The mistakes of one man not only ruined people’s jobs, students attending the school, and students thinking about attending Penn State; but the lives of young boys.

Pennsylvania State University located in State College, PA has a proud football tradition and is off to a good start this season.

The university is viewed as a school with a spotless reputation, no one ever saw this coming.

With so much talk about everyone involved with the scandal getting fired and how it is affecting the college that people are forgetting about the real victims, the eight young boys allegedly sexually assaulted by, Jerry Sandusky between 1994 and 2009.

Sandusky was a credited assistant coach at Penn State for 30 years. In 1977 Sandusky founded “The Second Mile,” which was dedicated to helping children with dysfunctional families.

Penn State’s head coach, Joe Paterno and university president, Graham Spanier are just some of the many people knew about Sandusky’s actions but covered them up or didn’t do more to expose it. Athletic director Tim Curley, assistant coach Mike McQueary, and senior vice president for finance and business Gary Shultz are examples of other people that knew of Sandusky’s actions. Since the exposure of the scandal all of these men have been fired, stepped down, or asked to stay away from the campus for the duration of the scandal.

The question is how will affect the university in the future? As junior Heather Thomas explains, “…the sex scandal won’t totally affect my decision on going to Penn State but it does affect how I might look at it and might change my views on certain things.”

The biggest loss for the university was head coach Joe Paterno. He is a very well known and respected college football coach for 46 years, 61 years affiliated with the football program. Paterno announced this season would be his last after the exposure; however, the board of trustees relieved him of his position over the phone on Nov. 9.

Student riots only heighted the negative light Sandusky put on the university. The night Paterno was let go thousands of students flooded the campus in protest. Even with tear gas and pepper spray, police could not control the crowd.

In an interview on Good Morning America Victim 1’s (as named in the Grand Jury report) mother explained, “I was horrified. I was absolutely horrified. I knew some details but I didn’t know that it was like that, I didn’t know it was bad. It caused a lot of nightmares, for him and I both.”

On Saturday Nov. 12, Penn State had their last home football game of the season. They lost the game to Nebraska Cornhuskers 17-14. In an effort to raise awareness for the child abuse, the students sold blue shirts to create a “blue out”. The money raised from selling the shirts went to a foundation that helps with abused children.

Supporters within the student body remain loyal, “I'll support the football team now more than ever. These poor kids did nothing and deserve to be cheered on.
They've put many years of hard work, effort, and training into becoming this good and being able to play for Penn State is a huge accomplishment,” says NHS alumni and Penn State freshman, Jillian Borsos.