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Penn State Office of Physical Plant workers cover the statue of former football coach Joe Paterno near Beaver Stadium on Penn State's campus in State College, Pa., on Sunday, July 22, 2012. The university announced earlier Sunday that it was taking down the monument in the wake of an investigative report that found the late coach and three other top Penn State administrators concealed sex abuse claims against retired assistant coach Jerry Sandusky. (AP Photo/Centre Daily Times, Christopher Weddle) MANDATORY CREDIT; MAGS OUT
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. >> The NCAA announced Sunday that it will issue sanctions against Penn State in the wake of a scathing report that found that top university officials buried child sex abuse allegations against a now-convicted retired assistant and led to the tearing down of the famed statue of once-sainted coach Joe Paterno.
Shortly after Paterno’s statue was removed Sunday, six months to the day after he died, the NCAA came forward to say that it will levy “corrective and punitive measures” against the school. The sanctions will be spelled out Monday, the NCAA said without disclosing further details.
NCAA President Mark Emmert hasn’t ruled out the possibility of shutting down the Penn State football program in the wake of the scandal, saying he had “never seen anything as egregious.”
The Paterno family issued a statement saying the statue’s removal “does not serve the victims of Jerry Sandusky’s horrible crimes or help heal the Penn State community.”
“We believe the only way to help the victims is to uncover the full truth,” said the family, which vowed its own investigation following the release of an investigative report by former FBI Director Louis Freeh that found that Paterno and three other top Penn State administrators concealed sex abuse claims against Sandusky.
The family called the report “the equivalent of an indictment — a charging document written by a prosecutor — and an incomplete and unofficial one at that.”
The bronze statue, weighing more than 900 pounds, was built in 2001 in honor of Paterno’s record-setting 324th Division I coaching victory and his “contributions to the university.” Students chanted, “We are Penn State” as the statue came down.
Penn State President Rod Erickson said he decided to have the statue removed and put into storage because it “has become a source of division and an obstacle to healing.”
“I believe that, were it to remain, the statue will be a recurring wound to the multitude of individuals across the nation and beyond who have been the victims of child abuse,” Erickson said in a statement.
In Washington, a White House press secretary said President Barack Obama believed “it was the right decision.”
By many of those watching the statue’s removal stared in disbelief and at least one woman wept, while others expressed anger at the decision.
“I think it was an act of cowardice on the part of the university,” said Mary Trometter, of Williamsport, who wore a shirt bearing Paterno’s image. She said she felt betrayed by university officials, saying they promised openness but said nothing about the decision until just before the removal work began.
