Penn State Students React to Sandusky Sentence
By: Eric Deabill
Updated: October 9, 2012
Dunmore, Lackawanna County - As soon as the sentence for Jerry Sandusky was handed down Tuesday morning in Centre County, Penn State students reacted with mixed emotions to the punishment.
For the last 11 months, students have seen the university's top adminstrator, along with the legacy of former football coach Joe Paterno, come under fire was for they allegedly knew and when they knew it.
Students at the Penn State Worthington/Scranton campus in Dunmore say they hope the sentencing will bring closure to a university that has been struggling.
Classes were held as normal and it looked like a normal day on campus but most students were thinking about the Sandusky sentencing.
"It's a reasonable time for him, maybe give or take a couple years but he's a very old guy, so no matter what, he's probably going to be living there for the rest of his life," sophomore Kiera Shehadi said.
While 30-to-60 years is the actual sentence for Sandusky, other students wish the numbers had been higher because there were ten young victims.
"I know if I were one of those boys, I would want him to get 30 years just for what he did to just me, so then all the people on top of it!" sophomore Nicole Clark said.
"Obviously it's not going to impact his life because, either way his life is over, but at the same time it probably would have brought a little more piece of mind to some of the families," junior Dennis Vaughan said.
While they're most concerned for the victims, the students say they're also upset about the damage done to Penn State's reputation.
"You tell someone you're from Penn State and the first thing they say is, what do you think of Sandusky?" Clark said. "Well, what do I think about the other things? It's not hte only part of Penn State."
Even though the trial of two administrators are still on the horizon, students hope Tuesday's sentence will close one chapter in a dark time for their school.
"The whole school shouldn't get the blame for it because it's not the whole schools fault," Shehadi said. "It's just one person."
"It's a shame that it happened but you can't change the past. You can only move on from here," Vaughan said.
