Jeffrey Sandusky In Plain View

The is a saying that goes “Never judge a book by its cover,” and with cases of child molestation, hat quote couldn’t be any more true. Child molestation is a form of child abuse where adults prey on the vulnerability and innocence of children for their own sexual pleasure. In the article, “In Plain View: How child molesters get away with it,” light is shed on situations where trusted authority figures abuse their power to take advantage of kids in their community. No one expects these men to be predators, because they are so beloved and selfless in the community they infiltrate.
The article begins with psychologist and author Carla van Dam telling the story of a child molester by the name of Jeffrey Clay. Clay was a Canadian elementary Physical

Education teacher. Everyone at the school loved him. In fact, they adored him so much, that when the parents of three little boys accused him of touching the children under their pants, everyone believed he was innocent.
It was extremely hard for people to actually believe that Clay would do such a thing because he was so beloved by the community. Not only was he married, he also was seen as a role model for the boys. He even started a popular gym club at the school. Most Physical Education teachers usually do horse play, especially if the kids are the same sex, so there aren’t many boundaries as far as touching goes.
It turns out that Clay has previously had a child come forward on the same allegations, but because the allegations weren’t the clearest definition of sexual molestation, nothing could really be done. There was an investigation with the case if the three boys, but it only lead to a resignation from Clay. The teachers around the school didn’t believe the children at all, and even blamed the parents for letting the situation go so far. The allegations however continued to surface, that is until Clay threatened to sue. The parents dropped their cases.
One would think that catching and prosecuting child molesters would be easy, but the offenders often have plans to deceive everyone remotely close to the child. This same algorithm of charming the adults to prey on children eventually came to light with the case of child molester and Penn State assistant football coach, Jerry Sandusky. Sandusky was another beloved person in his community. He had countless foster children, six adopted children, and organized kickball games with the kids that were in the neighborhood. Sandusky was known by everyone around him to be a kid at heart. He constantly joked around and loved to hug people.
Second Mile was a nonprofit organization built by Sandusky and his wife for disadvantaged and troubled boys.

He was constantly offered head coaching jobs, but the kids came first. Now that Sandusky was revealed as a child molester, although his wife’s intentions may have been pure, he was clearly organizing the non profit to prey on vulnerable youth. The process of infiltrating a community to scout out possible victims is called “grooming.” Clay, for example, worked in an elementary school, and Sandusky was the founder of a nonprofit for troubled and disadvantaged boys. Both of them clearly infiltrated in places they knew little boys would be prominent, and where the parents would trust them. They are basically making themselves as likable as possible, so there is no

suspicion.
During Sandusky’s trial, one coach revealed that he showered with the boys all the time, but simply thought nothing of it.

One particular occurrence happened while showing with an eleven year old boy at the Penn State athletic facility. The boy recalls feeling uncomfortable in the shower because Sandusky first wraps his arms around the boy’s chest in a seemingly playful way, but then he proceeds to pick him up to “wash the soap out of his hair”, but it is known that neither were Sandusky’s intention. He was executing an escalation strategy by continuously touching the victim, each time more inappropriate than the last. He would see if the boy felt uncomfortable by his actions and if not, he proceeded, but if so, he retreated. Sandusky showed up to the boys house to see if the boy was too uncomfortable to the point where he informed his mom of the interaction, which the boy did. When Sandusky arrived at the boys house, contrary to Sandusky’s knowledge, a police officer was present in the home. The mother tried to probe an answer out of Sandusky, but he didn’t budge. The issued was still pressed further, but only one psychologist, Alycia Chambers, saw the patterns and behaviors of Sandusky as child molestation. And although she saw the true Sandusky, there was nothing more that she could do other than to leave it up to the police. When asked, Sandusky did admit to hugging the boy, and showering with others, but he claims he wasn’t trying to be sexual. Sandusky later faced

criminal charges along with Tim Curley, Penn State’s athletic director, and Gary Schultz, Penn State’s Vice President when an incident occurred where Sandusky was caught by one of the football players “horsing around”, which was later turned into raping, one of his Second Mile kids in the shower. Joe Paterno, Sandusky’s old boss, died two months later after being terminated because of Sandusky’s disgusting actions.
Like the article stated, catching a child molester isn’t as easy as people would think. Most people view child molesters and old bald men that jump out of white vans, persuading kids with candy, but molesters aren't that obvious. In order to spot a predator, you have to be able to detect the signs. Chapter thirteen reveals all sorts of psychological disorders and the signs and symptoms of each. Child molesters clearly do not have the healthiest of minds, so they for sure fall in at least one category of a psychological disorder. Chapter thirteen can also tell you why a particular person with this sickness acts this way based on their symptoms and their biological etiology. Chapter twelve can also explain why a person acts the way they do based on the four different personality perspectives. For example, Freud’s view on why people act like they do is based on their psychosexual development. Child molesters, like Clay and Sandusky, most likely had something unfulfilling or traumatizing in their phallic or genital phase, because they have a sickening fixation on genitals.
This was an amazing article. From beginning to end, I was intrigued. I absolutely love that the article was straight to the point about everything that happened. There was no fluff. I also appreciated the writing style the author chose. He kept going back and forth with each story which kept me drawn in because I have to wait for the conclusion for both. The information was presented well and was well put in place. The only criticism I could give this article is that there was no official closure with the trails and the child molesters. From inference we can conclude what happened, but I would’ve loved to know the details of their trails, what the jury thought, what their wives and kids thought and how they were coping, and where they are now. I also just want to know, out of curiosity, why the two men working with the child molester are facing criminal charges. I don’t know the exact law, but what exactly did they do? Other than those small unanswered details, It was an amazing article,and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.