PSU president under fire

Associated Press

HARRISBURG, Pa.

Calls for the ouster of Penn State President Graham Spanier for his handling of a child sex abuse case on campus grew on Tuesday as a top state lawmaker and two newspaper editorial boards joined online groups and petitions in demanding his removal.

The calls came ahead of a trustees meeting, scheduled for Friday, that will be attended by Gov. Tom Corbett. Meanwhile, trustees, alumni association officers and the state’s top public officials, including Corbett, remained largely silent about whether Spanier should keep his job at the university’s helm.

Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi told The Associated Press that the key question is why Penn State administrators didn’t contact law enforcement authorities after a graduate assistant for the football team said he saw a former assistant coach sexually assault a boy at the team’s practice center in 2002.

“If there are no good and prompt answers, there needs to be a change in leadership,” said Pileggi, R-Delaware.

Former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky is facing charges he sexually assaulted eight boys over a 15-year period. Among the allegations is the 2002 assault, but top school officials say they weren’t told about the seriousness of the matter.

Sandusky has been aware of the accusations against him for about three years and has maintained his innocence, his lawyer said.

In a rare full-page, front-page editorial, the editorial board of The Patriot-News in Harrisburg on Tuesday called for the immediate resignation of Spanier and for the football season to be Joe Paterno’s last as coach.

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, in its editorial, called for Spanier and Paterno to resign.