Joe Paterno Fired

Parent Cafe
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<p>The Grand Jury was pretty straight forward that they did not believe this to be the case. McQueary testified that he specifically told not only Joe P but also the Athletic Director “specifically” what happened. I can’t for a minute believe that in the state of shock McQueary was in that he drove to Joe’s house to say he “saw something inappropriate” in the shower or that he witnessed “horseplay”. I believe he was straight forward, graphic and honest. The Grand Jury found his testimory “Very Credible” and yet they found Joe and the other talking heads “not credible”.</p>

<p>And yes, McQueary was an adult. An adult who’s first instinct was to call his parents. That tells me at that point in is life he was thinking more like a child than an adult and that he more than likely took the guideness of his parents to heart, which was to put this in the hands of Joe.</p>

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<p>I am speechless by this. This “grad student” was 28 years old! 28 years old is a full fledged adult, a grown MAN, not a young kid living with his parents, uneducated as to the implications of a young child being raped by another grown man. He was an adult, who by virtue of working in education, was mandated by law to report this IMMEDIATLY to the police. To the police, NOT Daddy, NOT “God” football coach, or anyone else on staff. He also could have intervened on the spot to save this child. He did not however; he called his Dad and subsequently fled the premises, knowing that a child was being raped as he exited the building. It is completely sickening.</p>

<p>Being shocked, surprised, and confused is no excuse for this man’s inaction. Reporting to the coach the day after and trusting it would be “handled,” or “taken care of” fell woefully short of what he should have done. It also should have been crystal clear to him within a short time that the incident had definitely never been “taken care of,” unless “taken care of” means shoved under the rug.</p>

<p>An article which articulates much better my feelings about the actions/inactions of the grad student:</p>

<p>[Mike</a> McQueary Will Have to Publicly Live with His Cowardice: A Fan’s Perspective - Yahoo! Sports](<a href=“http://sports.yahoo.com/top/news?slug=ycn-10399373]Mike”>http://sports.yahoo.com/top/news?slug=ycn-10399373)</p>

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<p>He should not be allowed to retire. He should be publicly fired like the others. His pention should be stripped away and he should lose all benefits from Penn State. He has done more damage to Penn State with his indifference than any money in the world can fix.</p>

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<p>Also, McQueary was unlikely to be informed about all the legal issues about the requirement to report these types of crimes. He was also trying to get hired eventually.</p>

<p>It is interesting to consider what the legal responsibility to report such an incident to the outside law enforcement is for a relatively powerless member of an organization. Should he have called a lawyer??? To learn what his obligations and hi protections were?</p>

<p>And, also, what did he think when nothing much happened afterwards, when he was not called upon to testify or describe what he witnessed?</p>

<p>A person without a conflict of interest might not have hesitated to report this to the police. But he was an inside guy, likely trusting his superiors, let alone keep them out of trouble, trying to get ahead within the organization, to please them. He would have had to act as a whistle-blower.</p>

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<p>I was simply stating what I believe his state of mind was. I never said he should not have called the police. Who knows what he was told when he reported it. I am confident that if I was in that position 25 years ago, I would have been scared *****less. I can’t say for certain what I would have done and I am not so sure anyone can who has never been in the position to witness a crime they can’t wrap their own heads around. It is really easy to judge this person who was a young man at the time, but do any of us really know how we would have handled it without the benefit of hindsight or not knowing what he was told when it was reported. Maybe Joe said he would call the police. Maybe the VP of finance guy that was head of the University Police assured him that there was an open case and it was being handled. We will never know the truth because these folks are digging so fast they must be exhausted.</p>

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<p>Pennsylvania law regarding mandatory reporting:</p>

<p>Persons required to report include, but are not limited to:</p>

<pre><code>* Licensed physicians, osteopaths, medical examiners, coroners, funeral directors, dentists, optometrists, chiropractors, podiatrists, interns, nurses, or hospital personnel

  • Christian Science practitioners or members of the clergy
  • School administrators, teachers, school nurses, social services workers, daycare center workers, or any other child care or foster care workers
  • Mental health professionals
  • Peace officers or law enforcement officials
    </code></pre>

<p>Reporting by Other Persons
Citation: Cons. Stat. Tit. 23, § 6312</p>

<p>Any person who has reason to suspect that a child is abused or neglected may report.</p>

