Ohio State, although while Wanny was at Pitt it was a close 2nd. I was a fan of Wanny and his D from his days with the canes.
Fins should never have let him go, and the same with Pitt.
With this PSU shit storm, if Wanny was a pitt with his PA connections, they could get some of the top recruiting classes they have ever had.
Fins should never have let him go, and the same with Pitt.
With this PSU shit storm, if Wanny was a pitt with his PA connections, they could get some of the top recruiting classes they have ever had.
Here, a timeline of the course of the explosive sex scandal and its apparent cover-up by members of the Penn State faculty.
1977 -- Jerry Sandusky founds The Second Mile, a state-wide non-profit foundation established to help at-risk youth. The organization's web site describes it as a place to "promote self-confidence as well as physical, academic, and personal success."
1994-1997 -- Sandusky allegedly uses The Second Mile grounds to engage in "inappropriate conduct" with three different boys he met separately through the program. One boy was 7 or 8, the second was 10, and the third was between 12 and 13. According to the grand jury report, the three boys, now grown, say Sandusky's behavior ranged from touching to overt sexual come-ons and sexual assault. Several incidents reportedly took place during home games for Penn State football, when the team, staff and the boys were all staying at a nearby hotel.
1998 -- First police involvement. Penn State police and the Penn. Department of Public Warfare are contacted by the mother of an 11-year-old boy, who says Sandusky showered with her son and may have had inappropriate contact with him.
June 1, 1998 -- In an interview with investigators, Sandusky admits showering naked with the pre-teen. He admits that it was wrong, and promises not to do it again. No charges are filed, and the university police chief instructs that the case be closed.
1999 -- Sandusky retires from Penn State after coaching for 32 years. he remains a volunteer, and retains full access to the campus, football facilities, and The Second Mile camp grounds.
2000 -- Sandusky showers with a young boy and tries to touch his genitals during overnight stays at the coach's house, according to the now 24-year-old man's testimony to the grand jury.
2000 -- First eyewitness report. Tim Calhoun, a janitor at the Lasch Football Building on Penn State's campus, tells another janitor and his supervisor that he saw Sandusky performing oral sex on a young boy. The incident goes unreported.
2000 -- Second eyewitness report. Another janitor sees Sandusky and a boy leave the shower room together and walk out of the building hand in hand, according to the grand jury report. No one reports the incident to university officials or law enforcement.
March 2, 2002 -- A graduate assistant allegedly tells Coach Joe Paterno that he saw Sandusky in the locker room shower on Mar. 1 with a young boy. The retired defense coordinator was engaging in anal sex with the boy, believed to be no more than 10 years old.
March 3, 2002 -- Paterno reports the incident to Athletic Director Tim Curley. Paterno tells Curley the grad student had seen Sandusky "fondling or doing something of a sexual nature to a young boy." The graduate assistant is called to a meeting with Curley and Schultz.
March 3, 2002 -- The assistant, according to the grand jury report, sticks by his story, saying he saw Sandusky having anal sex with the young boy. Schultz, 62, and Curley, 57, told the grand jury they could not remember the details of the meeting. Schultz said Sandusky "might have inappropriately grabbed the young boy's genitals during wrestling," and Curley said he was under the impression, like Schultz, that the affair involved little more than "horsing around."
March, 2002 -- Sandusky's locker room keys are confiscated, and he is told not to bring his Second Mile participants to campus. The incident is not reported to police, and no official investigation is launched.
March, 2002 -- The Second Mile learns of the shower incident through Penn State. Curley tells them that "the information had been internally reviewed, and that there was no finding of wrongdoing."
2005 or 2006 -- Sandusky allegedly befriends and molests another Second-Mile participant. These allegation will form the foundation of the multi-year grand jury investigation about to launch.
