It only takes one.

Decades of tradition at Penn State, of pride in the most sterling of college football reputations--it all vanished in a day, and it only took one man, Jerry Sandusky, to do it. Worse, for decades there has been a sexual predator on the loose, making victim of helpless, at-risk boys, and it would have only taken one person to stop him.

From what we already know, there were many people who had the power to stop Sandusky. It would have only taken one to call the police, to report what they had seen, what they had heard. Forget about the chain of command, about passing information—and responsibility—to a superior and then washing your hands. When you witness the abuse that had been witnessed on the campus of Penn State University, you stop it. Immediately. You do it.

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Some of those who covered up Sandusky’s abuse we know. Penn State Athletic Director Tim Curley knew. Another top Penn State administrator, Gary Schultz, knew. Both men have been charged with perjury and have stepped down from their positions at Penn State. Head football coach Joe Paterno may have known. If he didn’t, he should have. Penn State President Graham Spanier knew enough to approve of Curley banning Sanduysky from bringing children onto campus. None of them stopped it.

In 2000, a Penn State janitor eye-witnessed Sandusky giving a boy oral sex in the shower. Another janitor saw Sandusky leave the showers with the boy. The incident was reported to a superior but went no further. The whole custodial staff knew. That should have been the end of it, but they feared for their jobs. It would have only taken one.

In 2002, a Penn State football graduate assistant eye-witnessed Sandusky fondling a naked boy in the showers. Shaken, the graduate assistant visited Joe Paterno’s home to tell Paterno what he had seen. The next day Paterno brought Curley to his home and relayed the story. A week and a half later the graduate assistant met with Curley and Schultz. It should have ended then.

Instead, what was said to in that meeting is now the subject of criminal perjury charges against Curley and Schultz. After the original eye-witness from the graduate student, a game of telephone led to Curley testifying to a grand jury that Sandusky had been “horsing around” with the boy.

This is blatant deception from Curley, who knew of a 1998 investigation into Sandusky for “incidents with children in the football showers.” Curley never reported the graduate assistant’s testimony to campus police. But he did later ban Sandusky from bringing children on campus. Spanier signed off on the ban. What they told Sandusky was you can’t do this on the clock. They told him you can’t do this here. They did not tell him you can’t do this, and they certainly didn’t tell anyone else, either.

This weekend, Joe Paterno expressed shock at the revelations. “If this is true we were all fooled,” he said in a statement. Sandusky, a man Paterno had known intimately for more than 40 years, had deceived him, Paterno says.

Sandusky was a great deceiver. In 1977 he founded a non-profit organization called Second Mile that was supposed to help at-risk children. In 1990 he was recognized by President George H.W. Bush as a “Point of Light.” Sandusky was living a double life. It is amazing how many people you can deceive, if you are first able to deceive yourself.

But there were far too many at Penn State who let themselves be deceived. It is impossible to go back and know exactly who knew what, and when. But it is not out of bounds to say that more should have been known than people are claiming to know. Paterno, Curley, Schultz, Spanier. Many more, no doubt.

And the saddest thing is, it only would have taken one to stop it.

Last summer the college football world marveled as the false front was peeled off of Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel. But forget about Jim Tressel, forget about the Miami Hurricanes even, forget about every scandal that has ever happened in college sports. We need to ask ourselves: how did this scandal happen? And how can we make sure that it never happens again?

The initial response of Penn State University has been appalling—Spanier and Paterno have both issued statements that show greater concern for the institution—the University and the football program—than for justice. In those responses we can see powerful clues as to how Sandusky got so far beyond control at Penn State—that those who knew what was going on thought first of themselves, then of the University, and never got around to thinking about the children who continued to be victimized.

People in Pennsylvania are angry, and disgusted. They, too, have been deceived—not just by Sandusky, but by an entire institution that had always told them it was better than this. Those people now must rise up together in anger and demand that Penn State University, and the state of Pennsylvania, begin to take this seriously.

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[Report: Ex-Penn St. coach charged with sex abuse]

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