A woman who worked at Penn State and witnessed “the culture that allowed Jerry Sandusky to exist,” recalls her time there.
Back in 2005, she wrote to the university’s president about Saint Joe:
“I am very troubled by the manipulative, disrespectful, uncivil and abusive behavior of our football coach,” she wrote. “It is quite shocking what this man — who is idolized by people everywhere — is teaching our students.”
… [President] Spanier came to her home and sat in her living room after Paterno lost his temper at [a] meeting about the players involved in [a] brawl. She said he told her, “Well, Vicky, you are one of a handful of people, four or five people, who have seen the dark side of Joe Paterno. We’re going to have to do something about it.”
She shakes her head, recalling that conversation now. “‘Doing something about it,'” she says, “ended with me being gone.”
And for those readers who continue to believe Penn State isn’t a cult, there’s this:
She received threatening phone calls at home when her husband was traveling and was savaged on student message boards. Her house was vandalized and “For Sale” signs were staked in her front yard. By the time police installed surveillance cameras, she was already on her way out.
… She stopped going to Wegman’s, a favorite upscale supermarket outside State College, because “the Penn State people went there.” They recognized her and without fail turned their backs and walked away, she recalled.
Former colleagues who did want to reach out held back. Later, they explained that they were afraid of losing their jobs, too.