Wensilver Responds To Heim Coin Toss Flap

The recent “coin toss” controversy this month regarding the Co-Founder and long-time Board Member of Sandusky’s Second Mile children’s charitable non-profit, Mr. Bruce Heim, opened the door slightly for the media and the public to re-focus their questions on the role of the Second Mile leadership in their failures to protect children.  

Penn State President Barron rescinded the honorary Army/PSU game opening coin toss invitation to Mr. Heim after a flood of complaints from well-informed alumni.  Alumni that have been questioning the leadership decisions at Second Mile since the scandal broke in late 2011.  More specifically, alumni have questioned the actions of charity CEO and licensed child psychologist, Dr. Jack Raykovitz, on addressing Sandusky's conduct, which was reported to him in 2001, and PSU's subsequent banning of Second Mile clients from the campus. 

We've heard nothing on the Second Mile until this coin toss controversy and Mr. Heim's compulsion to reply to complaints via an Op-Ed on October 7th in a local State College publication.  
 In it, Mr. Heim voices his displeasure on the revoking of this coin toss honorarium, complains of being dishonored, and laments that with benefit of hindsight, he wished he had done more. Yet he also admits to both his and charity Executive Director, Dr. Jack Raykovitz’s roles in concealing PSU’s 2001 complaint from the Second Mile Board at large, the Second Mile staffers and charity volunteers. 

Mr. Heim admits to the agreed upon concealment of facts from others in charity leadership positions. Facts, that had they been escalated by a concerned parent about their charity figurehead's conduct with minors, would very likely have led to bad publicity for the Second Mile.  That is an issue any full Board of a children's charity needs to know about.

Mr. Heim’s statement that the Second Mile didn’t have “some culpability” in the scandal and that contrary opinions are based on “conjecture” is a demonstration of his own ignorance of the charity’s legal requirements and the facts in evidence. 

One has to ask that as an involved, decades-long board member and Co-Founder with Sandusky of a Pennsylvania children’s charitable non-profit, why Mr. Heim was not educated on the standards of safe conduct for adults working with children, and more specifically, reporting requirements in Pennsylvania?  

Mr. Heim states this “It never occurred as a possibility until the release of the 2011 Grand Jury presentment that shocked a nation, destroyed a great charity, devastated a town, impugned a university, and by implication its wide alumni base, and maligned a personal friend, partner, and icon who did everything he was supposed to do with the information he had: Joe Paterno.” 

However, Mr. Heim confesses in his Op-Ed that the break in the reporting chain was among the leadership at Second Mile.  Therefore there was never a “cover up” among the administrators at Penn State, least of all with Mr. Paterno. The Second Mile was legally mandated to follow up on institutional complaints on its employee’s conduct with minors, investigate it, possibly report it to outside agencies and implement a written safety plan as per state mandate.

That never happened.

PS4RS: Heim's letter proves no cover up at PSU

This letter to the editor appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review on October 9th, 2015

A coin toss is often used to resolve a dispute. Last week’s Penn State-Army coin toss certainly did just that, but the dispute was far from the playing field. When news broke that Bruce Heim, former board member of The Second Mile was chosen to take part in a ceremonious pregame coin toss, Penn State alumni and supporters voiced disapproval. The invitation was swiftly revoked. But make no mistake: as a result of Heim’s public acknowledgement that he had been made aware of the 2001 Sandusky incident, a major dispute was resolved. 

There was no “Conspiracy of Silence" at Penn State.

 

In several different reports last week, Heim indicated that it was his decision to keep The Second Mile board in the dark when former Penn State Athletic Director Tim Curley notified then-TSM CEO Jack Raykovitz in 2001 that Jerry Sandusky – a TSM employee -- had been seen showering with a boy in the Lasch Building.

 

Tim Curley not only followed reporting rules, he exceeded them, according to a 2001 statute. Raykovitz, however, as a mandatory reporter, ignored TSM’s legal obligations and did nothing to pursue the report.

 

It has never been a matter of a coin toss for the members of Penn Staters for Responsible Stewardship. We’ve continually questioned why Penn State administrators have been held responsible for mistakes made by The Second Mile. With no clear case against these Penn State officials, PS4RS calls for the Office of the Attorney General to drop charges against them.

 

Maribeth Roman Schmidt

Penn Staters for Responsible Stewardship
Email: mschmidt@ps4rs.org
Cell: 215.620.4210