2006 or 2007 --Fourth known eyewitness report. A wrestling coach at a high school where Sandusky volunteers surprises the former coach and a young boy. The two are allegedly "lying on their sides, in physical contact, face to face on a mat." Sandusky jumps to feet, telling the coach the two were practicing wrestling moves, which seemed believable. Later, according to the wrestling coach's testimony, Sandusky begins to spend more time with the boy, taking him to sporting events and giving him gifts like a computer, golf clubs, clothing and cash. Sandusky allegedly performs oral sex on the boy over 20 times, and boy performs oral sex on Sandusky at least once, according to grand jury reports.
2008 -- The boy breaks off contact with Sandusky, and his mother calls the high school to report her son has been sexually assaulted. The principal, Steven Turchetta, bars Sandusky from campus and reports the incident to police, calling Sandusky "clingy" and "needy" around the boy. The resulting investigation into the sex abuse claims reveals 118 calls from Sandusky's home phone and cell phone to the boy's home number.
November 2008 -- Sandusky informs The Second Mile that he is under investigation. He is removed from all program activities involving children.
September 2010 -- Sandusky retires from The Second Mile.
Nov. 4, 2011 -- The grand jury report is released.
Nov. 5, 2011 -- Authorities arrest Sandusky. He is charged with seven counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and numerous other charges, including aggravated indecent assault, corruption of minors and endangering the welfare of a child. He is charged with 40 counts in all, 21 of them felonies. Punishment for each of the felonies ranges from seven to 20 years in prison and $15,000-$25,000 in fines. For the 19 misdemeanors, convictions earn two to five years' imprisonment and $5,000-$10,000 in fines.
Nov. 5, 2011 -- Sandusky is freed on $100,000 unsecured bail. Curley and Schultz are each charged with one count of felony perjury for lying to grand jury investigators, and one count of failure to report abuse allegations. They plead not guilty.
Nov. 6, 2011 -- Curley is granted administrative leave to deal with the charges, while Schultz retires.
Nov. 6, 2011 -- Paterno releases a statement calling the charges shocking. "If this is true, we were all fooled, along with scores of professionals trained in such things, and we grieve for the victims and their families." Paterno is questioned about the allegations, since 20 of the charges agaisnt Sandusky to date occured while he was Paterno's defense coordinator at Penn State.
Nov. 7, 2011 -- More begin to step forward. "There were whispers about it," Alex Ricker, a former Penn State student who has worked several Second Mile camps, told USA Today. "But when it came out, I don't think anybody expected that big of a hit or that serious of an indictment, as well as that many charges."
Nov. 7, 2011 -- Pennsylvania attorney general Linda Kelly says Paterno is not a target of the sexual abuse investigation involving his former assistant coach, despite noting his responsibility to report the incidents to law enforcement.
Nov. 7, 2011 -- "I understand that people are upset and angry, but let's be fair and let the legal process unfold," Paterno says in a statement. "In the meantime, I would ask all Penn Staters to continue to trust in what that name represents, continue to pursue their lives every day with high ideals and not let these events shake their beliefs nor who they are."
1977 -- Jerry Sandusky founds The Second Mile, a state-wide non-profit foundation established to help at-risk youth. The organization's web site describes it as a place to "promote self-confidence as well as physical, academic, and personal success."
1994-1997 -- Sandusky allegedly uses The Second Mile grounds to engage in "inappropriate conduct" with three different boys he met separately through the program. One boy was 7 or 8, the second was 10, and the third was between 12 and 13. According to the grand jury report, the three boys, now grown, say Sandusky's behavior ranged from touching to overt sexual come-ons and sexual assault. Several incidents reportedly took place during home games for Penn State football, when the team, staff and the boys were all staying at a nearby hotel.
1998 -- First police involvement. Penn State police and the Penn. Department of Public Warfare are contacted by the mother of an 11-year-old boy, who says Sandusky showered with her son and may have had inappropriate contact with him.
June 1, 1998 -- In an interview with investigators, Sandusky admits showering naked with the pre-teen. He admits that it was wrong, and promises not to do it again. No charges are filed, and the university police chief instructs that the case be closed.
