<p>I get the impression that people inside Penn State are bewildered at the sentiment being directed at the college. One of the reasons that they should conisider is that for years Penn State has been touted, and has touted itself, at the colleges who ran the clean program, and that Joe Paterno was a paragon of virture guiding it all. Now they are at the center of the most horrific college sports scandal in history. When it counted, it appears doing things the right way turned into doing the minimum to help a defenseless child in order not to rock the boat on a football program. That is what is sickening and outraging the rest of the country</p>
<p>Penn State better pray that there is no more revelations, because if some of the rumors going around are true, they should just bulldoze that staduim right now</p>
<p>“Note that this really has nothing to do with whether Paterno should have done this or that in 2002. It’s a much more global, character-based thing.”</p>
<p>He seems to have been a great judge of character, and a leader of men.</p>
<p>It is really unfortunate to think that this is a lynch-mob. For some, it is not a leap at all to think that the meeting between McQ and Paterno and later with AD would produce enough details that it should be followed up on by all the parties involved. Almost 10 years later, McQ recollection is as vivid as it can be but back then he did not reveal the true content of the event and not one of his superiors even had any ideas or inclination to ask of the extent of the act? That’s just implausible and not a believable explanation to use as an excuse for everyone involved not to act. Same goes with the excuse that he reported and that he thought everything was taken cared of.</p>
<p>So let’s lump me into the lynch-mob crowd. Why not? All I do is attacking and vilifying with no basis what so ever.</p>
<p>Well said (re: first 2 paragraphs), Consolation.</p>
<p>Still waiting to hear-- has anyone else here had experiences in emergency situations where they wonder if they handled it the best possible way at the time, or might have handled it differently if they had it to do over? Anyone besides me?</p>
JHS- I guess I am one of those whiners. Aren’t the charges against Curley and Schultz for perjury in their grand jury testimony - NOT for their failure to notify the proper authorities? Has ANYONE been charged w/ failing to report Sandusky’s abuse?</p>
<p>I am also not signing up to be a member of a lynch mob. You obviously get off on incendiary proclamations, filled with a sense of your own unimpeachable moral rectitude. I’ve seen it here and in other threads. I think you ought to consider dialing it back a bit.</p>
<p>Another big issue here that touches about all Universities is the role of Campus Police. There is a long record to show that Campus Police first and foremost are there to PROTECT(there is that word again) the REPUTATION of the University. Would not surprise me at all that if they went to campus police the first thing they would have done is circle the wagons in the interest of the University. The children were secondary if given consideration at all.</p>
<p>I was in a park once and saw a woman hitting her dog, I ran over to her and told her to stop</p>
<p>I saw a man getting mugged, so i blared my horn, got on the phone called 911, saw muggers get in the car and got the plate, recalled cops and followed up </p>
<p>The point is, if I read the PA statutes correctly, the GA and Paterno may clearly not have chosen the best option, but the procedure they chose to follow may have been an acceptable option. Again, 20-20 hindsight is in play here.</p>
<p>I do NOT condone what they did. Am simply saying it may have been choosing to follow a procedure as was defined at the time.</p>
<p>JHS, I was speaking rhetorically of course. Paterno is in a way in a prison just not a physical one, his right to vote may not be taken away but his right to speak is certainly taken away. All that happened rather swiftly.</p>
<p>Could the governor have had a hand on the leak? You know, to prime the condition? Not directly but …How common is this kind of leak?</p>
Well, if some of us have the power to psychoanalyze Paterno, McQueary, Curley, and Schultz based on allegations made by others, then why should the governor escape similar psychoanalysis?</p>
<p>I also have to repeat that some folks are a little confused about the difference between allegations and evidence.</p>
<p>Sometimes you CAN know what you would do in a given situation. I would never, never, ever walk out on a child being raped. I’m calling 911 at minimum, but I am probably going after the rapist even at peril to my life. Perhaps being a mother, that is how we are wired. I could not meet the eyes of a child in that situation being raped by an old man and have any other reaction than to help that child. It’s sick to me that anyone could contemplate or excuse on any level doing anything different, particularly if one is over 6 feet tall, an elite athlete, and a human being with even an ounce of compassion for children.</p>
<p>Congressman Pat Meehan is asking the Feds to investigate:</p>
<p>Meehan demanded a federal investigation into the whole cover-up of criminal acts by a member of Penn State’s football staff. Education Secretary Arne Duncan has launched an investigation of Penn State in response to that call.</p>
<p>It’s not exactly brainwashing. It’s more like having your long-held beliefs rocked to the core. Wishing it would all go away or even simple denial are common human emotions in such cases.</p>
<p>Many PSU people (and some in the media) have been worshiping Paterno as a Saint for many decades. To now see this huge, unthinkable crime come flowing out of his program, and to hear that maybe St. Joseph didn’t live up to his sainthood after all, is just impossible for some of the idolators to grasp. </p>
<p>For such people the natural human reaction is “Say it ain’t so, Joe!”</p>
<p>jym, I think what they did at the time was not enough, reporting it up the chain. Others disagree and that is fine. Let’s say for the sake of argument they did the right thing by reporting it up the chain. The next problem is NO follow up. How could Paterno not follow up on this? He turned a blind eye when nothing was done. He basically enabled a child abuser. That is what all the outrage is about.</p>