At the time of the incident in 2002, Paterno followed state law in reporting the incicent to his superior.
If Paterno had gone out of the chain of command on his own, he could have been charged with a crime.
Then why did the Freeh report say that senior officials at Penn State University, including Paterno, failed for more than a decade to take any steps to protect the children victimized by Sandusky? Maybe Freeh, who used to be a federal judge and the head of the FBI just doesn’t know the law? The report did say that Paterno met his obligation under state law by informing his superior but he should have done more. To me, it looks like Paterno decided to keep quiet and hope the Sandusky thing went away to avoid embarrassing the football program. Other people may see it differently.