1999 -- Sandusky retires from Penn State after coaching for 32 years. he remains a volunteer, and retains full access to the campus, football facilities, and The Second Mile camp grounds.
2000 -- Sandusky showers with a young boy and tries to touch his genitals during overnight stays at the coach's house, according to the now 24-year-old man's testimony to the grand jury.
2000 -- First eyewitness report. Tim Calhoun, a janitor at the Lasch Football Building on Penn State's campus, tells another janitor and his supervisor that he saw Sandusky performing oral sex on a young boy. The incident goes unreported.
2000 -- Second eyewitness report. Another janitor sees Sandusky and a boy leave the shower room together and walk out of the building hand in hand, according to the grand jury report. No one reports the incident to university officials or law enforcement.
March 2, 2002 -- A graduate assistant allegedly tells Coach Joe Paterno that he saw Sandusky in the locker room shower on Mar. 1 with a young boy. The retired defense coordinator was engaging in anal sex with the boy, believed to be no more than 10 years old.
March 3, 2002 -- Paterno reports the incident to Athletic Director Tim Curley. Paterno tells Curley the grad student had seen Sandusky "fondling or doing something of a sexual nature to a young boy." The graduate assistant is called to a meeting with Curley and Schultz.
March 3, 2002 -- The assistant, according to the grand jury report, sticks by his story, saying he saw Sandusky having anal sex with the young boy. Schultz, 62, and Curley, 57, told the grand jury they could not remember the details of the meeting. Schultz said Sandusky "might have inappropriately grabbed the young boy's genitals during wrestling," and Curley said he was under the impression, like Schultz, that the affair involved little more than "horsing around."
March, 2002 -- Sandusky's locker room keys are confiscated, and he is told not to bring his Second Mile participants to campus. The incident is not reported to police, and no official investigation is launched.
March, 2002 -- The Second Mile learns of the shower incident through Penn State. Curley tells them that "the information had been internally reviewed, and that there was no finding of wrongdoing."
2005 or 2006 -- Sandusky allegedly befriends and molests another Second-Mile participant. These allegation will form the foundation of the multi-year grand jury investigation about to launch.
2006 or 2007 --Fourth known eyewitness report. A wrestling coach at a high school where Sandusky volunteers surprises the former coach and a young boy. The two are allegedly "lying on their sides, in physical contact, face to face on a mat." Sandusky jumps to feet, telling the coach the two were practicing wrestling moves, which seemed believable. Later, according to the wrestling coach's testimony, Sandusky begins to spend more time with the boy, taking him to sporting events and giving him gifts like a computer, golf clubs, clothing and cash. Sandusky allegedly performs oral sex on the boy over 20 times, and boy performs oral sex on Sandusky at least once, according to grand jury reports.
2008 -- The boy breaks off contact with Sandusky, and his mother calls the high school to report her son has been sexually assaulted. The principal, Steven Turchetta, bars Sandusky from campus and reports the incident to police, calling Sandusky "clingy" and "needy" around the boy. The resulting investigation into the sex abuse claims reveals 118 calls from Sandusky's home phone and cell phone to the boy's home number.
November 2008 -- Sandusky informs The Second Mile that he is under investigation. He is removed from all program activities involving children.
September 2010 -- Sandusky retires from The Second Mile.
Nov. 4, 2011 -- The grand jury report is released.
Nov. 5, 2011 -- Authorities arrest Sandusky. He is charged with seven counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and numerous other charges, including aggravated indecent assault, corruption of minors and endangering the welfare of a child. He is charged with 40 counts in all, 21 of them felonies. Punishment for each of the felonies ranges from seven to 20 years in prison and $15,000-$25,000 in fines. For the 19 misdemeanors, convictions earn two to five years' imprisonment and $5,000-$10,000 in fines.
