Twisted: PSU Officials Thought Not Reporting Sandusky Was The "Humane" Thing To Do

Graham Spanier

It’s sort of hard to believe that folks could have behaved even more poorly in the events surrounding the coverup of former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky’s alleged sexual abuse and assault of children he met through his Second Mile charity. But as his trial is underway, it appears my beliefs have been confounded: Pennsylvania’s attorney general is now suggesting that former Penn State vice president Gary Schultz kept a file on Sandusky, and that in emails between him and former Penn State president Graham Spanier suggest that university officials thought it would be more “humane” not to report Sandusky than to report him. The full report from a local CBS station is here:



There’s a debate to be had about whether it makes sense for universities to build enormous sports edifices in their midst and to become reliant on the revenue they provide. But if they’re going to make that decision, I think we can all agree that for those institutions to survive, university administrators need to distinguish between athletic programs and the people who run them. And while I want to see the full text of the emails, the idea that not reporting Sandusky would have been the “humane” thing seems grotesque in a way that would be almost impossible to justify even in context, and reflects a profound failure of judgement.  



There’s a debate to be had about whether it makes sense for universities to build enormous sports edifices in their midst and to become reliant on the revenue they provide. But if they’re going to make that decision, I think we can all agree that for those institutions to survive, university administrators need to distinguish between athletic programs and the people who run them. And while I want to see the full text of the emails, the idea that not reporting Sandusky would have been the “humane” thing seems grotesque in a way that would be almost impossible to justify even in context, and reflects a profound failure of judgement.  READ MORE