As Jerry Sandusky awaits sentencing on 45 child-sex-abuse convictions, several investigations continue to examine the role of Penn State University leaders in the scandal, including a probe of whether the university violated a federal campus-safety law, the Washington Post reports. Five days after the former assistant football coach was arrested in November, the U.S. Department of Education launched an investigation into Penn State’s compliance with the Clery Act, which requires prompt public alerts of safety threats, annual disclosure of crime statistics and other steps to protect campus communities. Federal officials declined to discuss the scope of the investigation. But a Nov. 9 letter from the Education Department to Penn State requested a long list of documents, including logs of all incidents of crime reported to any campus security authority from 1998 to 2011…
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Report on Penn State board’s failures has ramifications for U-Va. board
Penn State’s Board of Trustees was blasted today in a newly released report on how the school handled the Gerald Sandusky child abuse debacle, accused of failing in its oversight duties and mishandling the firing of legendary football coach Joe Paterno, the Washington Post reports. The report, issued by former FBI chief Louis Freeh’s law firm, Freeh Sporkin & Sullivan, said that the governing board “failed in its duties to oversee the President and senior University officials in 1998 and 2001 by not inquiring about important University matters and by not creating an environment where senior University officials felt accountable.”
The chairman of the Board of Trustees, Karen Peetz, said today at a news conference that the board “accepts full responsibility for the failures that occurred” in the Sandusky scandal, acknowledging that board members “did not force the issue” when it first learned of the allegations against Sandusky. But despite this, she said, none of the board members who were on the panel at the time plans to resign…