Nov. 5, 2011 -- Sandusky is freed on $100,000 unsecured bail. Curley and Schultz are each charged with one count of felony perjury for lying to grand jury investigators, and one count of failure to report abuse allegations. They plead not guilty.
Nov. 6, 2011 -- Curley is granted administrative leave to deal with the charges, while Schultz retires.
Nov. 6, 2011 -- Paterno releases a statement calling the charges shocking. "If this is true, we were all fooled, along with scores of professionals trained in such things, and we grieve for the victims and their families." Paterno is questioned about the allegations, since 20 of the charges agaisnt Sandusky to date occured while he was Paterno's defense coordinator at Penn State.
Nov. 7, 2011 -- More begin to step forward. "There were whispers about it," Alex Ricker, a former Penn State student who has worked several Second Mile camps, told USA Today. "But when it came out, I don't think anybody expected that big of a hit or that serious of an indictment, as well as that many charges."
Nov. 7, 2011 -- Pennsylvania attorney general Linda Kelly says Paterno is not a target of the sexual abuse investigation involving his former assistant coach, despite noting his responsibility to report the incidents to law enforcement.
Nov. 7, 2011 -- "I understand that people are upset and angry, but let's be fair and let the legal process unfold," Paterno says in a statement. "In the meantime, I would ask all Penn Staters to continue to trust in what that name represents, continue to pursue their lives every day with high ideals and not let these events shake their beliefs nor who they are."
Pretty amazing that the same media that wants to crucify Paterno for not doing enough, did nothing on the reporting side of any of this stuff until now.
Yup.
And why if the parents of these children saw PSU and the court system was doing nothing didn't the mothers and fathers scream at the top of their lungs to cnn, cbs,nbc,abc,espn,fox anyone who would listen.
And what about social services. They are informed of this and continue to allow them to be foster parents?
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/national_world&id=8435358
U.S. & World News
Lawyer: Client ready to testify against Sandusky
Updated at 08:35 AM today. 11/17/2011
**By MARK SCOLFORO, MARYCLAIRE DALE and GENARO C. ARMAS
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- A lawyer said Wednesday that his client will testify that he was sexually abused by former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, and Pennsylvania state lawmakers are starting to plan for a special commission that will examine the legal issues raised by the child sex-abuse scandal.
Harrisburg attorney Ben Andreozzi said he represents a client who will testify against Sandusky, who is accused of abusing eight boys, some on campus, over 15 years.
"I am appalled by the fact that Mr. Sandusky has elected to re-victimize these young men at a time when they should be healing," Andreozzi said, in a statement released by his office.
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ABCNEWS: Visit ABCNews.com
MORE: Eyewitness News on Twitter
"He fully intends to testify that he was severely sexually assaulted by Mr. Sandusky."
Sandusky's lawyer, Joe Amendola, appeared with him on NBC's "Rock Center" on Monday night and cast doubt on the evidence in the case.
"We anticipate we're going to have at least several of those kids come forward and say, `This never happened. This is me. This is the allegation. It never occurred,"' Amendola said.
Andreozzi said he has his "finger on the pulse" of the case and knows of no accusers changing their stories or refusing to testify.
"To the contrary, others are actually coming forward, and I will have more information for you later this week," Andreozzi said.
Sandusky, 67, appeared on the show by phone and said he had showered with boys but never molested them.
Meanwhile, Pennsylvania legislative leaders said they will set up a bipartisan, bicameral commission to consider changes to state law in the wake of the scandal. The plan was described as being in the planning stage, including meetings of leaders and their aides.
Topics are likely to include mandatory reporting of suspected abuse, and the legal definition of child abuse, said Senate Democratic spokeswoman Lisa Scullin.
Also Wednesday, Penn State campus police and their counterparts in State College said they had no record of Mike McQueary reporting an alleged sexual assault by Jerry Sandusky on a 10-year-old boy in a campus shower.
The details ran counter to McQueary's claims in an email to former teammates and made available to The Associated Press this week.