<p>Standards for Making a Report
Citation: Cons. Stat. Tit. 23, § 6311</p>

<p>A report is required when a person, who in the course of employment, occupation, or practice of a profession, comes into contact with children, has reasonable cause to suspect, on the basis of medical, professional, or other training and experience, that a child is a victim of child abuse.</p>

<p>If I am well over 6 feet tall and 200 hundred pounds, a lifelong athlete, I’m grabbing the perpetrator by the neck and getting him off a child he is raping. At minimum, I am shouting “STOP! What the hell are you doing?” My next action is dialing 911. I am NOT slinking off to call my Dad and subsequently leaving a rape in progress. I don’t care how revered Joe was or how badly this grad student wanted a job on the Penn State staff, there are just some things which should come natural and automatic to a human being with a conscience.</p>

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<p>kkmama-</p>

<p>So what you are saying is because of McQueary’s lack of action (which I do question), then Joe P is off the hook? But given what McQ told Paterno, even if his version is true that McQ told him simply ‘something happened that may have involved sex’ (which I have to be honest, I find incredible, I can’t think of any reason why McQ wouldn’t tell Paterno what he saw), the fact that it involved someone with a child make it a crime, whether it was ‘inappropriate contact’ as Paterno said he though, or rape, it is still a horrible thing, it doesn’t change the fact of what Paterno did.</p>

<p>Without defending McQ, do you even know what the culture at Penn St was like? The fact that the AD, Schwartz and the president decided to cover this up (apparently the only penalty was banning Sandusky from the campus, which apparently never went so far as to actually enforce it) tells you that like the church, the culture was to not spill the dirty laundry, even when it involved children. Again, without defending him, McQ had an excuse in that someone who is a graduate assistant is like an intern in a company, they are nobody, and had he reported it to the police he likely not only would have been fired, he would have been effectively blackballed…Paterno, meanwhile, had no such fear, if the school tried to retaliate against him for reporting suspected child abuse, he could bring so much heat on them forget it…politicians, cops, lawyers, big donors, you name it. </p>

<p>And the excuse that he was a ‘busy man’ tells a lot of tales about the issue here, that somehow Paterno’s role as football coach put him ‘above everything’…which is quite ironic considering the fact that he himself preached, time and again, the need for integrity and putting what is important in front of football, things like ethics, learning and family. Figures like Paterno cannot get away with the old ‘do as I say, not as I do’, the church learned that one (well, I don’t think they did, but that is another thread).</p>

<p>As far as letting Joe stay to coach, there were real reasons to do what they did. To prevent something like this happening again, they needed to send a message to everyone at the school that no one, not the head of the school, not St. Joe Paterno, was above doing the right thing, that there is accountability at the school. I think a lot more people are going to be fired, I don’t think they are finished yet, they are still investigating, but in this case, they have a clear case where someone in high authority at the school deliberately passed the ball and didn’t do what he was supposed to; hopefully others will get it. Why is this important? You need only to look at the church, where despite changes in rules and such, Biishops still feel free to duck the law (like, for example, the recently retired bishop in Philadelphia)…there was no accountability, the bishops who orchestrated the policy of protecting pedophile priests overwhelmingly faced no consequences, and as with the Philadelphia Bishop, still don’t…and they know that.</p>

<p>Plus, think about this, if Paterno had been allowed to stay and then ‘retire’, it is sending the signal that ‘okay, you screw up, we’ll cover for you’. Not to mention, can you imagine what it would be like if Joe was on the sideline? You would have people protesting outside the stadium and within it, you would have had the kind of people who rioted last night trying to assault those on the other side, it would be a war zone, it would have distracted from the game itself and would have made it much, much worse. </p>

<p>And before claiming they acted meanly, think about what happens in the business world when scandals happen, people are fired for a lot less then that, employees writing negative posts on facebook can and have been fired for behavior detrimental to the company, why should Joe P as an employee of the university be any different? The board of trustees are responsible for the university and had the duty in this case to try and protect it.</p>

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<p>Is it known who got the ball rolling? That is, who made the complaint that resulted in the Grand Jury?</p>

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<p>As to the fear of reprisals for reporting Sandusky, I find that a rather weak explanation for the grad student’s lack of action.</p>

<p>From the editorial I linked above:</p>

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<p>Paraphrasing a bit:</p>

<p>“When fact contradicts legend, print the legend.”</p>

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<p>Maybe he knew that S was being protected by PSU since 1998 and at the highest levels.</p>

