Jerry Sandusky was an assistant football coach and eventually defensive coordinator at Penn State from 1969 to 1999 and continued to work at Penn State through 2011 as part of his ‘Second Mile’ non profit for underprivileged youths. During this time Sandusky would first approach potential victims, typically boys without a father living at home, when they were 8–12 years old; subsequently, Sandusky employed classic child grooming strategies such as offering trips to football games or bestowing gifts, which would lead to incremental touching.

Eventually, Sandusky often initiated overtly sexual behavior in the locker room showers. "The testimony of one victim, who said he was forced to play with Sandusky's testicles and erect penis when he was 8 to 10 years old. 'The poor kid was too young to even understand what an erect penis means,' one said.

At least 20 of the incidents allegedly took place while Sandusky was still employed at Penn State.

In 2002 After walking into the showers and seeing Sandusky anally raping a 10yr old, the next day, McQueary reported the incident to head coach Joe Paterno. Later while testifying during the Sandusky trial, McQueary spoke about what he had relayed to Paterno: "I told him and I want to make sure I'm clear. I made sure he knew it was sexual and wrong. There was no doubt." Paterno told McQueary at the time, "You did what you had to do. It is my job now to figure out what we want to do."

According to details in the report, despite being aware of Sandusky's sexual misconduct with young boys in the locker-room showers in the Lasch Building in 1998, and 2001, Spanier, Paterno, Curley, and Schultz never restricted Sandusky's access to Penn State facilities. The report states that Sandusky had access to the Lasch Building until November 2011. Over the next ten-year period, Sandusky "was frequently at the Lasch Building working out, showing up at campus events that Penn State supported ... He was showering with young boys, staying in dormitories ... There are more red flags than you could count, over a long period of time."

Consequently, out of the 10 young boys that Sandusky would be convicted of sexually assaulting, most of them were abused after he was investigated in 1998[112] — at least five of them were assaulted "at Penn State's football facilities and other places on campus after May 1998". After his retirement in 1999, the report notes that Sandusky continued to have "unrestricted and unsupervised access to the University's facilities and affiliation with the university's prominent football program. Indeed, the continued access provided Sandusky with the very currency that enabled him to attract his victims".

Beyond the question of building access, the report details that as part of Sandusky's retirement agreement he could "continue to work with young people through Penn State" for more than a decade, including Second Mile events on campus, youth football camps, etc.

At the July 12 press conference announcing the report's findings, Freeh stated in his prepared remarks: "The most powerful men at Penn State failed to take any steps for 14 years to protect the children Sandusky victimized." He said they "never demonstrated, through actions or words, any concern for the safety and well-being of Sandusky's victims" until after he was arrested in 2011.