McQueary, then a graduate assistant for the football team, wrote in the email that he had discussions with police about what he saw.
In the email, McQueary did not specify which police department he spoke to.
State College borough police Chief Tom King said McQueary didn't make a report to his department.
Campus police referred questions on the Sandusky case to the university's public information office.
"At this point we have no record of any police report being filed in 2002" by McQueary in connection with the Sandusky case, university spokeswoman Annemarie Mountz said, adding police searched their records Wednesday.
The football building is on university property, so campus police would have been the most likely to respond for a police call.
Mountz also noted the 23-page grand jury report was the state attorney general's summary of testimony, so it's unclear what McQueary's full testimony was.
The news came after a new judge was assigned to handle the child sex abuse charges against Sandusky, whose televised defense earlier this week drew a rebuke from a lawyer for one of his accusers.
The change removed a State College judge with ties to a charity founded by Sandusky for at-risk children, The Second Mile.
Sandusky is due in court on Dec. 7, and the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts announced that a Westmoreland County senior district judge would preside over his preliminary hearing.
Robert E. Scott is taking over the hearing from Centre County District Judge Leslie Dutchcot.
Dutchcot has donated money to The Second Mile, where authorities say Sandusky met his victims.
The office said Scott has no known ties to Penn State or The Second Mile.
It remains unclear how many accusers have surfaced more than a week after state police and the attorney general's office said at a news conference they were seeking additional potential victims and witnesses.
State police spokeswoman Maria Finn said investigators have told her that published accounts reporting how many people have come forward are inaccurate and they are not disclosing their internal figures.
Some plaintiffs' lawyers are starting to advertise on their websites for potential Sandusky victims, vowing to get justice.
Jeff Anderson, a St. Paul, Minn., attorney, has long represented clergy abuse victims and told The Associated Press that he has been retained by several people he described as Sandusky victims.
"There's a great deal of fury and confusion," particularly because Sandusky is free on bail, Anderson said. "Getting (them) help and cooperating with law enforcement is our first priority."
The "time for reckoning," in the form of civil lawsuits, will come later, Anderson said.
Anderson declined to say whether his clients are among the eight boys who were labeled as victims in the grand jury report.
In State College, Penn State announced a physician and member of its board of trustees who played football and wrestled for the school would serve as acting athletic director. The school named Dr. David M. Joyner, an orthopedic surgeon who specializes in sports medicine and is a business consultant, as the interim replacement for Tim Curley.
Curley is on leave as athletic director as he defends himself against criminal charges that he failed to properly alert authorities when told of an allegation of a sexual assault by Sandusky against a child and that he lied to a grand jury. He maintains his innocence.
Joyner's position on the board, where he has been a trustee since 2000, is being suspended as he takes on the new duties.
Gov. Tom Corbett again defended the pace of the investigation, which he helped launch and oversaw while serving as attorney general until January.
"Could anybody guarantee he wasn't out there touching children? There are no such guarantees, unless he was sitting in jail," Corbett, a Republican, said in Philadelphia. "But we did what we thought was in the best interests of the investigation in getting a good case put together."
And new details were emerging about how the case ended up in the hands of the state attorney general's office.
Former Centre County District Attorney Michael Madeira said that his wife's brother was Sandusky's adopted son.
"I reviewed it, and I made the decision it needed to be investigated further," Madeira said. "But the apparent conflict of interest created an impediment for me to make those kinds of decisions."
---
Scolforo reported from Harrisburg. Dale and AP writer Kathy Matheson reported from Philadelphia.
(Copyright ©2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
U.S. & World News
Lawyer: Client ready to testify against Sandusky
Updated at 08:35 AM today. 11/17/2011
**By MARK SCOLFORO, MARYCLAIRE DALE and GENARO C. ARMAS
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- A lawyer said Wednesday that his client will testify that he was sexually abused by former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, and Pennsylvania state lawmakers are starting to plan for a special commission that will examine the legal issues raised by the child sex-abuse scandal.
