Why people were slow to respond to Sandusky stuff

Patriot-News

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

To the Editor:

It seems to me that many in the spotlight are wringing their hands way too dramatically  over the failure of authorities at Penn State to call in the police sooner.  I think that failure  reflects some important truth about allegations of sex with minors.  First, reasonable people fear that calling in the police will make matters worse for the child involved.  Two, reasonable people fear becoming “The boy who cried ‘Wolf.’  Everyone knows a powerful person like a Sandusky will get an even more powerful attorney and challenge the accuser or accusers.

In short, calling in the police over a suspicion, or with a vulnerable witness, or with a second hand witness, is like burning down the house to roast the pig.  

The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s public statements about morality rather than law particularly turned me off.  Why hadn’t this Attorney General spoken to the legislature about that problem in the law sooner?  Something tells me he’s looking to make a scapegoat out of the graduate student who first blew the whistle on Sandusky.  Yuk!

And finally, I was disgusted by the thought of a stadium full of sports fans memorializing these "victims".  For starters, Sandusky has not been convicted yet.  Second, these “victims” are all very much alive and likely to live for years.  That is, if this memorial service itself doesn’t drive them to suicide.

As long as reporting sex with minors to the police is destined to blow up like an A-bomb, reasonable people will look for other options.  I don’t blame them.

Tim Campbell
Houston TX