Penn State University trustees said Monday they fired legendary gridiron coach Joe Paterno for “failure of leadership” after child abuse accusations against an assistant. The statement from the school's board of trustees comes after months of criticism for the panel since they fired Paterno, the winningest American football coach in US college history and who died of lung cancer in January. Paterno had been criticized for not taking greater action when being told by a witness that former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky had been molesting a 10-year-old boy in a locker room shower. Paterno reported the incident to university authorities, fulfilling legal requirements, but his lack of following up on the matter was what led to his dismissal, the trustees said. “We determined that his decision to do his minimum legal duty and not to do more to follow up constituted a failure of leadership by coach Paterno,” the trustees wrote. The statement came in the wake of continued alumni and student criticism for the trustees over their actions in firing Paterno. Sandusky faces 52 charges of child sex abuse involving 10 boys. Sandusky has denied the charges and his trial is set to begin on May 14. Trustees also apologized for firing Paterno in a late-night telephone call just days before he was set to guide the Nittany Lions gridiron squad against Nebraska. “We saw no better alternative,” the trustees wrote. “Because coach Paterno's home was surrounded by media representatives, photographers and others, we did not believe there was a dignified, private and secure way to send board representatives to meet with him there.” The trustees said they intended to apologize for how they were delivering the news but Paterno ended the call before that happened. They explained not waiting until the following morning by saying they feared leaks of the news.
