Penn State Child Sex Abuse Scandal

Geico266

Geico266

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Geico
Many are calling for Joe to step down. He knew there were boys being sexually assaulted in his locker room. At least 2 eye witnesses reported the sex acts taking place in the locker room showers on boys as young as 10. Joe Paterno told his "bosses" as required by law, but he runs the the university and could have called the police himself and or launced his own investigation. He did nothing and allowed the abuse of children to continue for decades to protect himself at the expense of children.

Shame on you Joe Paterno. You have brought shame to your reputation and Penn State. Time to retire Joe.
 
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Kick him out right now even though he in fact reported the incident to his immediate superior. Forget that it was the athletic director, not Paterno, who allegedly violated the law. Forget that Jerry Sandusky was no longer a coach in 2002 and was not Paterno's responsibility. Forget that Paterno effectively got rid of Sandusky in 1999 following the 1998 incident in which Sandusky was not charged in an official police investigation. Forget that Sandusky allegedly targeted his victims through the Second Mile charity, not via Penn State.
Yep, forget all that and kick out Paterno right now. Let's not wait to read Paterno's entire grand jury testimony. Let's not wait to read precisely what he was told by the eyewitness back in 2002. Let's not wait for the case to go through the legal system and hear all of the facts. Let's not wait to see if Paterno testifies at trial and hear what he says. Let's not wait to process all of the information and see all of the evidence.
 
Joe Pa is older than Odin. He probably should have retired along about the eighties.
 
deltafox said:
Kick him out right now even though he in fact reported the incident to his immediate superior. Forget that it was the athletic director, not Paterno, who allegedly violated the law. Forget that Jerry Sandusky was no longer a coach in 2002 and was not Paterno's responsibility. Forget that Paterno effectively got rid of Sandusky in 1999 following the 1998 incident in which Sandusky was not charged in an official police investigation. Forget that Sandusky allegedly targeted his victims through the Second Mile charity, not via Penn State.
Yep, forget all that and kick out Paterno right now. Let's not wait to read Paterno's entire grand jury testimony. Let's not wait to read precisely what he was told by the eyewitness back in 2002. Let's not wait for the case to go through the legal system and hear all of the facts. Let's not wait to see if Paterno testifies at trial and hear what he says. Let's not wait to process all of the information and see all of the evidence.
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Welcome to America 2011
 
deltafox said:
Kick him out right now even though he in fact reported the incident to his immediate superior. Forget that it was the athletic director, not Paterno, who allegedly violated the law. Forget that Jerry Sandusky was no longer a coach in 2002 and was not Paterno's responsibility. Forget that Paterno effectively got rid of Sandusky in 1999 following the 1998 incident in which Sandusky was not charged in an official police investigation. Forget that Sandusky allegedly targeted his victims through the Second Mile charity, not via Penn State.
Yep, forget all that and kick out Paterno right now. Let's not wait to read Paterno's entire grand jury testimony. Let's not wait to read precisely what he was told by the eyewitness back in 2002. Let's not wait for the case to go through the legal system and hear all of the facts. Let's not wait to see if Paterno testifies at trial and hear what he says. Let's not wait to process all of the information and see all of the evidence.
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Joe Parerno is the athletic department at Penn State. He did the absolute minimum required by law. There is doing what is legally required and there is doing what is right and moral. Joe Paterno built the Penn State football program on doing it the right way, but in his case he failed to do what is right and moral. He failed in the latter at the expense of childrens lives and to protect himself and the university. He could have done so much more to protect and help the kid after the assault, but did nothing, and for that he will now always be remembered as someone who protected a child molester and himself.
 
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How was he supposed to know that his superiors never took any action? Perhaps he thought they investigated and did not find enough evidence. Calling police himself over allegations (unless he personally witnessed something) could have gotten him fired.
 
dell30rb said:
How was he supposed to know that his superiors never took any action? Perhaps he thought they investigated and did not find enough evidence. Calling police himself over allegations (unless he personally witnessed something) could have gotten him fired.
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Fire Joe Paterno for calling the police or child protective services after an eye witness comes forward with allegations of sexual abuse of a child on university grounds? :dunno: Would not the child and his welfare trump the fear of being fired? :idea:

So what you are saying is that Paterno did hide information to protect himself and the university?
 
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"Jerry Sandusky, the former assistant Penn State football coach charged with sexually assaulting at least eight boys, was allowed to operate a summer football camp for boys on a Penn State satellite campus for six year after school officials were told of his improper contacts with boys.

Penn State officials prohibited Sandusky from bringing boys onto the main campus at State College, Pa., in 2002 after a graduate student reported that he had seen Sandusky assault a boy in a locker room shower. But Sandusky operated a summer camp under his name from 2002 to 2008 at a satellite campus near Erie, Pa., where he had daily contact with boys from fourth grade to high school."