Harrisburg attorney Ben Andreozzi said he represents a client who will testify against Sandusky, who is accused of abusing eight boys, some on campus, over 15 years.
"I am appalled by the fact that Mr. Sandusky has elected to re-victimize these young men at a time when they should be healing," Andreozzi said, in a statement released by his office.
Related Content
ABCNEWS: Visit ABCNews.com
MORE: Eyewitness News on Twitter
"He fully intends to testify that he was severely sexually assaulted by Mr. Sandusky."
Sandusky's lawyer, Joe Amendola, appeared with him on NBC's "Rock Center" on Monday night and cast doubt on the evidence in the case.
"We anticipate we're going to have at least several of those kids come forward and say, `This never happened. This is me. This is the allegation. It never occurred,"' Amendola said.
Andreozzi said he has his "finger on the pulse" of the case and knows of no accusers changing their stories or refusing to testify.
"To the contrary, others are actually coming forward, and I will have more information for you later this week," Andreozzi said.
Sandusky, 67, appeared on the show by phone and said he had showered with boys but never molested them.
Meanwhile, Pennsylvania legislative leaders said they will set up a bipartisan, bicameral commission to consider changes to state law in the wake of the scandal. The plan was described as being in the planning stage, including meetings of leaders and their aides.
Topics are likely to include mandatory reporting of suspected abuse, and the legal definition of child abuse, said Senate Democratic spokeswoman Lisa Scullin.
Also Wednesday, Penn State campus police and their counterparts in State College said they had no record of Mike McQueary reporting an alleged sexual assault by Jerry Sandusky on a 10-year-old boy in a campus shower.
The details ran counter to McQueary's claims in an email to former teammates and made available to The Associated Press this week.
McQueary, then a graduate assistant for the football team, wrote in the email that he had discussions with police about what he saw.
In the email, McQueary did not specify which police department he spoke to.
State College borough police Chief Tom King said McQueary didn't make a report to his department.
Campus police referred questions on the Sandusky case to the university's public information office.
"At this point we have no record of any police report being filed in 2002" by McQueary in connection with the Sandusky case, university spokeswoman Annemarie Mountz said, adding police searched their records Wednesday.
The football building is on university property, so campus police would have been the most likely to respond for a police call.
Mountz also noted the 23-page grand jury report was the state attorney general's summary of testimony, so it's unclear what McQueary's full testimony was.
The news came after a new judge was assigned to handle the child sex abuse charges against Sandusky, whose televised defense earlier this week drew a rebuke from a lawyer for one of his accusers.
The change removed a State College judge with ties to a charity founded by Sandusky for at-risk children, The Second Mile.
Sandusky is due in court on Dec. 7, and the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts announced that a Westmoreland County senior district judge would preside over his preliminary hearing.
Robert E. Scott is taking over the hearing from Centre County District Judge Leslie Dutchcot.
Dutchcot has donated money to The Second Mile, where authorities say Sandusky met his victims.
The office said Scott has no known ties to Penn State or The Second Mile.
It remains unclear how many accusers have surfaced more than a week after state police and the attorney general's office said at a news conference they were seeking additional potential victims and witnesses.
State police spokeswoman Maria Finn said investigators have told her that published accounts reporting how many people have come forward are inaccurate and they are not disclosing their internal figures.
Some plaintiffs' lawyers are starting to advertise on their websites for potential Sandusky victims, vowing to get justice.
Jeff Anderson, a St. Paul, Minn., attorney, has long represented clergy abuse victims and told The Associated Press that he has been retained by several people he described as Sandusky victims.
"There's a great deal of fury and confusion," particularly because Sandusky is free on bail, Anderson said. "Getting (them) help and cooperating with law enforcement is our first priority."
The "time for reckoning," in the form of civil lawsuits, will come later, Anderson said.
Anderson declined to say whether his clients are among the eight boys who were labeled as victims in the grand jury report.
