New Inquiry of Penn State Abuse Policy HARRISBURG, Pa. - The federal Education Department is looking into Penn State's handling of sexual harassment and sexual assault complaints to see if it responded appropriately to reports of abuse in the years connected to the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse scandal. Federal officials informed Penn State of the investigation in a letter Thursday, and said in a public statement on Sunday that they had concerns after reviewing Penn State's sexual harassment policy and seeing a huge spike in "forcible sex offenses" reported to the federal government by the university. The spike coincided with the Sandusky scandal, which broke in 2011. The investigation is to determine whether complaints were improperly handled before the sudden rise, thus keeping the numbers artificially low, a department spokesman said. The letter to Penn State's president, Rodney Erickson, said that federal officials had reached no conclusion as to whether Penn State had violated federal law.