The above is being reported in the Los Angeles Times.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2011/11/sandusky-penn-state-.html
 
Geico266 said:
Joe Parerno is the athletic department at Penn State. He did the absolute minimum required by law. There is doing what is legally required and there is doing what is right and moral. Joe Paterno built the Penn State football program on doing it the right way, but in his case he failed to do what is right and moral. He failed in the latter at the expense of childrens lives and to protect himself and the university. He could have done so much more to protect and help the kid after the assault, but did nothing, and for that he will now always be remembered as someone who protected a child molester.
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The question to be asked is this:

"What is the ethical & moral obligation required of Paterno?"

The follow-on questions are:

Did he follow-up to determine whether action was warranted?
If so, did he have an obligation to bump it up the chain or go to outside authorities?

It is the classic moral dilema question.

Herman Cain is not the appropriate analogy. A more appropriate analogy is the Wall Street collapse & the fact that some insiders who knew of the problems and risks did nothing more than alert superiors within their firms. Did they have a moral obligation to pursue it further?

Like Paterno, they knew that exposing the problems would shed unfavorable light on their institutions & colleagues.
 
wsuffa said:
Like Paterno, they knew that exposing the problems would shed unfavorable light on their institutions & colleagues.
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Exactly. They sacrificed children to protect their legacey. For that they will be forever damned in my book. They allowed the sexual abuse of boys to continue for 6 years after the first eye witness came forward. Damn them to hell.
 
Geico266 said:
Exactly. They sacrificed children to protect their legacey. For that they will be forever damned in my book. They allowed the sexual abuse of boys to continue for 6 years after the first eye witness came forward. Damn them to hell.
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I'm afraid, based on what I know today, that I agree with you. Joe Paterno was high on my list of men who seemed to have done things the right way.

What I don't understand is why, when this was observed by the graduate assistant, who I understand was a football player himself, he didn't move to physically stop the assault himself. They should have called the police and an ambulance.
 
nddons said:
I'm afraid, based on what I know today, that I agree with you. Joe Paterno was high on my list of men who seemed to have done things the right way.

What I don't understand is why, when this was observed by the graduate assistant, who I understand was a football player himself, he didn't move to physically stop the assault himself. They should have called the police and an ambulance.
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Anthony said:
Joe must go.
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Exactly.

I don't have an axe to grind against Penn St. I think Joe Paterno up to this point was an example of what is right with college sports. But, the facts here are clear and I will side with children over institutions every time. Joe has got to go.
 
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dmccormack said:
Hang on -- the alleged activities happened on a "Penn State Satellite campus."

There are 19 campuses in 18 different counties:


So Joe Paterno -- the Football coach -- is supposed to police all these facilities?
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lemme tell you how this works these days.

When Someone says "What name comes to mind when you think of Penn State" Who do you think of?

Now write that name down.

BLAME HIM and GUILTY!!!!

This is the court of public opinion based around news articles that garner the most readers and written in such a way to stir the most emotion.

JoePa has been tried and found guilty in the court of public opinion. case closed and no appeal process necessary.

I'm not defending him, I just don't have my pitchfork out just yet.
 
bartmc said:
lemme tell you how this works these days.

When Someone says "What name comes to mind when you think of Penn State" Who do you think of?

Now write that name down.

BLAME HIM and GUILTY IF HE ISN'T A PROTECTED CATEGORY!!!!

This is the court of public opinion based around news articles that garner the most readers and written in such a way to stir the most emotion.

JoePa has been tried and found guilty in the court of public opinion. case closed and no appeal process necessary.

I'm not defending him, I just don't have my pitchfork out just yet.
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Fixed it for ya.... :rolleyes:
 
dmccormack said:
...

So Joe Paterno -- the Football coach -- is supposed to police all these facilities?
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He doesn't have to. He has power - Once he heard about what was going on, all he had to do was say, "This guy has to go". And that guy would have been beaten with baseball bats.

He did go up the chain of command, but I haven't heard anything about him, or anybody else, actually following up except to say "I did MY job."

It's a mess all around, but anyone who gets punished now is just a slap compared to what reportedly happened.
 
NYT is reporting that the school is working on his departure. His press conference today was canceled - by the school.
 
Here is a question to all.

You are a 28 year old man, in a locker room and hear a strange noise, you go to investigate and what you find is a middle age or older man performing a sex act on a boy of 10 years old.

Do you:

a) back away quietly, and then the next day you tell your boss what you saw and no police where ever called.
b) you intervene, rescue the boy and call police
c) back away and call police to come rescue the boy
d) get a bat, beat the living crap out of the man, rescue the boy, call the cops and tell your boss what happened

In this sad event the 28 year was the former Penn St. football player and was at the time the graduate assistant who eye witnessed the event. He opted for choice a. The boss was Joe Paterno, who also did not do much other than to keep it as quiet as possible only passing the report up a rung.
 
