<p>Now that Happy Valley has swallowed up an entire neighboring county, apparently encroaches on the whole state, and possibly the whole country (except where you all live) it appears it will will be impossible for the naysayers to believe there is one honest person who is doing the right thing.</p>
<p>Well, so far there are one or two. The victim’s mom and the friend who has experience with child services.</p>
<p>Based on the information that the public is receiving and assuming it is accurate (no guarantee of that, of course) I would be hard pressed to find anyone who put the health and safety of these kids before their own reluctance to rock the PSU football float.</p>
<p><<< The Penn State aura stretches far and wide in the region. Sandusky had “unfettered access”, pulling his victim out of class without parental permission and, according to the mother, even taking him off campus. Is this normal protocol in that area?>>>></p>
<p>I struggle with your posts. I will pretend you are actually asking a question. I don’t know about Central Mountain, it’s a different district than ours. </p>
<p>No it isn’t normal protocol. I think you know that. You just like to be mean. Normal protocol where I work includes checking who is allowed, in writing, to take a child out. No non-parent, or non-approved by a parent in writing (not on the phone) would EVER be allowed to take a child out of class, much less out of the building. The legal liability alone is staggering, let alone the common sense idiocy factor. </p>
<p>If the “aura” stretches far and wide --and I would debate that, having lived in PA my entire life and never having noticed Penn State until I was about 35 — ask yourself how it got this huge? Isn’t it possible that instead of recognizing the Fulbright Scholars, ag research, or study abroad program, the outside world chose to notice the “cool” and “socially hip” athletic flagship? Isn’t there some culpability in the wider society that worships NCAA athletics everywhere? Would families buy Sports Illustrated if the fencing team was on the cover, or pay for ESPN cable if it only showed Purdue equestriennes? Would there be any “small” teams if not for the money makers? (See UMaryland’s decision this week to ax many sports programs) If there’s no money to pay for things, how else does a school get it?</p>
<p>A kid in California was shot because he was gay. Child in (Florida?) drowned by a parent. Girl in Arizona killed by a predator…There’s enough bad across the country. If we don’t use these tragedies to learn to pay attention, pay money, pay time and training, all those children have suffered in vain. They don’t need your indignation. They need your action, your involvement in your communities. Screaming at us because it happened here won’t prevent it from happening to your town.</p>
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<p>I do, and sorry for the sarcasm. </p>
<p>Sandusky was allowed to do things that aren’t normally allowed. The question is: Why?</p>
<p>Greenbutton, who is screaming at you? I would be making the same comments if the high school in question was in my own town. As far as I’m concerned, it has nothing to do with your school or your community. I am talking about the school that victim one attended. Unless you teach there or are an administrator there, why take offense to that? You should be directing your own anger at the people responsible rather than those responding to it.</p>
<p>And as far as what those kids need from us, well, outrage leads to action and if the public is outraged by the victimization of these kids and the widespread enabling by people who should know better, then that’s a good first step.
