New Developments In Penn State Child Sex Scandal Resonate in Creve Coeur

The shockwaves sent through the college athletic world over the last 48 hours with Penn State University's decision to remove the statue of former head football coach Joe Paterno, followed by the NCAA's announcement of massive penalties as a result of the school's handling of child sex abuse allegations that went unreported for more than a dozen years are being felt in Creve Coeur.

Tony Kalinowski, President of ., an investment firm in Creve Coeur, is a 1979 graduate of the school and is a former President of the St. Louis Alumni Association chapter. He told Patch shortly after the NCAA sanctions were announced Monday that he felt a lot of sadness. "And not so much for the University, but of course the kids who were affected."

Including the student athletes who have now seen their lives thrown into uncertainty as a result of the penalties that could cripple the football program, Kalinowski wondered aloud about how many different lives would have been spared had someone come forward to stop Assistant Coach Jerry Sandusky.

Now, he allowed, the University he attended and the football coach which made it famous will have the stain of the second reference. No one thinks of Pete Rose without then mentioning that he was banned from baseball for betting on the game. Paterno, someone who he said he "thought was the epitome of a coach who was doing right by the people around him," and still does think that way, will also now bear the baggage of criticism from the public for not having acted in a way that could have spared the lives of innocent victims.

One shining hope for redemption in all of this, Kalinowsky said, was the $60 million in fines which will help programs to prevent child sexual abuse and to help victims.

Listen To Children and Know Your Role

Jennifer Bernstein, a coordinator at Jewish Family & Children’s Service's Child Abuse Prevention Program u

1.  Starting from an early age, we need to let our children know that it is not OK for anyone (aside from a doctor or the person responsible for their hygiene) to look at or touch the private parts of their body, or for them to look at or touch someone else’s private parts. This includes their penis/vagina, buttocks, breasts and sometimes lips and mouth. 
2. If someone does touch them inappropriately, they must say NO, run away, and tell a trusted adult. If the first adult they tell does not believe them or refuses to help, they must tell someone else. Keep telling until something is done.
3. It is NEVER the fault of a child if someone were to touch them inappropriately. A child is NEVER “asking for it.”

Bernstein added that adults need to be aware of their role as a mandated reporter if they have reason to believe a child is being abused.

Local Implications

The Sandusky case has been the one in the national spotlight over the last 9 months but locally, cases with Creve Coeur ties have had their share of attention. . The reported cases likely fall outside the statute of limitations as far as criminal prosecution is concerned.

A case involving alleged abuse at A judge ruled last month denied the school's motion to dismiss the case.

As for what happens now to Penn State, Kalinowsky said it will proceed as an educational insitution, and that "college athletics will go on. Its business. It proceeds, it goes forward.

But what happened on that campus between 1998 and 2011 will linger "for many, many, many years," he said.