ScottM said:
Here is a question to all.

You are a 28 year old man, in a locker room and hear a strange noise, you go to investigate and what you find is a middle age or older man performing a sex act on a boy of 10 years old.

Do you:

a) back away quietly, and then the next day you tell your boss what you saw and no police where ever called.
b) you intervene, rescue the boy and call police
c) back away and call police to come rescue the boy
d) get a bat, beat the living crap out of the man, rescue the boy, call the cops and tell your boss what happened

In this sad event the 28 year was the former Penn St. football player and was at the time the graduate assistant who eye witnessed the event. He opted for choice a. The boss was Joe Paterno, who also did not do much other than to keep it as quiet as possible only passing the report up a rung.
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I'd beat the living snot out of the creep and then tell the world.

BUT -- do we know that's what happened here? Or is this merely alleged?
 
dmccormack said:
I'd beat the living snot out of the creep and then tell the world.

BUT -- do we know that's what happened here? Or is this merely alleged?
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The investigation report is the source of that info. The graduate assist witnessed this and he and his father went to coach Paterno the nest day. In violation of Penn. law no police report was filled by anyone.

There is also a report in the investigation that janitor caught Sandusky. Again the school and the janitor made no police report.

That is the stickler is that it now starts to look like a school cover up. The two guys who are being held accountable for this, other than Sanduscky, are the athletic director and a vp. Both failed to report the events when they were reported and attempted, in the grand jury, to change the characterizations of the reports they received from sex act to "horsing around." They have been charged with failure to make the report and are supposed to turn themselves into police.
 
This is going to get ugly for a lot of folks. Hopefully the abused have found solace with what occured.
 
Out of curiosity, what do we know right now?
 
Obi Heed Kenobi said:
Out of curiosity, what do we know right now?
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I know Penn State is a good school and they will survive this. No coach, no football program is greater than the school itself. They need to clean house and start over.

I also know there are victims and their families that are hurting today because grown men did not do the right thing and stop the sexual molestation of children.
 
wsuffa said:
We do have the grand jury report, based on the evidence they uncovered:

Link to Penn State Grand Jury Report

It's also on the Pennsylvania State Attorney's website, but that site is non-responsive (probably due to the traffic....)
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With no offense intended to grand juries, I wouldn't put too much credence in what grand juries say.

Ham sandwiches....
 
Glad you are so sure you have all the facts necessary to publish that sillyass opinion.

Geico266 said:
Joe Parerno is the athletic department at Penn State. He did the absolute minimum required by law. There is doing what is legally required and there is doing what is right and moral. Joe Paterno built the Penn State football program on doing it the right way, but in his case he failed to do what is right and moral. He failed in the latter at the expense of childrens lives and to protect himself and the university. He could have done so much more to protect and help the kid after the assault, but did nothing, and for that he will now always be remembered as someone who protected a child molester and himself.
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The facts are not clear, they are exactly the opposite. How can anybody other than an aboslute idiot possibly think all the facts are known at this point? Why do chains of command exist? To be disregarded at the whim of those in them? Joe reported the problem to his superior the next day.

Everything that happened after that was not within the purview of any coaching job at any institution in the country, unless the coach is also AD, district attorney and sheriff.

And while you're rummaging through your closet looking for the noose, you might want to think about how Paterno could possibly have known the progress, status or outcome of this case. Sex abuse cases are treated with more confidentiality than anything else in this country other than the origin of Obama's birth certificate. Nobody in law enforcement, child protective services or the judicial system would have disclosed a single snippet to him, no matter what his position at the university or his role in reporting the crime. When these cases go behind the veil, ain't nobody talking.

I don't have an axe to grind against Penn St. I think Joe Paterno up to this point was an example of what is right with college sports. But, the facts here are clear and I will side with children over institutions every time. Joe has got to go.[/QUOTE]
 
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wabower said:
The facts are not clear, they are exactly the opposite. How can anybody other than an aboslute idiot possibly think all the facts are known at this point? Why do chains of command exist? To be disregarded at the whim of those in them? Joe reported the problem to his superior the next day.

Everything that happened after that was not within the purview of any coaching job at any institution in the country, unless the coach is also AD, district attorney and sheriff.
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He reported a child being sodomized in his locker room shower then spent the next 6 years looking the other way knowing the same pedifile was raping more boys.

That is enough for me to have the coach fired.

BTW, "Chain of Command" only exists in the military. He was required to report to his superiors as a facilty member, and as a citizen he has a moral obligation to report it to the police. He did not, and he must be fired for that lapse of judgement.
 
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Move to strike, speculation.
Geico266 said:
He reported a child being sodomized in his locker room shower then spent the next 6 years looking the other way knowing the same pedifile was raping more boys.

That is enough for me to have the coach fired.
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