Several thousand gather on campus lawn to pray for abused boys
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Penn State students gather at Old Main Friday night for a candlelight vigil for the victims of the sex abuse scandal.
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Penn State's Old Main lawn glowed with the light of trembling candles late Friday as several thousand students and alumni gathered to pray for the alleged victims of a child sex abuse scandal that has left an anguished campus searching for ways to heal.
The massive gathering outside of the university's administrative nerve center was the first step toward healing, said its organizers, who felt some on campus had lost sight of the scandal's greatest casualty, the eight boys former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky has been charged with molesting over a 15-year period.
Jessica Sever, a senior public relations major who organized the candlelight gathering, said her classmates were yearning for something positive amid a torrent of negative publicity.
She was among the somber crowd that filled nearly the entire lawn, where another contingent rioted two days earlier after the university trustees fired iconic football coach Joe Paterno. Friday night's crowd numbered as many as 10,000 by some estimates.
"We do care about this, and we do care about what happened to the kids," said Blair Porterfield, a senior and State College native. "People think we care more about this messing up our football season, and I just don't think that's the case."
For Ms. Porterfield and others, the vigil -- where speakers aired their own experiences with sexual abuse and students shared in a moment of silence -- capped a week full of distractions. They sauntered to and from classes on a campus that held a markedly different atmosphere than the jovial one they're accustomed to on the eve of a home football game.
"You go to class, you do what you have to, but campus has a much more somber feel right now," Ms. Porterfield said.
First Published November 12, 2011 12:50 am
