Penn State Child Molestation Scandal...continuing discussion

[lazarus]

iYup is aware that he's more than just a football coach to the PSU faculty, student body, and alumni, but I think the important question he was asking was "Why?" as in why is such a value placed on something so insignificant.

If I ran the world, competitive athletics would be completely severed from the school system and just turned into minor leagues across the board. It has NOTHING to do with higher education.

Also, someone Tweeted that last night's protest was the "Arab Spring for douchebags".

[GirlsAloudFan]

That's an incredibly troubling thought:

What if Laz ran the world?

[LemonMelon]

Originally Posted by lazarus

iYup is aware that he's more than just a football coach to the PSU faculty, student body, and alumni, but I think the important question he was asking was "Why?" as in why is such a value placed on something so insignificant.

The question of "why?" is irrelevant to someone who has been part of an institution for 60 years, and it's certainly not safe to load that question with the assumption that he's only benefited the athletic program. He's done a whole lot of shit for PSU unrelated to football by this point. iYup may be aware of this, but his argument doesn't allow any concessions for it.

If college students were paid, I personally wouldn't bother with NCAA. Lower quality performances than pro leagues, driven by cash all the same? No thanks.

[deep]

Originally Posted by lazarus

Also, someone Tweeted that last night's protest was the "Arab Spring for douchebags".

I think it is the 'before party' for occupying city parks, or the rest of their lives.

[lazarus]

Well why watch then? What's the difference if people are rooting for a team connected to their school vs. a city/township? It's all local pride bullshit either way; it's not like the people who all support a team have anything else in common.

[LemonMelon]

It's the difference between NCAA basketball and the fucking NBA. Paychecks shouldn't be the driving motivation behind performance, and it will tarnish the purity of the league. There's no maybe about it.

(I suppose I'm a bit naive to assume that future paychecks aren't already an influence.)

[GirlsAloudFan]

But the NBA has Derrick Rose.

It wins by default.

[mikal]

so please forgive my ignorance. i'm one of the few that haven't been following this story that close. i just read a general timeline of events, and i took away that Paterno actually called the AD the day after the grad student reported seeing an incident to report what he had heard.

is there more to it? i guess i don't necessarily see where Paterno did anything wrong. i must have missed something.

again, please forgive me, i really have been living under a rock with this case.

[deep]

I don't think you need forgiveness

I have not spent a whole lot of time on this either
but to be fair, we can/should spent about 20 minutes with google and get brought up to speed instead of asking others to rewrite that information here

[Danny Boy]

Originally Posted by mikal

so please forgive my ignorance. i'm one of the few that haven't been following this story that close. i just read a general timeline of events, and i took away that Paterno actually called the AD the day after the grad student reported seeing an incident to report what he had heard.

is there more to it? i guess i don't necessarily see where Paterno did anything wrong. i must have missed something.

again, please forgive me, i really have been living under a rock with this case.

You're right, from a technical, legal standpoint he probably didn't do anything wrong. His inaction allowed a child sexual predator to continue operating unchecked on the Penn State campus for nine years, but he did his due diligence.

[mobvok]

Paterno's football program harbored a child rapist, and after being made aware of that fact, PSU's chief action was not to report to the police, but only to ban the child rapist from its locker rooms.

"Rape all you want, just don't do it here!"

Either Paterno was out of touch, in which case he should have been fired on grounds of gross negligence, or Paterno knowingly let a child rapist not just evade prosecution, but spend the next 10 years in close contact with at-risk youths through his foundation.

[mikal]

Originally Posted by Danny Boy

You're right, from a technical, legal standpoint he probably didn't do anything wrong. His inaction allowed a child sexual predator to continue operating unchecked on the Penn State campus for nine years, but he did his due diligence.

i suppose i would need more background on what exactly his position was with Penn State. i just thought he was the head coach. wasn't the incident reported to him after Sandusky retired from Penn State? so it's not like he was working directly under Paterno at the time the incident was reported.

i guess i see everyone's point. it would have been nice for Paterno to go on a crusade to find out the real truth, but i don't know that he should be getting flamed on this as much as he is.

again, there may be more to this than i know about. but on the surface, i don't see anything yet that convinces me that Paterno did anything worthy of being terminated from his head coaching position.

