Paterno Needs To Leave In Disgrace
As the story of sexual abuse against children unfolds at Penn State I find myself wondering how Paterno and crew are still standing. In fact, he’s holding his weekly press conference today. Should be interesting. Perhaps he’ll take a page out of Herman Cain’s book and scold the reporters.
Lawyers, Guns & Money breaks it down:
In any event Paterno did acknowledge in his grand jury testimony that he’s known since at least 2002 that Sandusky was a child molester, although incredibly enough now he’s even trying to walk back that admission. He testified that Mike McQueary told him he had seen Sandusky “fondling or doing something of a sexual nature to a young boy” in the PSU football locker room showers (McQueary testified that he saw Sandusky anally raping the child). Now in his statement Paterno is trying to get people to believe that he was told that his 58-year-old lifelong friend and co-worker was doing something “inappropriate” to a ten-year-old boy in a shower, but that he had no idea it was anything all that bad: certainly not bad enough to cause Paterno — by far the most powerful person in the PSU AD and arguably the most powerful person on campus — to wonder why the only thing that happened to Sandusky was that he was told not to bring the kids he was raping into the locker room any more (Sandusky retained all his access privileges to the campus until yesterday, and indeed was running football camps for young boys on Joe Paterno’s hallowed football field until two years ago).
Hmm… He testified that Mike McQueary told him he had seen Sandusky “fondling or doing something of a sexual nature to a young boy” in the PSU football locker room showers, but now says that he was told that his 58-year-old lifelong friend and co-worker was doing something “inappropriate” to a ten-year-old boy in a shower, but that he had no idea it was anything all that bad.
Perhaps Paterno could give us a list of “not all that bad” stuff a grown man does in a shower with a young boy. Seriously, what the hell? I’ve reached the conclusion, given the behavior of everyone involved who didn’t think calling the police was necessary, that molesting children wasn’t that big of a deal.
Time has more (including the the grand jury report):
The assistant (identified by the Harrisburg Patriot-News as current recruiting coordinator/wide receiver’s coach Mike McQueary) reported the incident to Paterno, but Paterno testified that the assistant left out the more graphic details. “It was obvious that the witness was distraught over what he saw, but he at no time related to me the very specific actions contained in the Grand Jury report,” Paterno said in a statement. “Regardless, it was clear that the witness saw something inappropriate involving Mr. Sandusky.” Paterno knew it was sexual in nature, according to the grand jury report.
Paterno then informed his boss, Curley, about the incident. The prosecution did not charge Paterno with any crimes, and he will reportedly testify for the prosecution at Sandusky’s trial. “I did what I was supposed to with the one charge brought to my attention,” Paterno said.
Hey, he did what he was “supposed” to do. Perhaps he should apply that philosophy now and resign… in total disgrace.
Tags: Joe Paterno, penn state, sports
I agree completely.
Just GO, Joe.
I agree, time for Joe Pa to go.
I gotta tell you, though, that I was astounded that Curley and Schulz would be so vigorously supportive of Sandusky. I’m all for innocent until proven guilty, but you’d think that caution and prevention would have been the order of the day.
I’m telling you… Sandusky’s behavior with little boys was a-okay with this group. How else do you explain their actions? It just wasn’t a big deal.
When I was growing up, my grandparents warned me about an older male relative who lived in the area. This was the early 60s and they weren’t very explicit, and I was a kid, so I had no idea what they were talking about. And they continued to socialize with him– he came to parties and had us all to his parties.
Years later a girl relative my own age told me that he had repeatedly molested her and that she’d told our grandparents. They already knew he did these things. Everyone knew. He’d done them to several of the girls in the family.
But nothing was ever done. The girl was made to feel like it was HER fault (“we told you not to be near him!”), and the adults all kept having him come to their parties.
I realized later that they didn’t really see child molesting as a crime. It was just pretty much like “being rude”. Certainly not enough reason to ostracize him or report him to the authorities!
Well, that was 50 years ago. This Penn State incident is NOW. The administrators of this university– presumably highly educated, sophisticated men with power– had the same mentality as my uneducated immigrant poor grandparents– even after decades of teachings about the crime of child molesting and change in the laws.
I had very little sympathy for my grandparents about this, and only contempt for the PSU administrators who decided to sacrifice children to the football gods.
