PENNSYLVANIA
Times Online
As Sandusky sex-abuse trial approaches, a look at a Pittsburgh case shows importance of reporting
By Bill Heltzel and Halle Stockton PublicSource
A ninth-grade boy at Pittsburgh’s Vincentian High School had a secret. He’d changed a grade on his report card, but soon his basketball coach discovered the deceit. For weeks, the coach summoned him from gym class and the cafeteria to his office, where he prodded: What would the boy do for the coach to keep the secret?
Finally, the coach, according to court documents, gave the boy three choices: Masturbate in front of the coach, stand on his head and pee or get paddled with a plank. He chose the beating. The coach stood the boy against a chalkboard, splayed his legs, and hit him with a 2-by-4. The coach then pulled down the boy’s pants to see the welts.
When the boy and his parents told school officials what happened, the principal doubted the story, but offered to change the boy’s schedule to avoid the coach’s English class.
“That’s what her offer was, and I’m like, ‘No, I’m not going to do that,’” the boy later told police about the 1995 incident with coach David Scott Zimmerman, then 28. “I’m leaving school. I can’t take this anymore.”
The Vincentian principal dropped her inquiry and Zimmerman continued to coach and teach.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.