Three male role models used their power to abuse children and to protect themselves. Respectability politics is partly to blame. Dennis
Hastert, the former Speaker of the House whom everyone called “Coach,”
pleaded guilty Wednesday to paying off a former student to cover up
allegations of sexual abuse.
Hastert likely won’t go to prison—sentencing is set for Feb. 29—but
he is the latest in a sorry line of famous men entrusted with the care
of minors who instead sexually abused them: Jerry Sandusky, convicted of
45 counts of abusing teenage boys he met through “The Second Mile,” a
nonprofit he founded to help underprivileged youth; and Jared Fogle, who
traded child pornography with the co-director of his foundation, set up
to raise awareness of childhood obesity, and who paid to have sex with
teenage girls.http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/10/28/dennis-hastert-is-just-like-jared-fogle-and-jerry-sandusky.html