The Poor Kid

This episode was written about a week before it aired. On November 4th 2011 a grand jury report was released containing testimony that stated Penn State University's Assistant Coach Gerald Sandusky had abused 8 young boys over 15 years, the number was raised to 10 on the 7th. It was also reported that the University had chosen not to share the reports made against Sandusky with authorities, which lead to several senior members of staff including the university President being convicted alongside Sandusky and the institution paying millions in damages to the victims.

What Matt and Trey couldn't have known was that the investigation into Sandusky did not stop just because he'd been convicted. In June 2012 he was indicted again and charged with 48 counts of sexual abuse of children dating back to the 70s, using his position as a football coach and the founder of a charity for deprived children to groom his victims. Sandusky was found guilty of 45 counts, and sentenced to 30-60 years in prison. All appeals have been refused.

It was revealed that several members of the football coaching team beginning with Coach Paterno going all the way up to the university president were fully aware of Sandusky having sex with at least one student in the university showers, but chose to ignore it to avoid bad publicity. Paterno apologised and said he would resign at the end of the football season; the university board sacked him that day, leading to riots and sit-ins in support of the popular coach. He was diagnosed with cancer and died shortly after his firing, but had cooperated fully and authorities had decided not to pursue charges against him. 10,000 university students and members of the community held a vigil against sexual abuse at the university. When it came to trial in 2017 the university's legal council, Cynthia Baldwin, got the coaches off most of the charges by breaching attorney client privilege by testifying against her clients and making the entire case fruit of the poison tree, the university only pointed out the breach, Baldwin was not punished. The men were prosecuted only for a single count of child endangerment each and served a month or two in prison.

Following the indictment the university commissioned an enquiry lead by former FBI Director Louis Feeeh, his 267 page report described a culture of protecting the football team at all costs, "see something, say nothing" and don't mess with the main source of income. Freeh made hundreds of recommendations for changes to the university that would stop the staff banging the kids with impunity.

The National Collegiate Athletics Association was so outraged the board bypassed it's own investigative protocols and stripped Penn State of everything they could - 20 scholarship places and 112 wins, and they were fined $60 million and banned from the bowl for 4 years. Due to acknowledging they didn't have the authority to do all that in a lawsuit brought by the university, the board was forced to be more lenient and gave Penn back Coach Paterno's wins.

Paterno's statue and plaza were also removed following the scandal, after it became clear that they were being removed either way; the university could do it or the community would do it for them.

Penn State will never lose the stigma of the decades of abuse it condoned to protect it's football program.

At 9:54, the police officer arresting Liane Cartman says "When will you people learn to lay off the Pabst Blue Ribbon?" and has her speak into the "White Trash In Trouble" camera. However, there is no sign she has been drinking and no Pabst Blue Ribbon can be seen anywhere in the house.

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