What BLOWS MY MIND, is that they were able to continue working alongside this guy within the organization (I KNOW he’d retired, but he was still around, doing football camps, etc.) I can sort of see JoPA looking the other way (sort of in denial, like Johanna’s grandparents – also, god i’m sorry Johanna), I can see the Janitor who witnessed it and the grad student being afraid of losing their jobs. But really? NOBODY made an anonymous call to the cops? The grad student was ok rising through the ranks of the football organization and meeting eyes with a man he’d seen rape a kid? I just dont understand how you sleep at night.
Exactly, V. Their behavior displays they were fine with the behavior. It just wasn’t a big deal to them.
Thank you for sharing your story, Johanna. I’m sorry for your (and your families) heart breaking experience.
It’s a terrible way to end a storied career of a man who did so much to help so many people for so many years at Penn State. He’s needed to retire the past few years anyway. Just a sad note to go out on. I think for educators at the pre-college level it is actually a criminal offense not to report something like that to law enforcement.
I do think Paterno bears culpability, but not as much as the guy who witnessed it (see a crime, report to police) and the administrator who was informed, who is authoritatively responsible for what happens on campus property. Joe Paterno should have used his influence and mentorship to strongly encourage both to follow up on the issue, and gone to the police if it became clear that neither of the other two would do what they were obligated to.
While I’ve never rooted for ‘State Penn’, I have friends and co-workers who graduated from there. The ones I’ve spoken to are in a real state of shock, but not denial. They were proud of what they believed their alma mater stood for, and they’re at a loss as to what to feel or do.
They’re good people and they’ll get through this. But I really have tremendous sympathy for them.
As to Paterno, he does not deserve to spend another day as coach there. You can bet that his handlers and the university’s major domos are burning the midnight oil tonight watching Reagan’s Iran-Contra testimony to see how they can play the Alzheimer’s card. Without that, St. Joe’s halo has been permanently knocked off.
I no longer think Paterno should retired, he should be fired. It sounds like PSU needs a good cleaning actually. I would fire most of the athletic department and the president. Pretty much everyone who should have known. I don’t think we can get around the fact that PSU protected the institution first. Their response to someone witnessing a rape of a child was to tell the guy not to bring children to campus. That’s it.
Also, anyone who thinks Paterno did what he needs to do is just wrong. If PSU’s policy for reported sexual molestation of children is “tell your boss” they need a re-write.
I can not believe all the people abandoning good sense in this matter.
They’re talking about Tom Ridge as the possible new head of the University.
Not sure if the rumor about him bringing ‘Brownie’ on board as the head of security is true…
Joe a big Repuk did what all Repuks do when these things come in the open they make excuses and fail to report or take action just look to Denny Haster and Boehner when the page thing surfaced in the house they looked the other way until they were forced to act.
Breaking: Joe Paterno supposedly retiring at end of football season. Press conference later.
I can’t believe they will let him stay until the end of the season. I’m with UI – fire him.
Paterno just announced he will retire at the end of the year.
I think Paterno is trying to do two things here:
1. He’s once again trying to dictate his own terms to the university.
2. He’s setting himself up as a ‘victim’ should he be removed now, which is what I strongly believe should happen. Just what you’d expect any phony pillar of superior moral rectumtude, I mean, rectitude, to do.
I think he’ll fail at both. As ESPN’s Chris Fowler said this AM, Paterno had already used up whatever goodwill he had with the Board of Trustees when he resisted their calls to retire back in 2004.
Which means you can look forward to more pep rallies on Paterno’s lawn. And just how pathetic is that?
Paterno might be trying to hold on because the team is actually doing crazy well this year. There’s been talk of a bowl game in their future.
I feel bad for the football players, they could win it all this year, and no one would remember a thing. Also, if any of them had a chance at the NFL this could make it harder for them. More (clearly lesser) casualties to the pile of people who were less important than preserving the image of “Big Football” and some old creep’s legacy.
Corruption becomes a possibility whenever big money has entered the picture. And big money has long ago taken over college sports, especially football and basketball.
The first instinct of JoePa and the rest was to protect these interests by going forward with the continuum.
Now the Penn State administrators and directors have an opportunity to make a bold statement, which is to fire each and every one of those who ignored this terrible moral breach, and, to reset the primary role of the University back to education and research, which means to decrease tuition costs and to increase academic standards.
