Jerry Sandusky Is Guilty, Now We Need To Arrest The People Who Covered For Him

Late this evening, the jury announced that they’ve reached a verdict on all 48 counts of sexual assault and abuse against former Penn State assistance football coach, Jerry Sandusky. After over 20 hours of deliberation, Jerry was joined by his wife Dottie, three sons and one daughter in the court room to learn his fate. And it was a grim one.

He was found guilty on 45 of his 48 charges. They included 25 felonies and 15 first-degree felonies. The maximum sentence for Jerry Sandusky is 442 years in jail. Also, the judge revoked Sandusky’s bail and remanded him to jail until his sentencing in 90 days.

Jerry Sandusky will die in jail. And I think every citizen of this country is probably thankful for that fact. Parents everywhere will feel a little safer knowing that one more monster is off the streets and behind bars. The disturbing Penn State scandal has reached its conclusion.

Or has it? Should it?

There was overwhelming evidence against Jerry Sandusky. The number of victims, the similarity of their stories, it all demonstrated that this was a truly horrible person who committed heinous crimes on young boys. It’s a relief to hear that he was found guilty, but it wasn’t exactly a shock. Most of us expected to hear that he would spend the rest of his life in prison.

But should this really be the end of the story? This man abused kids for fifteen years. He created a children’s charity to hunt out victims. And there was evidence of his crimes long before they dominated the national media for months. People who worked with him, people who knew these kids, people who overlooked warnings and red flags.

Jerry Sandusky did not commit these crimes with the help and cover of people within his community and within Penn State’s football organization. It still waits to be seen whether those people will also pay for their crimes. Whether those who turned a blind eye to the suffering of children will share a cell with their former “pillar of the community.”

Jerry Sandusky is guilty. That does not mean that the Penn State scandal is behind us. It won’t go away until those who covered for Sandusky over the last decade pay for placing more children in danger, more children into the hands of a monster. This verdict should only be the first step in a process to bring justice for these victims to everyone who allowed their abuse to happen or continue.

(Photo: JM-Design/Shutterstock)

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