Penn State Scandal Essay

The impact of these allegations by the Duke Lacrosse team was tremendous. The President of the University Richard Brodhead canceled the entire season and called the situation “sickening and repulsive” (Jennings, 2009, p. 568). Once again the support from the highest level at Duke University was not there for the three members of the lacrosse team at the center of the allegations. The African American accuser Crystal Mangum had support from the NAACP, Reverend Jesse Jackson, and the Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong. The coach of the team also resigned from his job as the season was canceled.

"Joseph Miller testi ed that he was head wrestling coach for the elementary wrestling program for that school district. He knew Victim 1, who had wrestled for him. Miller corroborated that one evening in 2006 or 2007, he returned to the high school to retrieve something he had forgotten. He saw a light on in the weight room which should have been turned off and when he went in, he discovered Victim 1 and Sandusky, lying on their sides, in physical contact, face to face on a mat. He said both Victim 1 and Sandusky were surprised to see him enter the room. He recalls

The Sandusky scandal had a huge impact on Penn State, main reason Penn state officials covered it up for so long. Penn State officials didn’t want the disturbing news to damage Penn State impeccable reputation. Although they tried very hard to cover up this issue it was exposed.

Cheating scandals in collegiate athletics have been happening since the beginning of the NCAA, ranging from paying players to play, recruiting violations and other cases of academic cheating. One of the greatest scandals of all time was when the Southern Methodist University football team was sentenced to the athletic program’s “death penalty” (termination of the program) for paying athletes to play football for their school (Ribock, 2012). Louisville’s case of recruiting violations has been the most recent. The Cardinals (Louisville) were found to have had athlete-held parties with drugs, alcohol and strippers that were paid over $10,000 in the time period of 2010 to 2014 by former Assistant Coach Andre McGee, who left after the case opened in 2014. These outrageous parties were held to persuade the new basketball recruits to attend their school. This case came to a close in

Although college football is the third-most-popular sport, the majority of schools lose revenue on athletics. The National Collegiate Athletic Association, also known as the NCAA, is promoting beneficial ideas to help players in need while increasing academic standards. As stated in the article, “On some LSU teams, Martin said, half of the players are “special admits””, which means multitudes of players do not achieve the same levels of academic success as “normal” students. As long as academic budgets are miniscule compared to athletic budgets, there will always be controversy. This tension increased when “legendary head coach” Joe Paterno, along with Jerry Sandusky, were fired for being involved in a sex-abuse scandal with a minor.

The school officials that contributed to covering up the Sandusky scandal were: Penn State athletic director Tim Curley, senior vice president for finance and business including overseeing the university police Gary Schultz, Penn State football coach, Joe Paterno and university president, Graham Spanier. All four of the elite university officials became informed of Sandusky’s sexual misconduct by a graduate assistant Mike McQueary who later became assistant coach to Paterno (Chappell, 2012). After Sandusky’s sexual misconduct was officially brought to the attention of these key officials the solution was to basically punish Sandusky by telling him he is no longer allowed to shower with the boys on campus facilities. The core group

The case “officially” begins on November 4, 2011 when the Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania filed charges against Gerald Sandusky (Sandusky) that included multiple counts of aggravated indecent assault, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, corruption of minors, unlawful contact with minors, and endangering the welfare of minors. Several of the charges cover offenses that occurred between 1998 and 2002 when Sandusky was either the Defensive Coordinator for the Penn State University (PSU) football team or as a professor Emeritus with unrestricted access to the football program’s facilities (Freeh,

Regarding the prison sentence of 30 to 60 years imposed on Jerry Sandusky, I agree and disagree. I strongly agree with the sentence because it is long enough to, more than likely, keep him in prison for the rest of his natural life. The high probability that this sentence will not allow Jerry Sandusky to ever be free to victimize more children, the sentence is sufficient for the awful crimes he committed. Molesting children is one of the worst if not ‘the worst’ crimes anyone can commit. Keep in mind that the case against Jerry Sandusky took close to ten years before justice could be served in his crimes against children. It took the courage of Aaron Fisher and his mother who reported the abuse to the state youth authorities in 2008 (Johnson,

