Penn State Coach Scandal Update

Dr. Alycia A Chambers is one of my new heroes.  An investigation in 1998 led her to suggest that Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky met the criteria for pedophile, in her own assessment of the person now identified as “victim #6.”

What is at stake here is not the usual legal case of “my expert vs. your expert,” for only the most jaded of lawyers would suggest that this case be deferred to the adversarial system, letting the truth fall where it may.

Sexual abuses of childhood trust generally lead to post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which can affect the conduct of an entire life if untreated.  They are all too often untreated.

Dr. Chambers’ report was buried for a long time.  Part of this could have been because she was female.  It is not powerful anymore to talk about sex discrimination and harder to prove it, but I have no trouble believing the opinion of a professional female was buried in the files.

It says in the Talmud — a sacred Jewish series of writings of wisdom — that the testimony of a female is given only half the weight of the testimony of a male.  Modern studies of trial law have shown that this ancient tradition is still pretty much true.  I have lost my share of jobs to younger and less experienced men, at the hands of people too clever to give me a way to prove things.

Life is not fair.  If it were, I would probably be out of work.

But wait, there’s more.

There is a larger and institutionally validated reason for squelching this report.  Quick, what institution can you think of that has a history of squelching reports?

(HINT: The Catholic Church.)

And we have proof — real proof — that sports are a religion.

This guy, Sandusky, was anointed like a clergy-person.  He not only got good results in terms of winning football games — ordination at the altar — but he had the veneer of doing good things for boys. In 1977 he established The Second Mile – an organization to help at-risk youngsters. People thought he somehow lifted them up.

Even worse – six months before the scandal officially broke into the mainstream media, Sandusky was accused by a Pittsburgh radio host of “pimping” young boys for the pleasure of rich donors to the Penn State athletic program.

What people do not understand is that there is no excuse for abusing children.

Moreover, the people who abuse children are not yellers and haters but folks who seem to like children.  They like them too much.

The good Dr. Chambers is to be congratulated.  Those who ignored and hid her report should be as open to charges as Sandusky himself.

Oh, the self righteous people who say “protect our children.”  Where are they now?

They are scared of attacking a religion – the religion of sports.  I say go for it.