The arrest on child-abuse charges of a one-time assistant football coach at a prominent American university has quickly broadened into a major scandal. The president of Pennsylvania State University and the school's enormously popular football coach, Joe Paterno, have been dismissed, and further consequences are expected.
美国一所著名大学的前美式足球助理教练由于性侵犯儿童的指控而被捕的事件已迅速扩大成一个重大的丑闻。宾夕法尼亚州立大学校长和该校极受欢迎的足球主教练帕特诺已被撤职，预料这一事件还会有进一步的后果。
Penn State, as the school is called in the U.S., reacted decisively to show its senior officials must be held accountable if they fail to take action against such abuse.
最近前宾州州立大学足球队主管防守的助理教练桑达斯基因涉嫌性侵犯而被捕。
The recent arrest of the former defensive coordinator for the Penn State university football team, Gerald Sandusky, created a cascade of events dominating U.S. media headlines.
Sandusky is being charged with sexually abusing eight boys over a period of 15 years. Several more accusers have come forward to police. Sandusky denies the accusations, and his lawyer says he has already been tried in the court of public opinion.
桑达斯基被控在15年期间性侵犯了8名男童。另外还有更多的人向警方控告他的这一罪行。桑达斯基否认对他的指控，他的律师说，桑达斯基已经受到舆论法庭的审判。
Still, the arrest did not take long to have other effects.
Legendary football coach Joe Paterno, who was still coaching at the age of 84, with a record 409 victories to his credit, was fired, as were top university officials.
宾州大学的足球主教练、传奇人物帕特诺和该校一些最高层官员已被撤职。此前，宾州大学的足球主教练、84岁高龄的帕特诺创下了409场胜利的记录。
Angry sports commentators are saying the entire football team, which brings the university more than $50 million in profit every year, should also quit its season now.
愤怒的体育评论员们说，这个足球队全体也应当退出本次赛季。宾夕法尼亚州立大学足球队每年为该校带来5000万美元以上的利润。
Paterno had been told about Sandusky violating a boy in 2002. At the time, Sandusky was running a charity for foster children with activities at the football team’s practice center. Paterno told his superiors but not police.
2002年，帕特诺被告知桑达斯基对一名男童有性侵犯的行为。当时，桑达斯基管理着一个收养儿童的慈善机构，并且在这个足球队的练习中心进行活动。帕特诺把这件事向上级做了报告，但并未通知警方。
Child abuse in the United States is mainly the responsibility of states and local governments.
在美国，处理儿童性侵案主要是州政府和地方政府的责任。
In Pennsylvania, telling your superiors is what you are mandated to do, while in other states failure to report knowing about child abuse can be a crime.
在宾夕法尼亚州，你必须把有关性侵儿童案报告上级。而在一些其他的州，对儿童性侵案知情不报则属于犯罪行为。
Pennsylvania state police commissioner Frank Noonan was clear about his priorities.
宾夕法尼亚州警察厅长弗兰克.努南很清楚在这个案件中需要优先解决的问题。
"This is not a case about football, about universities. It is a case about children who have had their innocence stolen from them, in a culture that did nothing to stop it or prevent it from happening to others,” he said.
努南说：“这并不是一个有关足球的案子，也不是关于大学的案子。它是关于那些孩子的童真被玷污的问题，而且是在这样一个文化环境中出现的问题。在这里，有关人员没有采取任何行动来阻止或预防这类事件在其他孩子身上重演。”
There had been other allegations against Sandusky which had also been ignored.
桑达斯基过去还受到过其他指称，可是这些也被忽视了。
Similar scandals with attempted cover-ups have affected other schools in the United States, as well as the Catholic Church.
在美国的其他学校以及天主教会，也发生过类似的性侵案件，出事机构也曾企图掩盖这些丑闻。
In recent decades, thousands of victims have come forward saying they were sexually abused as children by Catholic priests.
最近几十年，数以千计的受害者挺身而出，说他们小时候曾经遭受天主教神父的性侵犯。
Jon O’Brien, president of a Washington-based group called Catholics for Choice, says the Catholic Church made huge mistakes in dealing with its own scandals.
设在华盛顿的天主教自由选择组织的负责人奥布莱恩说，天主教会在处理其自身的丑闻方面犯了巨大的错误。
"The sexual abuse of children was outrageous," he said. "The cover-up, the subsequent cover-up, though, is what I think fundamentally disappoints and hurts so many of us, inside and outside the Church. Because we recognize that there has not been the type of far-reaching efforts to both identify what went wrong and what was the mindset that actually cannot admit, 'We made a mistake.'"
奥布莱恩说：“对儿童进行性侵犯是令人无法容忍的行径。而我认为，后来掩盖这样的丑闻又让人非常失望，并且伤害了天主教会内外的许多人。因为我们承认，教会并没有做出极大的努力来查明出问题的原因以及究竟是什么心态使我们不敢认错。”
The Penn State University board of trustees moved quickly after the arrest to fire top university officials and coach Paterno. The board is now forming a special committee to investigate the school’s handling of the still unfolding Sandusky scandal.
桑达斯基被捕之后，宾夕法尼亚州立大学的董事会迅速采取行动，解雇了几名最高层管理人员和主教练帕特诺。董事会还成立了一个特别委员会，调查该校是如何处理仍在发展的桑达斯基丑闻的。 |