Sandusky scandal had one perpetrator, and many accomplices

[maddezmom]

Late Friday night, as I watched the surreal courthouse scene play out on CNN, I reached out to a former Penn State grad assistant. Every time Jerry Sandusky’s face comes across the television now, I think of what Matt Paknis went through as a kid.

“Those kids who took the witness stand are heroes,” Paknis said as we spoke Monday afternoon. “A conviction like that, knowing he can’t hurt anyone else, is a validation for the survivors.”

Paknis, who let me write a story after the Penn State story broke last November about his own experience being sexually abused as child, worked for Joe Paterno for two seasons on the offensive side of the ball in the late 1980s.

Now a board member of the support group Male Survivor, he said he felt a connection with the witnesses no one but the abused can understand.

“You’re at that age, where all these racing thoughts are happening in your mind,” he says. “What happens to a lot of kids, what happened to me, is I just dissociated — you end up leaving your body while it’s going on

more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/sandusky-scandal-had-one-perpetrator-and-many-accomplices/2012/06/26/gJQAWs8t4V_story.html

[russspeakeasy]

1. "We're on the right track".

Well put. Thanks for your reporting.

[freshwest]

2. Thanks. Excellent insight there.