Family of Shawn Sinisi, Victim of Coach Jerry Sandusky, Sues Penn State for Wrongful Death

Ten years after former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky was arrested on charges of child sexual abuse, the family of one of his victims not involved in the ensuing lawsuit say that both the university and the rehabilitation system failed their son. Shawn Sinisi, who was abused by Sandusky while attending the coach’s Second Mile football camps as a kid, died of an overdose in 2018. His parents, Marianne and Mark, are suing Penn State for wrongful death. The school did not directly address the suit in response to questions, but pointed out it had hired a counseling services group to help Sandusky’s victims in 2012.

Sinisi struggled with his mental health throughout his young adulthood, cycling between jail, rehab, and homelessness. He unsuccessfully entered rehab more than 10 times to treat addiction. Almost none of the facilities he attended gave him counseling for his trauma alongside addiction therapy, and several prescribed him opioids, which his mother believes sabotaged his recovery. A day before Sinisi’s death, according to a report by Penn Live, he was kicked out of The Meadows, a nationally renowned rehab center, one of several Penn State agreed to pay for him to attend. Sinisi was placed on a plane to Pittsburgh with nothing lined up for him, and overdosed in a McDonald’s bathroom shortly after that.

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