The Paterno family says they have been struggling with the missed signs that former Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky was a child sexual predator. they say the past couple of years have been emotionally draining and they want to do whatever they can to make sure kids are safe.
There are critics who say coach Joe Paterno could have done more back in 2002 when Mike McQueary told him about seeing Jerry Sandusky in the locker room shower with a young boy. Months after Paterno’s passing, his family is still angry and horrified about the destruction Sandusky caused by abusing at least 10 boys.
“I can’t fix, I wish I could, I can’t fix all the horror that Jerry caused in our community,” says Scott Paterno. What Paterno’s wife Sue and his two sons, Scott and Jay , are doing is talking publicly about their desire to break the cycle of child abuse.
“We need to start educating ourselves in a better way so that we’re able to see these things as they occur and I think that’s the overriding message of everything I’ll be saying for the rest of my life on this, is be aware,” Scott Paterno continues.
The family spoke Wednesday morning in Harrisburg at the Pennsylvania Family Support Alliance to launch child abuse awareness month. They say they look at the world differently now and hope to make it a better place.
Scott Paterno hopes more people will read the Jim Clemente report. He’s a former FBI profiler who looked into how so many people, including Joe Paterno, failed to recognize the severity of what Sandusky was doing to children. You can read the report here.