Prevent Together Blog!

Given this, we challenge all adults to see today's sentencing as a call to action, and a moment where they can pledge to do what's necessary to prevent child sexual abuse in their own communities by:

• Taking a renewed interest in the lives of our children: where they go, who they play with, what they're watching on television and the Internet, and which adults they spend time with;
• Reducing the amount of one on one unsupervised non-parental adult-child time;
• Learning the signs of abuse and reporting abuse when they suspect it;
• Ensuring that the organizations that serve children and families have sexual abuse prevention policies in place; and
• Volunteering at local organizations that work to prevent child sexual abuse.

"From a tragedy such as this, hope can emerge, and the future health of not just our nation's children and their families, but the nation itself can be addressed," said James M. Hmurovich, President & CEO, Prevent Child Abuse America. "Today is a new day, and while we will not forget what brought us here, it can be the start of something healthy and positive. We hope you will join us, because what could be more important than the health and happiness of our children and their families... Nothing I can think of."

The sentence by Judge Cleland has received a near-universal endorsement from anyone familiar with the sordid details of Sandusky’s sexual abuse of at least 10 boys over a 15-year period. Sandusky was convicted of 45 counts of sexual abuse against the boys, who had come under his influence while he served as a Penn State coach and as the founder of Second Mile, a program for at-risk youth.

Sandusky’s charitable works, his professions of innocence, and his goofy grin have revealed him to be a complex archetype and an easily-demonized caricature of a predatory sexual manipulator. These two images respectively offer a great opportunity and a significant danger, for educating adults about how to prevent future sexual abuse of children.

And so, we must choose.

We have an unprecedented opening to use this case’s stunning lessons about ignorance, self-interest and responsibility to closely examine widespread, false assumptions about the dynamics of child sexual abuse and how to prevent it. These assumptions make us all susceptible to becoming silent bystanders who, like many in Sandusky's midst, fail to protect vulnerable children due to self-protective confusion, fear or misunderstanding.

Or we can seek reassurance in the caricature and congratulate ourselves for putting away a man who many equate with evil. We can punish the callous individuals and institutions who we believe should have stopped Sandusky. We can consider our duty done. We can convince ourselves that “they” were the problem and “we” would have done better. That’s the danger of this scenario.