Another boy was interrogated by Shreffler who reported similar treatment reported by the 6th Victim. But the investigation ends after District Attorney Ray Gricar decided the case warranted no criminal charges. Shreffler reported to the grand jury that Thomas Harmon, who headed the campus police, told him to close the inquiry. Subsequent investigative reported that Sandusky retired from Penn State's football program in the year 1999, but with an "emeritus" label that allowed him continued access to campus facilities, including the locker room and an office in the latch football

In the perspective of a Functionalist, a limited amount of crime is necessary of all societies (Farley and Flota 2013, 315). The cheating scandal that occurred at Stuyvesant High School would be described by Durkheim and other Functionalists as normal and beneficial to the entire high school. Deviance, in this case cheating, enables societies to adapt (Farley and Flota 2013, 315). By punishing the twelve students and speculating punishment for 54 other students, the hierarchy of the school system is being maintained (Baker 2012). The faculty is making it clear that the school rejects academic dishonesty which in turn helps define what is approved. Due to the large-scale that cheating occurred, the faculty had to adapt their policies to regain control. The following year, 17 cell phones were confiscated from students on the first day of school (Baker 2012). Although there was already a no cell phone policy in place, the staff acted in a stricter matter than before the cheating incident in to regain control over the students (Farley and Flota 2013, 315).

The FBI had stated that after conducting an investigation that these senior officials had known about Sandusky’s actions as early as 1998 and had failed to disclose this information to authorities. On October 9, 2012, Jerry Sandusky was sentenced to a minimum of 30 years and a maximum of 60 years in prison. Spanier, Curley, and Schultz have been charged with grand jury perjury, conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and child endangerment in association with the scandal. Paterno and McQueary never had any charges pressed on them because they did what they were obligated to do. McQueary had reported the incident to his superior which is Joe Paterno. Joe Paterno also reported the incident to his superior who is Curley and Schultz. This whole situation caused a huge reaction nationwide.

On June 22, 2012 Gerald Arthur “Jerry” Sandusky was convicted of sexually abusing 10 boys, and was found guilty on 45 out of 48 counts. The sexual assault occurs between the years of 1994 and 2006, while Sandusky is employed by Pennsylvania State University, working with the Second Mile foundation, and retired. On May 3rd, 1998 Jerry Sandusky is reported to the University Police by a mother of a victim (victim 6 in the police report) for showering with her son in the football locker room. From May 4th 1998 forward, Penn State athletic director Tim Curley, Penn State Vice President for finance and business Gary Schultz, Penn State President Graham Spanier,

However, I would have to agree with the first half and say that Joe Paterno’s actions were inadequate. Although Joe Paterno reported what he saw to the Penn State president his responsibility shouldn’t have ended there. Yes, he fulfilled his obligation to report any illegal actions on campus but when the Penn State President chose not to take legal action Paterno should have made the moral decision and had gone to the authorities. Legally, he fulfilled his obligation and therefore no longer holds any responsibility in the eyes of the legal system. In the eyes of morality though, his responsibility in the matter was not over just because he reported it to who he was supposed to. This major problem should have been dealt with a long time ago. It’s just a moral obligation that Joe Paterno should have acted upon. So yes I feel he deserved to be fired. Everyone who knew about it should have reported it to legal authorities. His great athletic achievements and mutual respect should have pushed towards the issue being resolved and not swept under the rug for it to come out years after and now resulting in him being fired. Every action has a reaction and in this case the reaction is due to Paternos lack of action.

Male student athletes make up 3.3% of the population but are responsible for 19% of sexual assaults and 35% of domestic violence.  One in three college sexual assaults are committed by an athlete or athletes.  From 1995 to 1998 there were an average of one hundred sexual assault charges against athletes a year.  In 1995, 8.5% of the general population charged with a crime were sexual assault, 36.8% of crimes involving athletes were sexual assault.  The general population conviction rate is 80%, athlete conviction rate is 38%.(NCAVA)  Since not all rapes are reported we can assume that these numbers are much higher.  Most athlete rapes are acquaintance rapes.  Many of the women blame themselves and do not report the crime.  These are very scary statistics.  Proving that there is a problem and steps need to be taken to change these statistics.

Political corruption has existed throughout the ages. It believed to be most prominent in positions of power, because of the role money plays in getting people power. However, over the centuries, corruption has changed so much so as to not match a particular definition of corruption, perpetually growing deceptively harder to find (Ebbe).