Second Mile Charity and when current governor and former State Attorney General Republican Tom Corbett who sits on the Penn State board of trustees entered office his administration required all pending grants be reviewed and it was approved by Governor Corbett unless he didn't read what he was signing. So Rendell was fooled along with Corbett, not bad fooling two governors.

Actually it's highly debatable that Corbett was fooled because he was handling the Sandusky investigation for child molestation as early as 2009 but it probably slipped his mind while writing thank you letters to Sandusky's Second Mile Foundation for $460,000 worth of campaign donations while Corbett was running for State Attorney General and another $200,000 for the Governor's office in 2010.

So state agencies, major networks, adoption agencies, politicians on up to the White House, foster agencies, and the people who approve of grants giving away free money were all fooled by Jerry Sandusky who seem to have been given a pass but heaven forbid, Joe Paterno the 84 year old head coach of Penn State University who has not worked with Sandusky since 1999 and has no supervision authority over Sandusky is the one person who the public, the Penn State board of trustees, Governor Corbett and Frank Noonan all want to point the finger at.

The old man would probably point a finger if he wanted to lower himself to the levels of the self righteous but it appears he has taken the high road and with his 20/20 hindsight vision wishes he would have done more when he heard about the accusations on top of making considerable donations to the University, raising funds for the University to support academics and coaching a football team, supervising his coaches and being a voice of vast experiences in life to influence hundreds of young men on how to be good responsible, respectable adults.

As of today the Second Mile Charity is closing it's charitable doors likely before too much investigation is done into the charity which seems to be the center point of the cover up of alleged child sexual molestation.