Penn State to renovate areas where boys abused

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - Penn State plans to renovate the building where Jerry Sandusky sexually molested boys.

University spokesman David La Torre said Friday that Penn State plans to remodel the football shower and locker room area as a direct result of Sandusky's crimes. The former defensive coordinator was convicted of assaulting some of his victims in the team shower.

La Torre said renovation plans to the Lasch Football Building were drawn up shortly after Sandusky's arrest in November. But he says Penn State can't move forward until all legal proceedings in the case are over.

Penn State President Rodney Erickson says there have been discussions about Lasch building renovations between Athletic Director David Joyner and new Penn State football coach Bill O'Brien.

Reminders of the Sandusky child sex abuse scandal - and the senior school officials accused of covering it up - are all over Penn State's campus and State College. School officials say they are still weighing how to deal with the other imagery associated with the scandal.

A statue outside Beaver Stadium served as a focal point for mourners of late coach Joe Paterno, but it has turned into a target for critics angered by former FBI director Louis Freeh's findings that Paterno and other university administrators concealed allegations against Sandusky in 1998 and 2001 to avoid bad publicity.

Some newspaper columnists and former Florida State coach Bobby Bowden have said the statue should be taken down.

"You go to a Penn State football game and there's 100,000 people down there and they got that statute and you know doggone well they'll start talking about Sandusky," Bowden told The Associated Press. "If it was me, I wouldn't want to have it brought up every time I walked out on the field."

---

Rubinkam reported from Scranton. Associated Press Writer Marc Levy in State College, Randy Pennell in Philadelphia and Brent Kallestad in Tallahassee, Fla., contributed to this report.