Pa. Gov. Tom Corbett (R) is praising a Penn State investigation initiated by the Board of Trustees and promising to help take action on recommendations in a report released Thursday by lead investigator Louis Freeh.
Corbett was the state attorney general at the start of the investigation into child sexual abuse allegations against former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky. who was convicted last month on 45 counts involving 10 boys.
“There are monsters among us; people who will hurt children for their own sexual gratification,” Corbett said.
Formal charges against Sandusky came after Corbett was elected governor and given an ex-officio seat on the Penn State Board of Trustees. Corbett was not a active participant on the Penn State Board until after Sandusky was charged last December and he didn’t attend the Thursday board meetings.
Corbett released a statement Thursday saying everyone should be responsible for following up and reporting any suspected cases of child sexual abuse.
“This case is of such significance that I hope people will learn from it, and we will see that the failure to protect children does not happen again,” said Corbett.
Earlier, Pa. Attorney General Linda Kelly (R ), a Corbett appointee who will leave office next Jan., issued a statement saying the Freeh report should have no impact on “ the continuing work of our statewide investigating grand jury, nor will it impact ongoing criminal prosecutions.
Former Delaware County prosecutor and U.S. Attorney, Rep. Pat Meehan (R-PA-07) called the Freeh report "disturbing.”
“The report found that Penn State violated the Clery Act, a federal law written to ensure parents, students, and employees are fully informed of any criminal activity occurring on campus,” stated a news release from Meehan’s office.
The 1990 federal campus safety law was named for 19 year old Jeanne Clery who was raped and murdered in her Lehigh University dormitory in 1986. Meehan believes the law could use some fine tuning.
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“On the day Sandusky was arrested, Penn State’s Clery Act implementation plan was still in draft form,” said Meehan.
In May he introduced H.R. 5844, the Protecting Victims on Campus Act of 2012, that would add new provisions to the Clery act to end institutional cover-ups and require schools to report violent crimes to law enforcement.
“Our children deserve to know that their school is focused on their success, and nothing else,” Meehan said.
