VERMONT
Bennington Banner
Wednesday May 15, 2013
I grew up in State College, Pa., home of Penn State University and its fabled football program. In high school I walked the halls and attended classes with the children of Penn State football royalty: A couple of Paternos, some Sanduskys. We were the Little Lions, a play on the college mascot the Nittany Lion.
In 2011 when it came to light that former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky had been sexually abusing boys for a number of years, I simply didn’t believe it. It seems that as I wrapped up my journalism degree at Penn State, children were being irrevocably harmed by a predator whose face we’d all seen on the sidelines at Beaver Stadium for years.
Later, as I read the 23-page grand jury report about the alleged abuse, my heart fell and my stomach turned. There were too many victims for these allegations not to have some truth to them. I read that fellow State High alum Mike McQueary had witnessed Sandusky raping a 10-year-old boy in a football building in 2002. I felt physically sick. McQueary reportedly followed the chain of command, and within the scope of the law reported what he saw to his superior, Penn State Football Coach Joe Paterno.
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