<p>Interesting comments from Sandusky’s Lawyer on the Penn Live website. He is trying to talk Sandusky out of reading a statement at his sentencing hearing. And considering an appeal based on ineffective counsel (himself). Apparently he has used this strategy in the past.</p>
<p>Am I the only one who wishes that we could take sports down more than a few notches? Cynic that I am, I wonder how much colleges look for sports as an admit criterion becuase it favors alumni, wealthy and whites. Wouldnt we all be better off if the top colleges said no more. We will look at academic and citizenship/charitable efforts, but no more giving lower standards for football, bb, lacrosse, hockey.</p>
<p>A Roman Catholic bishop was found guilty on Thursday of failing to report suspected child abuse, becoming the first American bishop in the decades-long sexual abuse scandal to be convicted of shielding a pedophile priest.</p>
<p>Bishop Finn sent Father Ratigan for a psychological examination, then assigned him to live in a convent and told him not to have contact with children. But despite the restrictions, Father Ratigan presided at a girl’s First Communion and attended an Easter egg hunt and a child’s birthday party.</p>
<p>I guess we all knew this business of covering for, and thereby enabling pedophiles isn’t confined to Penn State and the Catholic Church, but today’s Minneapolis Star-Tribune has a shocking story about a lifelong pedophile who was quietly dismissed from a series of teaching jobs at elite prep schools for molesting young male students, as well as from a job as a counselor at a YMCA children’s camp. In each case, one or more victims reported him to administrators who confronted him, then quietly dismissed him–apparently so as not to tarnish the institution’s image. No one thought to stop him, though at least one of his employers did advise him to go into some other line of work, which he eventually did. He went into law enforcement and eventually became chief of the Minneapolis Park Police.</p>
<p>The two Minnesota schools where this guy worked, Blake and Breck, are two of the fanciest prep schools in the Twin Cities metro region. Blake’s distinguished alumni roster includes such notables as current Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton, Senator and former comedian Al Franken and his original comedy partner Tom Davis, Oscar-winning movie director George Roy Hill, and Cargill CEO Whitney MacMillan. Breck’s alums include Frank Mars, founder of the candy company; Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Ryback; and Bradford Parkinson, inventor of GPS.</p>
<p>A group of alumni and others are calling for Gov. Corbett, President Erickson and others to resign. Among other things, they are concerned that PSU trustees did no crisis planning after a newpaper article in March 2011 indicated Sandusky was being investigated. I had no idea that the first public newpaper reports were in March. The BoT really should have stepped up after reading that report–investigate, ask questions, make a crisis plan. </p>
Penn Staters have been looking at their role the whole time and wondering why no one else could spell any name that did not end in “Paterno”! Heck, if you are wondering about the NEW board of trustees elected this year (as some have on here), realize that they were all elected primarily for their promises to investigate and reform the board from the inside!!</p>
<p>US News College Rankings has Penn State at 46…virtually unaffected by the scandal in terms of its ranking. I think it’s great that a scandal that had nothing to do with academics didn’t affect its ranking.</p>
<p>There was a rally of hundreds of PSU alumni and fans against the treatment of Joe Paterno, calling for the resignation of the board and the president.</p>
<p>Interesting article at pennlive.com It appears at least some of the speakers feel the Board is vasically only trying to protect itself, not act in the best interests of PSU. I am unsure if they are referring to the previous Board or the new one.</p>
<p>See, when people say “like a cult”, they don’t mean people are gathered together at midnight in black robes, sacrificing a goat. They mean things THIS, this weird alternate reality where Joe Paterno is still St. Joe even after ignoring child rape for a decade.</p>
<p>Too bad St. Joe didn’t have less concern for his school and more concern for little kids.</p>