SPT 510 Analysis: Organizational Response to Jerry Sandusky Scandal

This report analyzes Penn State's organizational response to the Jerry Sandusky child abuse scandal, which began in 2011. It examines the societal pressures, legal ramifications, and policy impacts that shaped the university's reaction. The report discusses the civil lawsuits, investigations, and fines levied against Penn State, including violations of the Clery Act. It also provides recommendations for managing future incidents, such as establishing a victim compensation program, developing a national surveillance system for child abuse, and strengthening legislation related to child abuse prevention and treatment. This analysis highlights the challenges sport organizations face when dealing with high-profile scandals and the importance of effective crisis management strategies.

Running head: JERRY SANDUSKY 2011 CHILD SEX ABUSE
Jerry Sandusky 2011 Child Sex Abuse
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author Note

1JERRY SANDUSKY 2011 CHILD SEX ABUSE
Introduction:
The child abuse scandal of Penn State stared with Jerry Sandusky, who was the football
assistant coach for Penn State Nittany Lions team. He was accused for the over a period of 15 years.
This broke in 2011 while he was been indicted of 52 children molestation (Weatherred, 2017).
In the following study the organizational response dealing with societal pressure is discussed.
This also includes responses and law and politics involved with it. Lastly, recommendations are
included in the study to understand the case effectively.
Organizational response:
Societal pressure:
Within the law of time at Pennsylvania, a state employee who learnt about the suspected
incident reported the incident to the supervisor named Paterno. He, in turn, also reported that to Gary
Schultz for whom the police department was reported directly. Further, the “The New York Times”
also reported that the Penn State was found to be planning the existence of Paterno near the season
of college football. The trustee named Kenneth Frazier, on November 21, 2011, revealed that the
former director of FBI Louis Freeh has been leading to internal search into various activities of the
university (Flannery, Stephens & Thompson, 2016). Apart from this some of the students of Penn
States has engaged on Spoanier’s rile in the incident. This argument regarding support for Schultz
and Curley created Facebook page name “Fire Graham Spanier”. This is to call on the Board of
Trustees of Penn State for firing Spanier. Besides, the online petition at the change.org has been
calling for the ouster of Spanier garnered over 1,500 signatures in just four days (Downes, 2017).

2JERRY SANDUSKY 2011 CHILD SEX ABUSE
Response:
As the scandal broke, the commentators have noted that different civil lawsuits against Penn
State and Jerry Sandusky have been inevitable. Fisher and his parent, on November 28, 2011, has
hired attorneys for pursuing civil claims.
The Association Insurance of Pennsylvania Manufacturer, on February 2012 along with
liability insurer of Penn State has demanded the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas. This is to
restrict the exposure from the various lawsuit filed by the victim (Wurtele, 2018).
Laws and politics:
During November 2016, the U.S Department of Education stated that they have been seeking
the fine. The violations have included failing to alert the public regarding the conduct of Sandusky
and various other dangers of campus. Further, the officials have revealed that they would appeal to
the fine. For example, the Clery Act violations have been related to the matter of Sandusky.
Here, the proposed fine has been 27,500 dollars. Then there has been a lack of administrative
ability due to the substantial amount of the failures in complying with the Communities Act, Drug-
Free schools and Clery Act. This has included the proposed fine of 27,500 dollars (Klein & Cooper,
2016). Moreover, omitted and insufficient yearly security report and fire security report policy
statements are included that consisted of the proposed penalty of 37,500 dollars. Then there has been
the failure for issuing the warnings as per the federal regulations. Then there is a failure to suitably
categorize the incidents reported and then disclose the statistics of crime from the 2008-11 including
the proposed fine of 2167,500 dollars (Reel & Crouch, 2018). Further, there has been a failure to
deploy the sufficient system to collect the statistics of crime from every needed source that
comprised of the proposed fine 27,500 dollars. Lastly, there has been the failure in maintaining
suitable and overall regular crime log.

3JERRY SANDUSKY 2011 CHILD SEX ABUSE
Recommendations:
There has been the necessity to plan to settle the legal claims. The reason behind this
program must be simple.
 The university must provide the forum where they can fairly, expeditiously and
privately address the concerns of victims and then compensate regarding claims.
These are related to the university.
 Further, a national surveillance system must be developed for child abuse and neglect
the links of data around various sources and systems.
 Besides, the senior-leaders should discuss and then assign the accountability to
deploy the strategic plan for advancing national level research agenda on the child
abuse and negligence.
 There must be development of proper strategic plan detailing the business plan,
strategy of implementation, departmental accountability for developing national
research agenda on negligence and child abuse
 Adequate support must be provided to new legislation related to negligence and child
abuse like “Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act”. This is to evaluate the effect
of new child abuse and neglect the policies and laws for reviewing the outcomes of
reauthorization demonstrations.
 Developing child maltreatment, violence and trauma study under risk prevention, and
heath behavior integrated reviewing group.

4JERRY SANDUSKY 2011 CHILD SEX ABUSE
References:
Downes, M., (2017). University scandal, reputation and governance. International Journal for
Educational Integrity, 13(1), p.8.
Flannery, D. D., Stephens, C. L., & Thompson, A. D. (2016). The impact of high-profile sexual
abuse cases in the media on a pediatric emergency department. Journal of child sexual abuse,
25(6), 627-635.
Klein, J. L., & Cooper, D. T. (2016). Trial by Error: A Content Analysis of the Media Coverage
Surrounding the Jerry Sandusky Trial.
Reel, J. J., & Crouch, E. (2018). # Metoo: Uncovering Sexual Harassment and Assault in Sport.
Weatherred, J. L. (2017). Framing Child Sexual Abuse: A Longitudinal Content Analysis of
Newspaper and Television Coverage, 2002–2012. Journal of child sexual abuse, 26(1), 3-22.
Wurtele, S. K. (2018). University students’ perceptions of child sexual offenders: Impact of
classroom instruction. Journal of child sexual abuse, 27(3), 276-291.