In State College, Penn State announced a physician and member of its board of trustees who played football and wrestled for the school would serve as acting athletic director. The school named Dr. David M. Joyner, an orthopedic surgeon who specializes in sports medicine and is a business consultant, as the interim replacement for Tim Curley.
Curley is on leave as athletic director as he defends himself against criminal charges that he failed to properly alert authorities when told of an allegation of a sexual assault by Sandusky against a child and that he lied to a grand jury. He maintains his innocence.
Joyner's position on the board, where he has been a trustee since 2000, is being suspended as he takes on the new duties.
Gov. Tom Corbett again defended the pace of the investigation, which he helped launch and oversaw while serving as attorney general until January.
"Could anybody guarantee he wasn't out there touching children? There are no such guarantees, unless he was sitting in jail," Corbett, a Republican, said in Philadelphia. "But we did what we thought was in the best interests of the investigation in getting a good case put together."
And new details were emerging about how the case ended up in the hands of the state attorney general's office.
Former Centre County District Attorney Michael Madeira said that his wife's brother was Sandusky's adopted son.
"I reviewed it, and I made the decision it needed to be investigated further," Madeira said. "But the apparent conflict of interest created an impediment for me to make those kinds of decisions."
---
Scolforo reported from Harrisburg. Dale and AP writer Kathy Matheson reported from Philadelphia.
(Copyright ©2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
http://www.dallasnews.com/news/metr...ndal-speaks-to-children-parents-in-dallas.ece
Victim in Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal speaks to children, parents in Dallas
<tbody>
</tbody>
Brad Loper/Staff Photographer
Aaron Fisher, who became known as "victim 1" in the Jerry Sandusky child abuse case, talked with children, parents and social workers at the Dallas Children's Advocacy Center on Sunday.
By JULIE FANCHER
JULIE FANCHERThe Dallas Morning NewsStaff Writer
jfancher@dallasnews.com
Published: 11 August 2013 10:17 PM
Updated: 11 August 2013 10:17 PM
<!--set group's style class and style id to the wrapper of main contents-->Aaron Fisher is known to many people as Victim 1 in the Jerry Sandusky sexual abuse scandal. But the 19-year-old is focusing on being a survivor, not a victim.
“I was inappropriately touched,” Fisher told children and their parents Sunday at the Dallas Child Advocacy Center. “And standing here now before you and telling you that is a lot easier than it was for me in the years past.”
Sandusky, 69, served as an assistant football coach at Pennsylvania State University for 30 years before his arrest in 2011. Police say he abused several young boys over a 15-year period, many of whom he met at his children’s charity. He was sentenced to 60 years in prison in 2012.
Fisher, the first victim to come forward publicly, was one of several who testified at Sandusky’s trial. He will be the keynote speaker at the 25th annual Crimes Against Children Conference, which begins Monday in Dallas.
Other speakers at the conference for law enforcement and child protection professionals will include emergency workers who responded to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings.
Fisher, his mother and his psychologist, who together wrote Silent No More: Victim 1’s Fight for Justice Against Jerry Sandusky, spoke Sunday at the Dallas Children’s Advocacy Center. “A lot of our education has been to professionals, but we need to include the community and talk to parents and kids,” said Lynn Davis, the advocacy center’s president and CEO.
He said Fisher’s story is a powerful example of how speaking up can help begin the healing process.
One in four girls and one in six boys is sexually abused before they turn 18, according to the advocacy center.
“Only one in 10 of those kids will speak up, so if we can have someone like Aaron come and encourage one more kid to speak up, it helps,” Davis said.
Fisher’s mother, Dawn Daniels Hennessy, spoke largely to the parents in the audience.She said she had seen warning signs of abuse from her son as he began acting out, but she wasn’t sure. She said she had a gut feeling and began asking herself, “What if?”
“If you ask yourself, ‘What if?’ you need to be a detective for your child,” Hennesy said.
