The fallout from the Penn State sex scandal involving former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky has prompted a Maryland State Senator to seek changes to state laws on reporting child abuse. Senator Nancy Jacobs is considering sponsoring a bill that will increase the penalty against those who know of a child being abused but do not report it.
Current Maryland state laws require health practitioners, educators, human service workers and law enforcement officers to report suspected child abuse to local police or social service departments. The penalty for not reporting is a fine. However, Senator Jacobs wants those who fail to report suspected child abuse to face criminal charges.
Jacobs uses the Penn State sex scandal as an example of how failure to report suspected child abuse led to more children being attacked. Former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky was arrested on November 5th and charged with 40 misdemeanor and felony charges. Sandusky was employed at Penn State from 1977 to 1999 before retiring. However, he was given access to various buildings on campus and even had an office.
In 2002, grad assistant Mike McQueary witnessed Sandusky sexually assaulting a young boy in the showers. McQueary left the locker room after witnessing this attack and sought counsel from his father. The next day they reported it to legendary football coach Joe Paterno who in turn reported it to PSU Athletic Director Timothy Curley and the University Administrator Gary Shultz. Eventually, the report made it all the way up to school president Graham Spanier.
Unfortunately, none of the men reported this incident to the police or social service departments. In 2010, all 5 men were called to testify in a grand jury investigation into Sandusky. The report was released earlier this week and sparked a public outrage. This outrage grew to the point that the PSU Board of Trustees had to fire Joe Paterno and Graham Spanier for not doing enough in handling this 2002 incident of sexual assault. Curley and Shultz currently face perjury charges for allegedly lying in the grand jury hearing.
Senator Jacobs wants to ensure nothing like this ever happens in the state of Maryland and is looking to submit this bill to the General Assembly next year. Jacobs believes that if the state of Pennsylvania had criminal charges as a penalty for failure to report child abuse, then further attacks after 2002 could have been prevented.
