Penn State bombshell

It's inconceivable that on a day when a young man testified he was sexually abused by a former Pennsylvania State University assistant football coach, an even more heinous allegation would come to light. Yet that is what occurred.

NBC reported that high-ranking Penn State officials discussed whether they were required to notify police about a 2001 incident involving Jerry Sandusky and a boy in a university locker room shower, and concluded it was "humane" to Mr. Sandusky not to tell local authorities. Instead, NBC said, former Penn State president Graham Spanier and former senior vice president Gary Schultz took away Mr. Sandusky's locker room keys.

Also damning was the revelation that even though subpoenas were issued long ago, Penn State only recently turned over emails of Mr. Schultz, athletic director Tim Curley, and others, as well as documents "created, maintained and possessed" by Mr. Schultz. Louis Freeh, the former FBI director hired by the university to investigate the scandal, confirmed this week that he had turned over information uncovered by his team.

It is still not clear how much detail Mr. Spanier had about the shower incident. But the case that top university officials kept a lid on the matter is stronger today than it was last November, when criminal charges rocked the university and led to Mr. Spanier's resignation and the firing of head coach Joe Paterno.

It is unconscionable that the humanity and well-being of innocent boys were trumped by concerns for the reputation of a powerful institution and one of its leaders. And it seems clear that more bad news is on the horizon at Happy Valley.