![]() ![]() Pillars of the community are given much more of a benefit of the doubt, but what has been demonstrated, unfortunately, is that nobody can be considered beyond reproach. The combination of ignorance of warning signs and willfully hidden information are necessary for these abuses to go on for decades. It takes a village to enable a sexual predator to continue unfettered for so long. ![]() ![]() Generally speaking, how does something like this happen? In some ways, we are fortunate that technology has created more of a trail in these cases. Prior to the ubiquity of email, an institution would have just solved much of this problem with payoff for an accuser and a shredder for the incriminating documentation. If an institution can avoid, delay and intimidate long enough, they can make Penn State Schultz' 1998 e-mail wish "I hope it is all behind us" a legal reality. Often, a loophole in the law - such as widely varying state-by-state statutes of limitations-can provide another shield. Without the national spotlight, most of these institutions have been able to avoid the scrutiny of such an investigation. We will never be privy to these discussions. In most other cases, there will never be a report. What differences do you see between Penn State and the cases you've covered? It would shock me if the same tactics have not been put into play with Penn State over the decades of Jerry Sandusky's involvement with the program, which began in the late 1960's. In other cases, there have been payments handed out, "hush money" to convince a parent pushing the issue to relent. In one elite prep school featured in the film, several students who came forward about abuse they suffered were quietly dismissed. In many cases-particularly at schools whose pristine reputation is paramount-rather than making a successful coach go away, they have made an accuser or the accusations go away. Over and over, you see the drive to keep it quiet, to put it "behind us" with the fewest possible people being aware of it. Time after time, the evidence has shown the most powerful and influential decision-makers circling the wagons and conspiring to decide, "How are we going to handle this?" You could white out every proper name in the Freeh report and apply it to institutions all over this country that have failed in their responsibility to protect children. What similarities do you see between the Penn State depicted in the Freeh Report and the cases of child sex abuse by sports coaches documented in your film? To understand how Penn State fits into the larger context of sexual abuse by coaches-as well as how the university's leaders could display what Freeh termed a " total disregard for the safety and welfare of Sandusky's child victims"- The Atlantic spoke with Gavagan about the report, Paterno, and where the school goes from here. With the release of a damning, 267-page investigative report compiled by former FBI director Louis Freeh, the ongoing child sex abuse scandal engulfing Penn State University and former football coach Joe Paterno went from bad to worse, with possible negligence involving the sex crimes perpetrated by former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky giving way to a probable cover-up.įor Chis Gavagan, however, the contents of the Freeh report were hardly surprising.Ī Brooklyn-based filmmaker, Gavagan is working on Coached Into Silence, a documentary about sexual abuse in sports that includes interviews with experts, victims, and a roller hockey coach Gavagan claims abused him when he was a teenager. ![]()
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