NEW YORK — When Joe Paterno, the ousted Penn State football coach, was confronted with a possible case of child rape, he notified his bosses rather than call the police or the child-abuse hotline. That was all Pennsylvania law required him to do, yet in most other states the failure to call could be a crime.
In more than 40 states, the prevailing policy is that such reports must be made to police or child-protection authorities swiftly and directly, with no option for delegating the task to others and then not following through.
Already, the Penn State scandal has sparked calls for Pennsylvania to toughen its law. State Rep. Kevin Boyle says he will introduce a bill that would require mandated reporters — including school and hospital employees — to notify police themselves rather than pass their information on to superiors at work.
A review by The Associated Press of the abuse-reporting laws of all 50 states showed that Pennsylvania is one of about a half-dozen states where the protocol for staff members of schools, hospitals and other institutions is to notify the person in charge in the event of suspected child abuse. That superior is then legally obliged to report to the authorities.
In the Penn State case, the superiors notified in 2002 by Paterno — the athletic director, Tim Curley, and a vice president, Gary Schultz — have been charged with failing to report the suspected abuse. They deny wrongdoing. State authorities say that failure enabled former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky to perpetrate additional sexual assaults on boys. Through a lawyer, he says he is innocent.
According to a 2010 database compiled by the National District Attorney’s Association, other states with provisions resembling Pennsylvania’s — giving institutional staff the option of reporting suspected abuse to their superiors — include Virginia, Georgia, Massachusetts, Missouri and South Dakota.
These policies “defy common sense and should be changed,” said Victor Veith, a former prosecutor who heads the National Child Protection Training Center in Winona, Minn.
In Colorado
Colorado law requires certain professionals to report to county human-services workers or law enforcement if they have “reasonable cause to know or suspect that a child has been subjected to abuse.” Among those required to report are doctors, dentists and other medical professionals, public or private school employees, social workers, film processors, veterinarians, therapists and counselors, and clergy members.