[lazarus]

Right. He may have reported it immediately, but it's his failure to follow-up or wield his considerable influence that's the big issue here.

[mikal]

Originally Posted by mobvok

Paterno's football program harbored a child rapist, and after being made aware of that fact, PSU's chief action was not to report to the police, but only to ban the child rapist from its locker rooms.

"Rape all you want, just don't do it here!"

Either Paterno was out of touch, in which case he should have been fired on grounds of gross negligence, or Paterno knowingly let a child rapist not just evade prosecution, but spend the next 10 years in close contact with at-risk youths through his foundation.

and there's concrete evidence that Paterno knew about this and helped cover it up?

not arguing, just asking for clarification.

[BoMac]

Originally Posted by mikal

and there's concrete evidence that Paterno knew about this and helped cover it up?

not arguing, just asking for clarification.

I don't know about "concrete evidence" but the general consensus, I think, is that how could a man that had Paterno's power and influence around campus not know what was going on under his very nose?

[mikal]

Originally Posted by lazarus

Right. He may have reported it immediately, but it's his failure to follow-up or wield his considerable influence that's the big issue here.

yeah, i can see that. it's a tough situation. if someone at my work reported to me that they had been abused, i would refer them to the general hotline we provide and expect that they handle it appropriately. the only way i would become involved again is if it involved another employee of mine.

i just wonder if that was Paterno's thinking. i'll report the incident to the AD and trust that it's handled appropriately and get back to my business.

[GirlsAloudFan]

Originally Posted by mobvok

Paterno's football program harbored a child rapist, and after being made aware of that fact, PSU's chief action was not to report to the police, but only to ban the child rapist from its locker rooms.

"Rape all you want, just don't do it here!"

I think Sandusky was still allowed in the locker rooms, up until last week.

The action they took in '02 apparently was keeping Sandusky from bringing the kids from Second Mile to Penn St.

So it was more like "Rape all you want, just don't bring the boys you're raping to our campus!"

[GirlsAloudFan]

Originally Posted by mikal

wasn't the incident reported to him after Sandusky retired from Penn State? so it's not like he was working directly under Paterno at the time the incident was reported.

No. This goes way back. There were allegations, whispers, reports of child molestation back in the '90s. Maybe even before.

Let's not get it twisted, Sandusky was on Paterno's staff when the first reports of child molestation came out.

Paterno knew. And, in one way or the other, assisted in covering it up.

[mikal]

Originally Posted by GirlsAloudFan

No. This goes way back. There were allegations, whispers, reports of child molestation back in the '90s. Maybe even before.

Let's not get it twisted, Sandusky was on Paterno's staff when the first reports of child molestation came out.

Paterno knew. And, in one way or the other, assisted in covering it up.

not trying to twist anything, just trying to gain understanding. i guess what i haven't seen yet is evidence that Paterno actually knew and covered up this whole mess. yeah, it looks like he probably did, but was there any evidence supporting that theory......or enough to support terminating him from his head coaching position?

[gvox]

I am of the impression that it goes a bit further than that, that when he initially reported to his AD, he watered it down to "fondling" or "touching of a sexual nature" when in fact he fully knew that it was anal rape of a boy of about 10 years of age. So in other words his reporting was even horribly flawed if not an outright lie.

Can anyone expand on this?

Even so, he had a moral obligation to see that allegation through to some sort of disciplinary if not legal end, Sandusky was under him. When the university did nothing, he had at least moral if not also legal obligation to go outside that circle and report it to the police or child protective agencies, and he didn't.