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<DIV class=timestamp>November 7, 2011</DIV>
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<H1><NYT_HEADLINE type=" " version="1.0">The Molester Next
Door</NYT_HEADLINE></H1><NYT_BYLINE>
<H6 class=byline>By <A class=meta-per
title="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/frank_bruni/index.html?inline=nyt-per
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href="wlmailhtml:{70B03BF6-A0E3-47A7-BB37-4AECF962E3F6}mid://00000119/!x-usc:http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/frank_bruni/index.html?inline=nyt-per"
rel=author>FRANK BRUNI</A></H6></NYT_BYLINE><NYT_TEXT>
<DIV id=articleBody><NYT_CORRECTION_TOP></NYT_CORRECTION_TOP>
<P>The longest, most exhaustively researched article I ever wrote for a
newspaper or magazine was about a child molester who had sexually abused a
little boy living down the street. The abuse went on for more than two years,
beginning when the boy was 10. </P>
<P>This molester had a job. A house. A wife. Two kids of his own. And he gained
access to his victim not through brute force but through patience, play and
gifts: help with his homework, computer games, a new bike. To neighborhood
observers, including the victim’s parents, the molester’s attentiveness passed
for kindness, at least for a while. A molester’s behavior very often does. </P>
<P>The arrest on Saturday of a former Penn State University assistant football
coach — who is <A
href="wlmailhtml:{70B03BF6-A0E3-47A7-BB37-4AECF962E3F6}mid://00000119/!x-usc:http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/story/2011-11-05/penn-state-abuse-case/51083628/1">accused
of sexually abusing</A> eight pre-adolescent, adolescent and teenage boys —
brought this all back to me. I wonder if people who know the coach and saw him
working with kids will comment on how genuinely nurturing he seemed and how this
surely prevented or discouraged suspicions about him. </P>
<P>This is something that has come up repeatedly over decades — I wrote that
article back in 1991, for The Detroit Free Press — but that remains tough to
accept: the predator to watch out for is less likely to don a trench coat and
lurk behind a bush than to wear a clerical collar and stand near the altar or to
hold a stopwatch and walk the sidelines. And he (or, for that matter, she) works
with children as a function of being drawn to them for reasons beyond their
welfare. </P>
<P>The former Penn State assistant coach, Jerry Sandusky, 67, founded and ran a
charity program for disadvantaged boys. That’s one of the ways he got to know
and interact so extensively with kids, some of whom received special favors
related to his college-football connections. His alleged abuse of them is said
to have occurred over a 15-year period ending in 2009. </P>
<P>He maintains his innocence of the charges against him. That’s important to
note, because sexual abuse of children is a crime so rightly enraging that the
specter of it has prompted unfair rushes to judgment in the past. </P>
<P>But true or not, the accusations against Sandusky, spelled out in great
detail in a <A title=Report.
href="wlmailhtml:{70B03BF6-A0E3-47A7-BB37-4AECF962E3F6}mid://00000119/!x-usc:http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/11/06/sports/ncaafootball/20111106-pennstate-document.html">23-page
grand jury report</A>, bring to mind many proven cases in which a molester
occupied a position of trust, identified and gravitated to children who were
especially vulnerable, made them feel special and was by all outward appearances
their champion, which many molesters indeed believe themselves to be. </P>
<P>In their own minds these molesters aren’t predators. They’re people whose
affinity for children just happens to have a sexual element, the satisfaction of
which they’ve convinced themselves isn’t such a big, harmful deal. </P>
<P>Parents face a tricky challenge. They need to be watchful but not paranoid,
because most clergy members, scout leaders, camp counselors and coaches aren’t
abusers in waiting and <EM>are</EM> improving children’s lives. They deserve the
opportunity to. </P>
<P>But parents should also remain conscious of an additional lesson suggested by
the Penn State story. Institutions do an awful job of policing themselves. </P>
<P>That has been true of the Boy Scouts, which has <A title="Times piece. "
href="wlmailhtml:{70B03BF6-A0E3-47A7-BB37-4AECF962E3F6}mid://00000119/!x-usc:http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/24/us/24scouts.html">paid
out</A> tens of million of dollars in response to lawsuits by former scouts
molested by adults who continued to work in the organization despite complaints
or questions about their behavior. </P>
<P>That has been true of the Roman Catholic Church, whose diocesan heads and
bishops repeatedly transferred abusive priests from one parish to another rather
than report them to law enforcement authorities. This cover-up spanned decades
and went all the way up the hierarchy of the church. </P>
<P>Many factors explain it, including a fear of scandal and desire to protect
the church’s image. The Boy Scouts, too, didn’t want messiness exposed. </P>
<P>Was that a dynamic at Penn State as well? Two university officials have been
indicted for not contacting the police after being alerted many years ago to the
possibility that Sandusky was abusing boys from his charity on university
premises. </P>
<P>And there are lingering questions about whether the university’s renowned
head football coach, Joe Paterno, was irresponsible. </P>
<P>According to an account in the indictment that he hasn’t disputed, a graduate
assistant in 2002 told him of inappropriate activity in a university shower
between a boy and Sandusky, who had already retired from his longtime job as the
coordinator of the football team’s defense. Coach Paterno relayed that to a
university official, then apparently moved on. And Sandusky continued to
interact with troubled boys. </P>
<P>Paterno absolutely should have followed up. Maybe he just couldn’t envision
someone like Sandusky — a distinguished professional, a seeming do-gooder — as a
molester. But it’s important that we all do. </P><NYT_AUTHOR_ID>
<DIV class=authorIdentification>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center">•</P>
<P>I invite you to follow me on Twitter at <A
href="wlmailhtml:{70B03BF6-A0E3-47A7-BB37-4AECF962E3F6}mid://00000119/!x-usc:http://twitter.com/frankbruni">twitter.com/frankbruni</A>
and join me on <A
href="wlmailhtml:{70B03BF6-A0E3-47A7-BB37-4AECF962E3F6}mid://00000119/!x-usc:https://www.facebook.com/frankbruninyt">Facebook</A>.</P></DIV></NYT_AUTHOR_ID><NYT_CORRECTION_BOTTOM>
<DIV
class=articleCorrection></DIV></NYT_CORRECTION_BOTTOM><NYT_UPDATE_BOTTOM></NYT_UPDATE_BOTTOM></DIV></FONT>________________________</FONT></DIV></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Verdana>Wayne A. Fox<BR><A
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