I am getting so sick of all the people saying that Paterno is getting a raw deal. He broke the law. He didn’t report a child being raped to the police. He should be let go now – no more games this season, no bowl games, no going out in style. He needs to be shunned by the football community. He’s no better than the bishops and popes who turned a blind eye to the hundreds of cases of priest sex abuse cases.
well. he’s out. http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2011/11/09/report-paterno-to-quit-after-season.html
Smart move. Staying to the end of the season was a disaster in the making. No way.
Not to diminish the crimes which sound horrible, but the interesting thing about this is that it is an interesting case study in the psychology of groups. Once a group organizes around what is “good” or “bad” for the group, then issues of right and wrong go out the window.
Humans are odd little monkeys.
Fired. It is sad. What a way to go out.
Paterno was full of hubris and himself until the end. He even tried to dictate the terms of his ‘retirement’ yesterday:
“”At this moment the Board of Trustees should not spend a single minute discussing my status,” Paterno said in the statement. “They have far more important matters to address. I want to make this as easy for them as I possibly can.”
Talk about condescending. After that, the BOT had no choice but to prove who’s the boss. Allowing St. Joe to leave on his own unreasonable terms would once again have proven that Paterno was the real boss at Penn State. For once, Paterno really did make it ‘as easy for them’ as he possibly could.
Thousands of Penn students are rioting in support of Paterno. Literally rioting. I wish I were joking:
We visited Penn State this summer, but crossed it off the list – it just wasn’t the right fit. But given this sort of behavior and that genius quote by Jeff I think we dodged a bullet. Rioting? Over a football coach?
Hopefully, other students will be interviewed. I’m certain all of them don’t feel this way.
Also at Penn:
This is exactly why chemical warfare is outlawed internationally – no nation uses it, because they don’t want it used against their own troops.
I have to admit this episode warms my heart (sorry, I grew up in the 60s and 70s and can’t help myself). I am sure the police used the spray indiscriminately simply to move the crowd, provoking the very violence that supposedly justifies it in the first place. That tactic should be banned, and if not banned, resisted.
What did they think would happen if they sprayed a bunch of hopped-up jocks with stinging chemicals?
This is exactly why college sports is corrupt. these little kids (im referring to the maturity level of the Penn state students) really ought to be ashamed of themselves. They are rioting in support of allowing children to be abused at the expense of beating Notre Dame in football. warms my heart…..? not really, more like nauseates me to the point of heartburn.
Actually until I hear otherwise, I think they were rioting against pepper spray and unwise crowd control tactics.
overturning news vans? pulling down lamp posts? http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/11/sports/ncaafootball/penn-state-students-in-clashes-after-joe-paterno-is-ousted.html?_r=1&hp that stuff happened BEFORE the cops showed up. the riot gear was a response to the crowd… who at that point had demonstrated a desire to act like a violent mob.
Well, I guess I didn’t pick a very sympathetic mob to make my point about the principle. Nonetheless, the point is that pepper spray is a poor crowd control device that provokes more riots than it quells. And that is exactly what the police want. When confronted with a crowd, they are itching for a chance to use their new DHS-funded toys. So tney create a provocation, and spin it to the media to remove blame from themselves.
I just hope that guy sprayed the right cop. But hey, even if the cop didn’t spray any citizens, he knew about it and didn’t stop it, so he needs to be fired, right?
Actually Ben, the NYT article does not give a very clear timeline at all. But here is what they did say:
It looks like pretty clear cause-and-effect – a police provocation.
Nowadays police departments have a wide array of toys to use against crowds, including fire-extinguisher sized dispensers of pepper spray,
In the old days, riots began when the billy clubs came out. Now they begin when the pepper spray comes out.
For me it’s kind of a Second Amendment issue. If ten guys had come out from the crowd and left a dozen or so spray-loving cops writhing on the ground from pepper spray, today we would be having a long-overdue national debate on the use of pepper spray for general crowd control.
Puck, on this your dead wrong. There is no excuse to attack a law enforcement officer who is trying to control a mob that was out of control before he arrived on the scene.
“The demonstrators congregated outside Penn State’s administration building before stampeding into the tight grid of downtown streets. They turned their ire on a news van, a symbolic gesture that expressed a view held by many that the news media exaggerated Mr. Paterno’s role in the scandal surrounding accusations that a former assistant coach, Jerry Sandusky, sexually assaulted young boys.
“I think the point people are trying to make is the media is responsible for Joe Pa going down,” said a freshman, Mike Clark, 18, adding that he believed that Mr. Paterno had met his legal and moral responsibilities by telling university authorities about an accusation that Mr. Sandusky assaulted a boy in a university shower in 2002.
