Penn State Sex Abuse Scandal

With Anthony Brooks in for Tom Ashbrook.

The fallout and fury over the Penn State scandal. We’ll have the latest.

Joe Paterno, college football’s winningest coach is out. So is the long-serving Penn State President Graham Spanier. And on the normally placid Penn State campus last night — students rioted. The shake-up follows shocking allegations that a Penn State assistant football coach was a serial pedophile, and that university officials failed to stop him or report him.

So, what is about large institutions – in this case a prized and privileged college football program — that seem unable to do the right thing when it comes to confronting allegations of child sex abuse?

This hour On Point: the Penn State child abuse scandal.
-Anthony Brooks

George Vecsey, sports reporter for the New York Times. His latest story on the scandal is here.

David Williams, Vice Chancellor for University Affairs and Athletics at Vanderbilt University , where he is also a professor at the law school.

Kenneth Lanning, a former FBI Special Agent and now private consultant who has specialized in the study of the sexual victimization of children for over thirty years.

Amy Worden, reporter with the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Paterno's statement on his dismissal is here.

Philly.com "It's apparent pressure is growing on Penn State to end Graham Spanier's tenure as president in wake of the sex abuse scandal engulfing the university."

The Daily Collegian "Paterno has been scrutinized for his role in last weekend’s reports regarding allegations against former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky. Sandusky is charged with 40 criminal counts, in connection with the sexual assaults of eight young boys between 1994 and 2009."

ESPN "No, this isn't about 84-year-old Joe Paterno not taking more steps that might have stopped it. It's about everybody not taking more steps that might have stopped it. Not parents, not teachers, not uncles, not friends, not counselors."