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<p>Every parent is aware that there are sexual predators out there who choose to be involved in kid programs to ■■■■■ for victims and that parents need to exercise “constant vigilance.”</p>
<p>Also, society has a proclivity for under-reporting child sexual abuse for a number of reasons. That is why there are laws requiring it to be reported. Are there that many crimes that the law makes it a crime NOT to report?</p>
<p>Thirty five thousand students minimum on campus and you find a need to define them all by the actions of a great minority.</p>
<p>sax, Thanks for saying that. </p>
<p>My son, a Penn State alumnus, is absolutely crushed by this tragedy. He said it’s as if someone in his own family did something despicable. Although he was once proud to call himself a Penn Stater, he’s said he just feels shame now. He threw all his Penn State gear in the trash yesterday, saying he’ll never get over the betrayal.</p>
<p>Any advice on what to say to him to help him deal with this would be greatly appreciated.</p>
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<p>You might want to study up on the history of your own university. Penn State has not been a “small agricultural college” since the 19th century. By the early 20th century, it was one of the 10 largest engineering schools in the United States and the largest institution of higher learning in Pennsylvania (which, you might know, does have a few other well-regarded colleges and universities).</p>
<p>The students need to realize there are consequences to actions as well as inaction (and I think most understand that).</p>
<p>There are so many assumptions being thrown about regarding Penn State and the students, that I had to chime in. As a PSU alum, I want to put some of this in perspective.</p>
<p>Penn State is an enormous state college that many students attend because it is a state school (i.e., lower cost than a private school) with extraordinary academic and research opportunities, set in a beautiful, relatively safe, mountain valley. Many do NOT go there for the football. Many like the football culture, but not everyone swears by it. Penn State has its flaws, including a lot of partying, large lecture classes, and a huge campus, but that is true of most large universities. It also has many strengths.</p>
<p>Please don’t assume all Penn State students worship everything JoPa, or were rioting in the streets. That’s just not true. A relatively small percentage were “rioting” and many may have been onlookers. I went to four years of Penn State, NEVER went to a football game, and still managed to have an active social life. Football just was not on my radar. It seemed pretty silly to me, and was not why I went to the school. Again, 40,000 students are a lot of people and that means that values, interests and attitudes are going to be very diverse. Please don’t assume all Penn Staters are alike. They’re not.</p>
<p>“My son, a Penn State alumnus, is absolutely crushed by this tragedy. He said it’s as if someone in his own family did something despicable. Although he was once proud to call himself a Penn Stater, he’s said he just feels shame now. He threw all his Penn State gear in the trash yesterday, saying he’ll never get over the betrayal.”</p>
<p>I would tell him it is a few people, not the University as a whole. The University is doing the right thing now. It was a few who kept this under wraps. He should hold his head high.</p>
<p>I would tell your son that when a program like football is raised to such a high status at an institution, and when the staff are revered to such an extent, when thhe school revolve around a game, and when the staff feels they answer to no one and that their program must be protected at all costs, and when you have men who will protect each other then you have created a very unhealthy situation. </p>
<p>Also joe pa was not thinkning about the school in any of this, it was all about him, his friends, and football games. If he cared about the school he would have stepped down long before now. If he cared so much about Penn state beyond football, he would have acted differently. Of he cared about little boys he would have acted differently. </p>
<p>Its hard to realize that someone whonis admired and thought of so highly for having done so much Penn state was actually only thinking about himself. There is no way anyone who truely cared about the school would have acted like this.</p>
<p>He deserves to be remembered as the selfish, cold, heartless man we all see</p>
<p>Penn state allowed monsters to stay all in the name of winning games. That is one screwed up set of vales</p>
<p>Looks like the university’s top officials took some steps to recover from this awful scandal. Swift action after all this time…when forced to do something dramatic!
I see some have posted info I haven’t heard out here on the west coast – that there may be more people involved, more crime, more coverups. That is a chilling thought.
We all hear how “important” and winning and income producing the Penn State football program has been.
I think this weekend’s big game should be cancelled - tough luck that they are on a short timeline now, they made their bed on this - it is ridiculous that a longtime coach from Penn State is going to be the head coach for it - this guy may be keeping HIS mouth shut – more investigation of this program needs to be done first.
I think they should conclude the football season RIGHT NOW and next year bring in an outsider coaching staff. Clean house.
