Wow, what a day. Before I get to my final thoughts, I have a few thank yous. First my wife Nicole and my girls, coming home to the three of you makes my job doable, I love the three of you more than I can say. Adam Hoge at The Score for asking me to do this blog and his bosses for letting it happen. Dan Bernstein and Terry Boers for promoting the blog during their show, and for putting up with me when I'm AKA Quad City Pat. Finally to you the Score listener, reader and commenter, I'm happy that I could shed some light on a dark corner of humanity for you.
Now my thoughts:
In child sexual abuse trials, there is really no substitute for hearing "guilty" as each charge is read. The victims are vindicated, the abuser is brought to justice. The prosecution gloats a little. The defense backpedals. Everyone on the side of right feels good.
What happens now?
First and most importantly, every one of the victims must get into counseling to work through their issues. Many already have, but they all need it.
At one point early in my career I had no idea what sexual trauma did to victims. 22 years ago, I was driving a female victim of sexual abuse in a stick shift pick up, to a visit with her family. She was uncomfortable with sitting in the middle seat where the shifter was. I thought she was being dramatic. I was an idiot.
I've quoted these stats before, 1 in 6 girls have been sexually abused. 1 in 10 boys. Sexual abuse is horribly under reported.
Please educate your children. If they have a secret, if someone tells them a "bad" secret, tell an adult. If an adult asks them to do something that they think is icky tell another adult.
I don't know what will happen with Penn State and Sandusky. There may be more charges. There may be appeals. There will be civil suits. Frankly I don't care, these men came forward to tell the world about the unthinkable and they won. That's enough for now.
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