<p>“Coach Paterno, how do you respond to these facts, allegations, and indictments?”</p>
<p>Well first of all, let me tell you how proud I am of the kids who make up the 2011 edition of Penn State football. They’re among the finest group of kids I’ve ever coached, and I’m very proud of the 8-1 record they’ve achieved. And I’m really excited about next year’s incoming class, which promises to be one of our best ever. I’m always amazed at the quality of kids who come to Penn State. They’re the kind of kids that parents can be really proud of. And finally, I’d like to thank the fans who are here to support us for each and every home game. They’re the best, and Penn State football wouldn’t be what it is without them.</p>
<p>“Um Coach, about the allegations of sexual abuse?”</p>
<p>Okay, so nobody misunderstands, I am also outraged by what happened to these kids. But I do not necessarily think Paterno is a villain. It is possible he thought the police were investigating the incident and he did what he was suppose to do, report it to the head of the campus police… If nothing happened to Sandusky, he might have concluded that the police cleared him and there was nothing else he could do. I don’t see why this scenario is not feasible, at least until we hear from Paterno.</p>
<p>I don’t follow football. I had never heard of Joe Paterno. But now I have. He will be forever known as the football coach who helped cover it up while children were being sodomized in his locker room. While he earned a million dollars a year. And his a** licking aspiring big shot TA McQueary watched it all and went home to his daddy to talk about it instead of stopping it. Now I have even less respect for football players than before. People are acting like this McQueary guy is some kind of victim himself? The poor “young” 28-year old didn’t know what to do? REALLY???</p>
<p>As a former prof at a Big 8 school, I know the administration covers up for the football players and programs. One of the star players blatantly plagiarized his final paper for my class, and when I reported him to the administrators I was told to give him an incomplete and let him re-write the paper. But that’s just stupid dishonesty.</p>
<p>I really didn’t imagine that college football was so corrupt that coaches and administrators and teaching assistants and many others will condone anal rape of a 10-year old. But now I know. May they get everything they deserve and more. Oh, but we don’t allow that in the USA.</p>
<p>Not really true. In civil cases you CAN take the 5th, but an adverse inference can be drawn against you. </p>
<p>In translation: If you are asked a question in a civil case and refuse to answer it and invoked your 5th Amendment right not to incriminate yourself, the jury (or judge in a bench trial) can consider that refusal evidence. That isn’t permitted in a criminal case. </p>
<p>If you take the 5th, you can’t be charged with perjury.</p>
<p>In this situation, Penn State cannot make a decision that won’t be criticized by some one. While I feel sorry for the victims, their status as victims does not allow them to dictate the response of Penn State to the crisis, and the attorney’s suggestion to the contrary is absurd. It does show some respect for the victims to take action against a popular coach before his “last” game. It would have been easier to let him go out on his own terms at the end of the season, though that would have been criticized as caving to the power of the football program.</p>
<p>Paterno could give an outstanding example of why some revere him by doing the right thing now, and not hiding behind lawyers and soundbites. People, even generally good people, often do things that they sincerely regret, and such acts of omission are probably more common than such acts of commission. To speak of his shame and remorse for failing to do more - even though what he did was legal, to not excuse or minimize his conduct by pointing to worse conduct by others, to exhort others to learn from his failings and to do the right thing rather than what is easy or expedient, and to put football and his career in the proper context for those who have rioted for him, would show some refreshing humility and compassion. Humility and compassion might help both Paterno and the University start slowly climbing out of the morass they have created, and in the general direction of the high ground. Covering up, or at least failing to take a hard look at a ugly situation, is what caused this scandal. Paterno and Penn State ought to break that pattern - both need Paterno to be a true iconoclast who acts for the benefit of those he harmed, and the institution he loves, rather than in his own narrow self-interest.</p>
<p>parent57, as a parent (if you are a parent), that is ok by you. Just report to the someone and if nothing happens then back to life as usual. It is now that someone else problem, all culpability and responsiblity is now belongs to that someone else?</p>
<p>I have a bridge you might be interested in…</p>
<p>Come on. Paterno knew EVERYTHING that went on in that program. Are you saying he wouldn’t have noticed that no police came sniffing around to investigate?</p>
<p>Seems to me that Joe Paterno’s main fault in all this is that he apparently did only the bare minimum. Told his boss and that’s it. Probably hoped it wouldn’t amount to too much of a big deal and damage the football program. So when the cops or other authorities didn’t show up he apparently shrugged and moved on. </p>
<p>When you’ve got reports of children being raped in the shower you’ve got to do more than the minimum. Just the opposite - you’ve got to do EVERYTHING you can to follow up and get to the bottom of it - to save the kids, to punish the criminals, to put a stop to this whole outrage.</p>
<p>Joe was the head coach. This was his football program. It happened on his watch, and he didn’t do enough to deal with it. He had to go - there was no other way.</p>
<p>I think we can easily get caught up in the legal niceties. Sure, the law is interesting, even if it is a rather blunt instrument for arriving at something resembling truth. It is not particularly interesting to me whether in 2002 JoePa met the bare legal requirements necessary to keep himself out of a jail cell. What IS interesting to me is the kind of rationalizations evil men can tell themselves in order to keep their own shtick in order. Now call me crazy, but I just don’t think JoePa is that dumb NOT to have known what was going on - whether it be in 1998, 2002, or 2009 (and very possibly much earlier). What story did this man tell himself to enable his friend and colleague to continue on his sick ways? What did he think every time he went to a Board meeting of The Second Mile? Every time he looked his long-time friend in the eye? Every time after 2002 when he saw a 10-year-old set foot on the campus to take part in his friend’s camp? Or, since he was on the Board - HIS camp?</p>
