The Penn State child sex abuse scandal concerned allegations and subsequent convictions of child sexual abuse committed by Jerry Sandusky, an assistant coach for the Penn State Nittany Lions football team, over a period of at least fifteen years. The scandal began to emerge publicly in March 2011 and broke in early November 2011 when Sandusky was indicted on 52 counts of child molestation, stemming from incidents that occurred between 1994 and 2009.[1] Sandusky was ultimately convicted on 45 counts of child sexual abuse on June 22, 2012,[2] and was sentenced to a minimum of 30 years and a maximum of 60 years in prison.[3] Of the 10 victims who were listed, only eight appeared at trial. All were over the age of 18 by the time they testified. Six were over 21.
Additionally, three Penn State officials – school president Graham Spanier, vice president Gary Schultz and athletic director Tim Curley – were charged with perjury, obstruction of justice, failure to report suspected child abuse, and related charges.[4] The Penn State Board of Trustees commissioned an independent investigation by former FBI Director Louis Freeh, whose report stated that Penn State's longtime head football coach Joe Paterno, along with Spanier, Curley and Schultz, had known about allegations of child abuse by Sandusky as early as 1998, had shown "total and consistent disregard...for the safety and welfare of Sandusky's child victims", and "empowered" Sandusky to continue his acts of abuse by failing to disclose them.[5]: 14 [6][7] Shortly after the scandal broke, Spanier resigned. The board of trustees terminated the contracts of Paterno and Curley.
As a result of the scandal, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) imposed sanctions on the Penn State football program: a $60 million fine, a four-year postseason ban, scholarship reductions, and a vacation of all victories from 1998 to 2011.[8] These sanctions were considered to be among the most severe ever imposed on an NCAA member school. NCAA President Mark Emmert stated that the sanctions were levied "not to be just punitive, but to make sure the university establishes an athletic culture and daily mindset in which football will never again be placed ahead of educating, nurturing and protecting young people."[9][10] The Big Ten Conference subsequently imposed an additional $13 million fine.[11]
The Paterno family retained former Attorney General Richard Thornburgh to conduct a review of the Freeh report, which concluded that the report constituted a "rush to injustice" that could not be relied upon[12][13] and that Freeh's evidence fell "far short" of showing that Joe Paterno attempted to conceal the scandal, but rather that "the contrary is true".[13] In January 2013, state senator Jake Corman and state treasurer Rob McCord sued the NCAA, seeking to overturn the Penn State sanctions on the basis that Freeh had been actively collaborating with the organization and that due process had not been followed. In November 2014, Corman released emails showing "regular and substantive" contact between Freeh's investigators and the NCAA, suggesting that Freeh's conclusions were orchestrated.[14] As part of a settlement, the NCAA restored the 111 wins to Paterno's record on January 16, 2015.[15][10]
On March 25, 2017, Curley, Schultz, and Spanier pleaded or were found guilty of misdemeanor charges of child endangerment.[16] All conspiracy charges against Curley and Schultz were dropped, and Spanier was acquitted of conspiracy, the charges central to Louis Freeh's allegation of a cover-up.[17][18] In June 2017, all three were sentenced to jail terms, fines, and probation for the misdemeanors.[19] Spanier was sentenced to four to twelve months in jail, a $7,500 fine, and two years of probation.[20] Spanier's misdemeanor conviction was overturned by the federal district court, but reinstated by the court of appeals in December 2020.[21][22]
FreehReport was invoked but never defined (see the help page).Jay Paterno (Joe Paterno's son and new alumni trustee) 'adamantly maintains his father didn't know the truth about Sandusky, pointing to the only piece of evidence he thinks matters: His father allowed his children and his grandchildren to spend time around Sandusky until months before his arrest.'
The case produced evidence embarrassing for the NCAA. One staffer, in an email, wrote that NCAA punishments for Penn State would be unneeded and excessive, but 'new NCAA leadership is extremely image conscious, and if they conclude that pursuing allegations against PSU would enhance the association's standing with the public, then an infractions case could follow.' ... Matthew Haverstick, attorney for state Sen. Jake Corman (R): 'Our read of the evidence was that the NCAA board of directors and the Penn State board of trustees were being played off one another by the NCAA C-suite executives," Haverstick said. "They had wildly different understandings about what was happening around them at that time.'
MWBigTen was invoked but never defined (see the help page).'No one was convicted of a conspiracy," said alumni trustee Alice Pope, a psychology professor at St. John's University. "So there was no coverup.'
When Curley and Schultz appeared on the stand, however, they said the same things their lawyers had said for five years. Paterno had told them someone saw Sandusky "horsing around" with a boy. They didn't think Sandusky was a pedophile; they thought he had "boundary issues." When they met with McQueary, he did not describe witnessing a sexual assault. ... [Of] 12 people who knew in 2001 that an assistant had been disturbed by something he saw in a shower involving Sandusky and a boy, none ... said anyone at Penn State urged them not to contact authorities.