Demonstrators tore down two lamp posts, one falling into a crowd. They also threw rocks and fireworks at the police, who responded with pepper spray.”
not sure which part of the article you read, man…. but my understanding of THAT is that a mob…. seemingly pro-sexual abuse attacked a news van, vandalized the town and threw fireworks at cops… ive been making my feelings about police brutality known a lot lately, but this was a clear case where stronger force was needed and used.
” a mob that was out of control before he arrived on the scene.”
That’s not what the NYT article says. Where did you get that timeline?
I think when you are being sprayed by toxic chemicals – or even watching your friends get sprayed – it is human nature to go to the source and make it stop, if you have the ability.
the source was a News Van? do you keep missing the part where the riot was a reaction to the university? whatever happened after the cans came out is irrelevant to my point that there was violence before the cops showed up.
The NYT article contradicts itself on the timeline. Both these quotes are in the article:
First:
Then:
Am I the only one who sees the problem here? Don’t jump to conclusions about the timeline.
In fact, I am sure the first quote is from police, and the second is from civilian accounts. I will further bet that the police will call the NYT and have the second version removed from the article by the end of the day. I captured the early version and will check tomorrow.
“Some took off their shirts and tied them around their mouths for protection from the fog of pepper spray that left countless students hacking. ”
Pepper spray is NOT supposed to be dispensed in a “fog.”
My younger (at UD), sports fanatic brother was livid this morning. He thought he should stay until the end of the season. All I could keep saying was “stop, take a step back, it is JUST a game.”
because really it IS just a game. It’s a stupid game. Was this guys firing totally fair? Probably not actually. But the only way the university could survive this was to completely clean house. You know what else isn’t fair? Getting raped when you’re 10, having someone walk in and think that maybe now SOMEBODY will help you, and then have no one believe you for NINE YEARS.
you’re upset about the wrong conspiracy. This “demonstration” was disgusting to begin with. They were protesting someone who protected a child rapist getting fired. whatever the timeline, this mob should not by sympathetically linked with…. let’s say Occupy Oakland. These spoiled little brats showed they care more about winning football games, and all the vapid bullshit ritual that goes along with it than the well-being of children. screw them.
i’ll try to mention the news van they attacked (recklessly endangering anyone who might be inside. what about THEIR safety?)
I told you it wasn’t a sympathetic example to make my point on the use of pepper spray. But so far it seems like an excellent example, if not a sympathetic one. Pepper spray provokes more riots than it subues. And it looks like that’s what happened here. Maybe a better timeline will emerge – the NYT timeline is not credible.
OK. i’ll agree with you on the singular point that pepper spray causes more rioting than is quells…… THAT SAID….. blah blah blah everything i just said about attacking journalists for printing facts, defending kiddy fiddlers and football is lame.
You’re correct, puck. You didn’t pick a sympathetic mob. You’ve also given them an intellectual argument that they probably never considered.
I understand where you are coming from, and it’s valid. Please don’t waste it on this group of strapping, young bucks. All I could think of when viewing that video was the young Republican males storming the office to stop the recount in Florida.
And, don’t worry. Given the way things are going you’ll have a lot of chances to make your point.
Here’s another account. No timeline directly mentioned.
George Will has an interesting op/ed in today’s News Journal on the subject of money in college football, pointing out that a head coach gets upwards of $3-5 million, whereas the college president makes less than a million, citing the University of Alabama as his example. How backwards/upside down is this? What are our institutions of higher learning supposed to be doing primarily?
Decades ago my alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania, and the entire Ivy League, made the decision not to award sports scholarships. As far as I know, this is still their policy. This deemphasis of college sports was a step in the right direction, and the intervening years have demonstrated the wisdom of that decision. That said, I don’t foresee any changes on the horizon elsewhere, sadly.
Yes, true, at the Ivies the tuition is very high; however, successful alumni have enabled the generation of high endowments which are used to reduce tuition, room, and board for academically qualified students in need of assistance. Thus, placing academics and research as top priority works very well, while the sports programs continue to function very well also, as educational adjuncts.
Funny thing is, the wikipedia article on Paterno states that Paterno’s college tuition in the 1940s was paid for by an unrelated older man, an innovative comic book publisher improbably named “Busy Arnold.” You can look it up. I wonder what that was all about? How far back does this go?