Penn State and Sandusky: The Plan That Changed in Two Days

In February 2001, three Penn State administrators drafted a plan that included a report to the state. About two days later the plan became a conversation with Jerry Sandusky himself.

1998: The First Report

In May 1998, a mother reported a concern about Sandusky’s conduct with her son to University Police. Schultz, Spanier and Curley were informed. The district attorney declined to bring charges in June, and the police closed the matter. That is the first documented point at which the institution had notice and the process ended in a decision to do nothing further.

2001: The Plan

On February 10, 2001, assistant coach Mike McQueary reported what he had seen to Paterno. Paterno reported to Curley and Schultz the next day. On February 12, Spanier, Schultz and Curley met to discuss it.

By February 25 and 26, the working plan was in three parts. Notify the board chair of The Second Mile, the charity Sandusky founded. Report to the state welfare department. Tell Sandusky to stop bringing children onto campus alone. By February 27 and 28, Curley proposed something softer: tell Sandusky there was a problem and offer professional help. Spanier and Schultz approved. The welfare department was not notified. Curley met with Sandusky on March 5.

2011 and 2012: The Arrest and the Report

Charges were filed against Sandusky, Schultz and Curley on November 4, 2011. Sandusky was arrested the next day. On November 9, the board removed Spanier as president and Paterno as head coach. Sandusky was convicted on 45 counts on June 22, 2012, and sentenced that October to 30 to 60 years.

The university’s trustees had hired former FBI director Louis Freeh to investigate. His report arrived on July 12, 2012. It described a “total and consistent disregard for the safety and welfare of Sandusky’s child victims” by the four most powerful officials at the university. Eleven days later, the NCAA announced a consent decree: a $60 million fine, a four-year postseason ban, scholarship reductions, and the vacated wins. The NCAA acted on the Freeh findings rather than running its own enforcement investigation.

The Reversal

The Freeh report did not go unchallenged. In February 2013, a review commissioned by the Paterno family and led by former U.S. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh criticized its methods and conclusions. The NCAA eased the sanctions in 2013 and 2014, and in January 2015 it restored the vacated wins as part of a settlement of a lawsuit brought by Pennsylvania officials. Penn State’s own president, Eric Barron, publicly said he was not a fan of the report.

Why This Case Matters

This case failed twice. The first failure was internal: an escalation path existed, was written down, and was abandoned by the same people who wrote it. The second was external. The governing body responded to the scandal with a penalty package built on one report it did not commission, and then spent three years unwinding it. Neither failure required a villain beyond the decisions on the page. Both required an institution that treated its own reputation as the thing to protect.

More than $100 million has gone to survivors in settlements with the university. The people responsible for the 2001 decision were convicted of misdemeanors. The penalty that made headlines for the football program did not last.