The reputation of Penn State HAS taken a big hit - I assure you it has been top of the news out here in California, for example, touching millions - and they ought to take super serious, clear steps to salvage their programs and reputation. Academics, ethics, and behavior have to come before football…</p>
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<p>True, Hunt. </p>
<p>Years ago, a soccer practice was interrupted by a storm of biblical proportions. Everyone started running to the parking lot and got rides home from parents or friends. Just before leaving, we noticed that the coach was standing outside his car with one player safely inside. My father asked why he was outside and shivering in weather that was similar to the Perfect Storm movie. The coach, an immensely well respected “icon” in his fifties, simply explained that it is best to avoid ALL possible perceptions of misconduct. He said that a coach should never be alone with a player in any circumstance.</p>
<p>In a competitive environment where players are cut at the end of a season, he said that freezing a few minutes was a small price to pay. I can’t say that it made perfect sense at that time, but I now understand. Small safety steps eliminate big problems!</p>
<p>Paterno’s status at Penn State turns out to be a double-edged sword. People regard him as omnipotent (which, in Penn State terms, he may well have been) and omniscient (which he probably wasn’t in actuality). That means that he must have known Sandusky was a monster, and if he didn’t do anything about it it’s because he chose not to, not because he couldn’t. </p>
<p>That view is unfair to Paterno, but it doesn’t matter. He may not have been omniscient, but he knew plenty enough to know that there was a problem, and if he wasn’t dealing with it someone else had better be dealing with it. And when Sandusky kept showing up at practices and games with young boys in tow, year after year . . . it sure wasn’t being dealt with. Furthermore, even if Paterno wasn’t omnipotent, he certainly had the power to protect his program and his university from Sandusky, and he didn’t use that power.</p>
<p>He has to answer to God and his own conscience for failing to protect all the children Sandusky violated, and perhaps for failing to reach out and get Sandusky to seek help to change his behaviors. He has to answer to the Penn State Board of Trustees for failing to protect Penn State, and that’s just what happened.</p>
<p>People also regard him as representing love and honor, and . . . no. Nothing about his behavior here exhibits either.</p>
<p>As for Paterno, Curley, and Schultz consulting university counsel in 2002: It didn’t happen. I know it didn’t happen, because there’s no way things would have been left the way they were if counsel had gotten involved.</p>
<p>I think it is very natural for students and alumni to feel hurt and confused by all of this. I would imagine if this was related to a school some of you had a student at or were an alumni of, you might be very upset as well. There are scandals at lots of schools. Penn State is so huge and Joe Paterno is such an icon that it is no surprise that this is staying in the headlines. The whole thing is very sad, particularly of course for the victims.</p>
<p>“He said that a coach should never be alone with a player in any circumstance.”</p>
<p>^ Many organizations have this policy, i.e. The Boy Scouts of America. An adult leader is not permitted to be alone with one scout. It’s the world we live in.</p>
<p>Yes, Penn State lost it’s president, but the loss the students are mourning is for the football coach. The signs should be reading. “We want our reputation back.” They should be mad as hell about the ones who tarnished it and Paterno, while not a criminal, didn’t do what is best for the university.</p>
<p>I’ve not gone back and read what’s been posted today nor am I watching any news; the students’ behavior on top of everything else is just too shameful. The one thing I have wondered is if Sandusky’s home was a few blocks off campus, instead of a few miles, perhaps the students would have had a more appropriate target for their anger.</p>
<p>Yes, but obviously such policy did not exist at PSU, or was ignored.</p>
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<p>And well they should.They, and the Catholic church, are the poster children for covering up sexual abuse.</p>
<p>“Yes, Penn State lost it’s president, but the loss the students are mourning is for the football coach.”</p>
<p>^ Not everyone. It seems to be a minority.</p>
<p>When the full story comes out I think we are going to find that JoePa is going to look much worse than he is today. Who cared about and stood to benefit the most from protecting Sandusky-clearly it was JoePa first and the University second. JoePa had the JoePa myth to protect, and there was nothing more important to him than that-and the lives of countless kids were destroyed to protect this guys “reputation”. And he still felt he could dictate terms of his retirement. I have no sympathy for this guy. Penn State fans need to understand that far from caring for the University, JoePa was willing to take the University down to protect his reputation.</p>
<p>“Yes, but obviously such policy did not exist at PSU, or was ignored.”</p>
<p>A University would not have that policy, but an organization for minors should, such as the charity.</p>