For those who don't know, earlier this month Victim 1 in the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal revealed his identity. He's Aaron Fisher, whose 2008 revelation that Sandusky had been molesting him started the chain of events that eventually landed Sandusky in prison for what amounts to a life sentence. On Tuesday, Aaron's book about his ordeal, Silent No More, was officially published. I was one of the first to snap up a copy for my Nook, and just finished reading it yesterday. You can buy it at Barnes and Noble, Amazon and Google.
Needless to say, this book makes for horrifying reading. Aaron, along with his mother Dawn Daniels and the psychologist who's been working with him for the past four-plus years, Mike Gillum, reveals how what seemed to be an innocent meeting at a Second Mile summer camp turned into more than three years of sexual abuse. Most of it took place in Sandusky's basement, though on at least on instance Aaron says Sandusky took him to Maryland. Aaron also implies that Dottie Sandusky (or "Sarge," as she was called) had at least some idea of what her husband was doing; Aaron notes that Dottie never ventured into the basement.
By the time Aaron was a freshman at Central Mountain High School, he wanted to get away from Sandusky, but Sandusky didn't get the hint. He started showing up at the school and convinced principal Karen Probst and vice principal/football coach Steve Turchetta to pull Aaron out of class. Neither Probst nor Turchetta made any inquiries or told Daniels about it. The first Daniels learned about it was when Aaron told her. The next day, Daniels called and told Probst in no uncertain terms that Sandusky was not to pull him out of class again. The guidance counselor pulled her into her office--and that's when Aaron revealed Sandusky had been molesting him. When Daniels found out about it, she demanded that they call the police. But they didn't--instead, they suggested that they needed to go home and think about any possible repercussions. They didn't even offer to drive them to CYS even though it was obvious how distraught they were. As we know from Aaron's interview with 20/20, Turchetta thought something was fishy about Sandusky's relationship with Aaron, but made no further inquiries and continued to allow Sandusky to pull him and other kids out of class.
It turns out that Sandusky's relationship with the Keystone Central School District goes back further than Aaron's high school days. While Aaron was in middle school, Sandusky served as a volunteer coach with the football team. When Sandusky volunteered with Central Mountain's football team, the shock was enough for Aaron to give up football altogether. But it also makes you wonder--were other boys at that school being molested as well?
Gillum describes Aaron's ordeal as the worst case of child sexual abuse he's ever seen in 25 years as a psychologist. To his mind, it was made even worse by the way then-Attorney General Tom Corbett handled it. To Gillum's mind, there was enough evidence to arrest Sandusky as early as 2009. He and Aaron were told at least twice that an arrest was imminent--and yet, nothing happened. Gillum was particularly outraged when he found out about Corbett's past ties to the Second Mile, and that it seemed Corbett was putting concerns about losing the votes of Penn Staters in his campaign for governor ahead of the safety of children. It really took a toll on Aaron--to the point that in October 2010, he slammed his car into a tree. Later, he said that he gave some serious thought to committing suicide as things dragged along.
Believe it or not, though, Corbett's mishandling of the case doesn't outrage me nearly as much as the school officials' behavior in this. You mean to tell me that the vice principal--and likely the principal as well--thought something was fishy about Sandusky, and yet did nothing? And you mean to tell me that they continued to allow him to take other kids out of class despite these suspicions? As much as I defend the public schools, there isn't a snowball's chance in hell I'd let my kid go to school in the Keystone Central School District as long as Probst is the principal of Central Mountain. You're talking about someone who failed to ensure that the most basic steps were taken to protect children. But it's not enough to demand that she and Turchetta be fired, and possibly brought up on charges. We need to find out who else knew about what Sandusky was doing and how far it went. Sign this petition calling for an investigation into how Central Mountain handled this. Inevitably, such an investigation will go further than the high school level.