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<p>Let’s face it. Everyone could have done more. Hopefully people will learn from this. I know I have.</p>

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<p>Mike McQueary is the one person in this situation who could have saved a child and he walked away. How do you do that? How do you walk away from a child being raped? And yet McQueary still has a job and a lot of people seem to feel somewhat sorry for him. </p>

<p>The man is the worst kind of coward and, at a minimum, should be fired. I sincerely hope he also has charges brought against him.</p>

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<p>The allegations in the grand jury report are so horrific that I wish I hadn’t read it. I was not prepared for how monstrous it actually is. McQueary should be prosecuted. I don’t know what for but there has to be something. I’m not a religious person but I like the idea of him having to answer to a higher power. By which I mean God, not Penn State. I sincerely don’t know if I could ever forgive my husband in such a situation. I tend to be a very black and white idealist and a situation like that would likely destroy my marriage.</p>

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<p>I’m with kate and zooser. You see a child being raped. You are in a position to stop the rape. You are in a position to save the child from further abuse. You are in a position to take that child to the hospital and to report the child rapist to the police so that more children won’t be harmed. </p>

<p>You don’t do any of those things.</p>

<p>You do, however, get to help coach the Penn State football team. No disrespect to Penn State fans, most of whom I’m sure are wonderful people, but excuse me? I can’t believe that this is all right with you, that you believe that a moment of silence will fix this.</p>

<p>And on the unfortunate young man who might be scorned and blackballed if he spoke up front, let me ask: If someone said to you that you could have a particular career, say a meteoric career, if you would agree to watch a ten year old being raped without raising a finger to help the child, would you go for it?</p>

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<p>McQueary may be the finest young man on the face of the earth. But he has to go. If he stays, he’ll be a constant reminder.</p>

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<p>Couldn’t agree more. Anyone can have integrity when it’s easy. It’s when integrity might cost us something that we find out what we’re made of, and I guess we know how McQueary measures up. But then, despite all the talk of honor and morality, it seems to have been in remarkably short supply.</p>

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<p>Since everyone seems to be showing a lot of scorn for the GA’s actions isn’t it possible he realized what a cowardly act it was to walk out of the shower so he might have glossed over what he told Paterno? Could he realize how cowardly it was and thought maybe he would get the same reaction from Paterno that he is getting from us?</p>

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<p>First of all, almost as bad as the rapes of kids is the behavior of the media – which seems compelled to take out as many as possible to feed the roaring crowd at the gladiator show – they don’t stop till there’s blood on the ground. I’m just so sick of the zeal with which the media fans flames of public outrage on matters like this. Yes, it’s tragic and awful, but I hate how they turn into a circus and smack their lips over the juicy details.</p>

<p>Regarding Paterno. I would not have fired him and I would not have pressured him to resign. He had a great big successful football franchise and tons of pressure on him and he handed the matter to his administrative superior. He is not a policeman. The grad student “saw” something. He didn’t. I just think destroying this man’s life serves no purpose whatsoever.</p>

<p>And hey, how about the surrounding community that saw these “camps”? There was a pretty notorious basketball camp for disadvantaged kids where we used to live. I remember seeing it going on when I’d pick up my kid from different sports activities and thinking – wow, that’s one unsavory bunch of “counselors.” My glimpses of it made me kind of sick, actually. The vibe was weird. </p>

<p>I think one of the big cautionary tales here is to look more critically at the people out there starting nonprofits and outreach programs, soliciting our dollars to “do good.” We have a tendency to laude it without looking closely enough. So, yes there’s a ton of blame that could go in many directions on this whole ugly affair.</p>

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<p>Exactly. I posted this over on the other thread, but I’ll repeat here:</p>

<p>That kid, in an instant of having his world forever rocked, looks over and sees the GA. He thinks, “Oh Thank God, someone is here to help me. Wait, what?”</p>

<p>Thinking of that and reading over and over that McQueary did what was required of him, or excuses that McQueary was “confused, shocked, intimidated by Sandusky,” etc., make me literally nauseated. There is no excuse which will cut it for me as to why he didn’t stop that assault that day. He was shocked, confused, intimidated? SO WHAT. That boy needed a rescuer that day, someone to put the child’s welfare over his own fears and self interest. McQueary may have met his legal obligation by turning his back on that child, going over to Dad’s house, and reporting it to Paterno the next day, but he failed miserably as a human being.</p>