<p>Penn state ran football camps for minor children, highschoolers, but those are minors, run by, yes , joe pa. Even has a letter on the website signed by him. That would make him someone who works with minors, and thus should be a mandated reporter. </p>
<p>When you run a youth camp, you are all mandated reporters.</p>
<p>Mini, you make a number of assertions in your post you can’t possibly know. I am just not ready to trash Paterno based on speculation, educated guesses and all the things Paterno was supposedly thinking or doing for the last 9 years. I still don’t think reporting it to the campus police is the minimum he could have done. </p>
<p>Now it would seem to me his culpability would depend on whether he knew that the higher-ups did not report it to the police and what he concluded about the investigation after he told the campus police. Nobody here knows the answers to these questions and would only be guessing at this point. Again, I want to hear from him. The man is in his eighties and has lived an exemplary life (as far as we know). I still think he deserves the benefit of the doubt until we learn some of these answers, although I recognize I am in the minority in this regard.</p>
<p>I kind of feel like Henry Fonda in the movie, “The 12 Angry Men”.</p>
<p>And the program is 36 years old, so at themtime of both events, he was working with minor children. My guess is now he has no excuse for not directly reporting the events to the state, not campus police.</p>
<p>Joe Paterno failed the Spiderman creed - with great power comes great responsibility. Joe Paterno clearly wielded great power at Penn State. Whether or not Paterno acted legally, he did not act with great responsibility when told of sexual misconduct by Sanduskey with a minor in the shower room. He behaved in a small and limited way when an icon of rectitude presumably would have done more. He did not live up to his image, or what most of us would hope that we might have done. That is not a crime, but the failure to ensure that the right thing was done for the victim, regardless of the consequences to Sanduskey or the university, diminishes Paterno in the public eye. He may not have fully deserved the accolades before this, and may not fully deserve the current antipathy, but the latter is reasonable in light of the former and one of the risks of fame.</p>
<p>If Paterno violated reporting laws, that would not make his conduct more immoral, simply less legal. The real question about how depraved Paterno’s failure to act was centers around how much Paterno really know. Paterno may not be able to admit the truth to himself, much less the public, so we may never know. Even a watered down and vague report misconduct in the shower with a minor demanded more attention and inquiry than it appears that Paterno gave it, but a truly graphic report should have prompted outrage and a swift, clear, and unrelenting response from a true “leader of men.”</p>
<p>Sorry, but it kind of doesn’t matter what you think. The fact is, PA law required him to report it to his superiors and nothing more. And “nothing more” is exactly what he did.</p>
<p>Let me ask you a question. A person tells you he witnessed a child being raped. You do the bare minimum that is required of you. You do not follow up to make sure that the abuser is stopped. You do not call the authorities yourself to make sure the abuser is stopped. The question: Does that fit your definition of integrity?</p>
<p>If he was a mandated reporter, and with a youth camp onside, my guess is he was, then even he suspected abuse, even just a little, he was legally required to report it, and in think campus police will not suffice.</p>
<p>In think it will be determined that he was requited to report it to the police.</p>
<p>Parent57. Sorry but a lot of this is not speculation. It is based on his own testimony. He knew in 2002 of that repulsive incident in the shower between a 60 year old male and a child. No matter if he got a sanitized version of that, it is wrong. He just did the bare minimum of reporting to his superior. And lets be frank, he was the most powerful man on campus, so if he wanted to pursue this, there was no one to stop him. That it involved a long time friend and associate seems to indicate why this was not pursued. And the fact that Sandusky was banned from the main campus, but not the satellite campuses, and that Penn State players kept helping out on the charity that was used as a hunting ground, and that Sundusky had an office in the same building all add to the reality that Joe just did not give a damn,=.</p>
<p>There is no possible explanation that could mitigate those actions. I again ask if anyone could come up with a plausible explanation to come up with it. </p>
<p>And I am not holding my breath on Paterno answering any questions soon. He has had plenty of opportunities, and has not come through yet.</p>
<p>This is the worst scandal in Sports bar none. And we may not have heard all of it yet. Paterno was in charge, he dropped the ball, and finally got fired for it. The sad part is that other kids had to go through hell before this happened</p>
<p>Okay, this is my last post tonight. I went on the Penn State website and found this:</p>
<p>"The Penn State University Police provides all law enforcement and security services to the University Park campus. We employ:</p>
<pre><code>46 full-time armed officers
Six traffic and parking officers
Five police dispatcher/recorders
Approximately 200 students as auxiliary officers and escorts
</code></pre>
<p>The department provides 24-hour patrol services to the campus and University-owned properties year round. The University Police is governed by a state statute that gives our officers the same authority as municipal police officers."</p>
<p>Please note the last sentence that the university police have the the same authority as municipal police officers. It seems to me that Paterno reported the incident to the police. I know everyone says he should have done more, but he reported it to the police; it is not his fault they screwed it up in 1998 and 2002. I think people should be incensed with the DA’s office and the police; it was these people who really screwed up. How come no one is jumping down their throats?</p>
<p>I don’t think Sandusky stands a chance in Texas!! By all means, send him to Texas for trial. Their governor straps a laser-sighted gun to his arm and shoots coyotes on his morning jogs. Talk about capital punishment, death by lethal injection… lol</p>