She encouraged parents to trust their instincts and research everyone involved with their children.
“Sandusky was a mentor for children, he ran a children’s organization, but does that make it safe?” she asked. “No, he wasn’t safe. So we need to teach our kids who is safe and who isn’t safe.”
Fisher addressed much of his speech to the children in the audience.
He said that even though he had an extremely open relationship with his mother, he could not bring himself to share with her the details of his abuse.
“The best thing you can do to protect yourself is tell somebody,” Fisher said. “In order for child abuse to stop, you tell somebody that you trust.”
Using his own experience as a guide, he urged children to stand up for themselves.
“When he put his hand on my leg, it creeped me out, but I didn’t think too much about it,” Fisher said. “But for the kids here I want you to think about it.”
Victim in Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal speaks to children, parents in Dallas
|
|
<tbody>
</tbody>
Brad Loper/Staff Photographer
Aaron Fisher, who became known as "victim 1" in the Jerry Sandusky child abuse case, talked with children, parents and social workers at the Dallas Children's Advocacy Center on Sunday.
By JULIE FANCHER
JULIE FANCHERThe Dallas Morning NewsStaff Writer
jfancher@dallasnews.com
Published: 11 August 2013 10:17 PM
Updated: 11 August 2013 10:17 PM
<!--set group's style class and style id to the wrapper of main contents-->Aaron Fisher is known to many people as Victim 1 in the Jerry Sandusky sexual abuse scandal. But the 19-year-old is focusing on being a survivor, not a victim.
“I was inappropriately touched,” Fisher told children and their parents Sunday at the Dallas Child Advocacy Center. “And standing here now before you and telling you that is a lot easier than it was for me in the years past.”
Sandusky, 69, served as an assistant football coach at Pennsylvania State University for 30 years before his arrest in 2011. Police say he abused several young boys over a 15-year period, many of whom he met at his children’s charity. He was sentenced to 60 years in prison in 2012.
Fisher, the first victim to come forward publicly, was one of several who testified at Sandusky’s trial. He will be the keynote speaker at the 25th annual Crimes Against Children Conference, which begins Monday in Dallas.
Other speakers at the conference for law enforcement and child protection professionals will include emergency workers who responded to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings.
Fisher, his mother and his psychologist, who together wrote Silent No More: Victim 1’s Fight for Justice Against Jerry Sandusky, spoke Sunday at the Dallas Children’s Advocacy Center. “A lot of our education has been to professionals, but we need to include the community and talk to parents and kids,” said Lynn Davis, the advocacy center’s president and CEO.
He said Fisher’s story is a powerful example of how speaking up can help begin the healing process.
One in four girls and one in six boys is sexually abused before they turn 18, according to the advocacy center.
“Only one in 10 of those kids will speak up, so if we can have someone like Aaron come and encourage one more kid to speak up, it helps,” Davis said.
Fisher’s mother, Dawn Daniels Hennessy, spoke largely to the parents in the audience.She said she had seen warning signs of abuse from her son as he began acting out, but she wasn’t sure. She said she had a gut feeling and began asking herself, “What if?”
“If you ask yourself, ‘What if?’ you need to be a detective for your child,” Hennesy said.
She encouraged parents to trust their instincts and research everyone involved with their children.
“Sandusky was a mentor for children, he ran a children’s organization, but does that make it safe?” she asked. “No, he wasn’t safe. So we need to teach our kids who is safe and who isn’t safe.”
Fisher addressed much of his speech to the children in the audience.
He said that even though he had an extremely open relationship with his mother, he could not bring himself to share with her the details of his abuse.
“The best thing you can do to protect yourself is tell somebody,” Fisher said. “In order for child abuse to stop, you tell somebody that you trust.”
Using his own experience as a guide, he urged children to stand up for themselves.
“When he put his hand on my leg, it creeped me out, but I didn’t think too much about it,” Fisher said. “But for the kids here I want you to think about it.”