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<p>That sounds a lot like blaming the victims, IMO. I guess all of the Catholics in the world are partly responsible for the raping of altar boys because they make their religion a priority in there life and look up to the pastor of their parish.</p>
<p>The bottom line here is whether or not Sandusky is guilty. If he’s not, then everyone who expressed outrage at any of this will learn is lesson in rushing to judgement.</p>
<p>But, if he is, if the witnesses are telling the truth, if the victims are telling the truth,
then everyone from Paterno to the Central Mountain football coach should hang their heads in shame, because they KNEW.</p>
<p>To be honest, there are certain things we don’t like to know, and so we choose not to. In addition, people have a tendency to stick together, and to deify would-be “leaders of good character”, especially as they sometimes seem so scarce in our world!</p>
<p>Usually, it just takes one or two people to stand enough up and say “enough is enough”, and the Emperor has no clothes, and things come tumbling down. Sadly, in this case, we didn’t even have one or two, and things built up over time, and…</p>
<p>I won’t even post what my worst fears in this case are. It may be that we don’t even know a third of it yet. Of course, we may never.</p>
<p>But now that we do seem to know some things…Why do the principal, superintendent, and football coach at Central Mountain still have jobs? Why aren’t the locals going at them with pitchforks? This is scarier to me than anything else. There will always be sick people in our world doing sick things (you can call them evil, if you like), but where are the adults in Central Pennsylvania?</p>
<p>Ok, this story just keeps getting sicker. And remember the source of this information is Sandusky’s own lawyer. </p>
<p>[Family</a> Member Accuses Sandusky of Abuse | NBC Philadelphia](<a href=“Family Member Accuses Sandusky of Abuse – NBC10 Philadelphia”>Family Member Accuses Sandusky of Abuse – NBC10 Philadelphia)</p>
<p>The longer this goes on the worse it gets</p>
<p>I’m starting to think they let Sandusky out on bail in hopes of him meeting some untimely death.</p>
<p>Some of Sandusky’s children were adopted from foster care. As awful as molesting a troubled boy is, somehow to me adopting a boy to molest him is even more awful, if such a thing is possible.</p>
<p>(Though the latest stories are just rumors. We can hope they are not true.)</p>
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<p>Unfortunately, that does happen.</p>
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<p>I don’t agree with this. Yes, some of the outrage is directed at the alleged crimes themselves but much of the anger is directed at the way that it has been handled by the officials at PSU and those at the high school when that boy turned to them for help. Even in the unlikely event that Sandusky is found innocent of all charges, the anger and outrage will still have been warranted.</p>
<p>I didn’t mean that adopting a boy to molest might not be possible. I meant that at first, in my naivete, I thought molesting troubled boys was so bad that I couldn’t think of anything worse Sandusky could have done.</p>
<p>Victim 4 is planning to sue Second Mile. There’s no mention in the article about whether he’s also suing Penn State.</p>
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<p>^^ That surely makes sense. Sandusky reported to Second Mile in 2008 that he was under investigation, at which point they banned him from contact with children (although they continued their relationship with him for another two years). But: </p>
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<p>From an excellent piece which digs deep into the tangled relationship between Penn State and Second Mile:</p>
<p>[What</a> did Second Mile know and when?](<a href=“http://www.milforddailynews.com/opinion/x46227339/Murphy-What-did-Second-Mile-know-and-when]What”>http://www.milforddailynews.com/opinion/x46227339/Murphy-What-did-Second-Mile-know-and-when)</p>
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You already posted your belief that the motivation for these crimes was racism. You’re saying that there was something even worse that you won’t post?</p>
<p>MisterK, you know what could be worse? That he had other adults actually involved in the rape of these boys. I’m not saying that’s what happened, but that would be just the final shocker.</p>
<p>[District</a> attorney battles police chief in Syracuse sex abuse probe - CNN.com](<a href=“http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/24/justice/syracuse-coach-investigation-conflict/index.html]District”>http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/24/justice/syracuse-coach-investigation-conflict/index.html)</p>
<p>One more reason why Campus Police is at the center of this problem at Penn State.</p>
<p>District Attorney jobs are highly political. Given the power of Penn State and Joe Paterno one can understand why a DA would be reluctant to prosecute Sandusky. One strong counter to the political pressure on DA’s is the Police. Traditional police forces do not take well to DA’s that do not pursue clear crimes for political reasons–witness the situation going on at Syracuse, and the police forces will find ways to make sure that clear crimes are prosecuted.</p>
<p>sm- how do you read that article that the DA is not pursuing a crime? Where in the article does it show the DA is not doing the correct thing?</p>
<p>I have a chief that’s intentionally trying to sabotage an investigation, a chief that is preventing the finding out of whether an innocent man has had his reputation besmirched or whether a person has been victimized in the most violent disgusting manner," Fitzpatrick said.</p>
<p>In a news conference on Wednesday, Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick harshly criticized Syracuse Police Chief Frank Fowler and Deputy Chief Sean Broton over the handling of a 2002 probe into a ball boy’s molestation claims against Syracuse</p>
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<p>Sorry, Cardinal Fang. I misunderstood your meaning. Your question hit close to home because I know a case like that.</p>