The Cliff Notes back story: A Pennsylvania State University scandal involving the alleged sex abuse of eight (only eight on the dockets, anyway) boys at the hands of Jerry Sandusky, a famous former Penn State defensive coordinator, has stunned the university, the state and-indeed-the nation.

In 1977, Sandusky founded Second Mile, a non-profit that assists at-risk youth, but instead used the charity as a vehicle to drive his sexual predilection for young boys.

Sandusky was busted. Over and over and over again.

First, there was Penn State police - who in 1998 investigated Sandusky and rightly found predatory behavior but failed to notify municipal police. No charges were filed against the coach.

There's the janitor who in 2000 claimed he saw Sandusky performing oral sex on a child but neither stopped it or called police. The janitor told his boss. The boss advised the janitor to report the crime, when it was actually his managerial duty.

In 2003, a graduate student saw Sandusky raping a child in the shower and neither stopped it or called police. He told his boss, legendary head coach Joe Paterno...who told his boss, Penn State Athletic Director Tim Curley...who told his boss Gary Schultz the Senior Vice-President Of Finance...who way, way down the line told his boss, Penn State President, Graham Spanier.

In life, there are men of action versus dudes of inaction. Most of these dudes opted to pass on to their bosses what they probably deemed "headaches." Except in this morose case, said "headaches" were acts of the fondling, oral sex and sodomy of pre-adolescent, at-risk, wide-eyed boys. The nonchalance of it all perhaps point to the notion that the victims are miniscule when pitted against a larger-than-life Sandusky who helped Penn State earn the moniker "Linebacker -U," or the Lions' heart and soul, Paterno, the "winningest" coach in all of Division 1 history, or the university affiliation as a juggernaut Ivy League or even the All-American, ultra macho game of football (since homosexual pedophilia goes against the very fabric of the good ol' pigskin). 

Bottom line: it appears that no one wanted to disrupt any of these pillars. No one wanted to face this issue head on.

DUH. Someone should have been disgusted enough to put homeboy Sandusky on blast. LOUDLY.

DUH. Someone should have sent phone calls, emails, notes in bottles, smoke signals...ANYTHING to sound the alarm.

DUH. Someone, after noticing that they hadn't heard anything else about "the locker room incident," to put it mildly, should have been bullheaded enough to follow up with the boss of the boss of the boss of the boss until they got an answer.

DUH. Someone should educate every single student who ignorantly protested Paterno's immediate dismissal...every rowdy kid who diverted attention from the true victims: the then boys and their families.

Friends, a legendary head coach will forever be known for what he didn't do, an Ivy League president is remembered for how he didn't act and - most upsetting of all  - Jerry Sandusky, who in the ultimate above-the-law gesture named his 2001 memoir Touched - is roaming free somewhere, since this millionaire was easily able to make the $100,000 bail.

DUH.

Ana Valeska is a not-so-naughty librarian, college instructor, book editor and--yeah,baby--NEWD columnist. Her forthcoming work, Tu Eres (You Are), is a devotional based on modern-day worship psalms. Ana Valeska longs to help redeem urban, young adult culture for the Lord Jesus. Her daughter, Selena, and cat, Puffles, have her wrapped around their little fingers.