Letter: 'Mandated reporter' applies at Penn

As a psychologist and psychoanalyst, I have treated child and adult victims of sexual abuse ["Cowardly actions at Penn State," Letters, Nov. 17]. There has been much discussion about whether coach Joe Paterno did enough by reporting to university officials. As a member of the school personnel, Paterno is a professional mandated to report abuse or even the suspicion of abuse to child protective services and/or the police.

Pennsylvania, along with New York and 46 other states, has laws that mandate reporting of child abuse. These laws list professions that must report child abuse: social workers, teachers and other school personnel, physicians and other health-care workers, mental health professionals, child care providers, medical examiners and law-enforcement officers.

The laws were designed to take the hesitation and doubt out of whether to report abuse. Hesitancy is certainly influenced by a tendency to not want to believe that such awful abuses actually exist, or that they could be perpetrated by individuals who might be our dear friends and family. The law also has a provision for maintaining the anonymity of the reporter.

Simply reporting abuse to one's superiors, even campus police, increases the potential for collusion and cover-up at the expense of protecting children. While I understand that Penn State University has its own police department, there might be a conflict of interest because of the link between the police department and the university.

A review of Penn State's organizational chart shows that the police department is listed under the Department of Finance and Business/Treasurer, which reports to the university president. At Penn State, both the director of the Department of Finance and Business/Treasurer and the university president, at least in the flow chart of authority, are literally "above" the law. The potential for cover-up is further compounded by the fact that the football program generates more than $50 million for the university each year.

My purpose is not to debate the legal culpability of Paterno or other team coaches. That is for the law to decide. My purpose is to protect children by emphasizing the responsibility to report child abuse. I wish that anyone who had suspicions had reported them outside the insular umbrella of the Penn State administration, especially after they continued to see abuse suspect Jerry Sandusky on campus with children.

For more information on reporting child abuse, see the website childwelfare.gov from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Richard R. Hansen, Roslyn Heights