<p>I can forgive the “riot” the other night. Their little world has been turned upside down, with no warning, and some students reacted emotionally and badly. Kids do that, lest we forget. By Thursday morning, I think they were beginning to understand how bad it looked to the rest of the world, and most of what I’ve heard since then from students has been sober and sad and bewildered. I’m impressed by the number of kids who turned out for the vigil last night, they’ve been raising money for child-abuse causes, and the voices of sorrow and reflection are beginning to be heard. I read some of the letters and opinion columns in the student newspaper last night, and it appears that the “Poor Joe” contingent is not the only viewpoint on campus. Many of them are beginning to realize that this is much larger than football, and for that I applaud them. Lots of adults are still struggling to wrap their brains around all that has happened, and we have the benefit of years and distance. I’m going to give these students, who are young and living at the epicenter of this nightmare, some time to do the same.</p>
<p>Here is part of another article about the leadership void. It chronicles the actions of the women’s basketball coach who flouted the university’s anti-discrimination policy for years. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>[Penn</a> State Nittany Lions again deficient in leadership - ESPN](<a href=“http://espn.go.com/womens-college-basketball/story/_/id/7219014/penn-state-nittany-lions-again-deficient-leadership]Penn”>Penn State Nittany Lions again deficient in leadership - ESPN)</p>
<p><<i’m impressed="" by="" the="" number="" of="" kids="" who="" turned="" out="" for="" vigil="" last="" night,="">></i’m></p>
<p>My son posted a picture of the vigil on his FB page last night and this was his comment - “The candlelight vigil was incredible. What a great way to end the week and move on to tomorrow.”</p>
<p>His comment about the riots the other night was - “If we were trying to show that Penn State a classy university that doesn’t deserve to be portrayed the way we have in the media this week, then… uh… we definitely just ruined it.”</p>
<p>This is from a sophomore, who prior to fall 2010 had never heard of Paterno.</p>
<p><<lots of="" adults="" are="" still="" struggling="" to="" wrap="" their="" brains="" around="" all="" that="" has="" happened,="" and="" we="" have="" the="" benefit="" years="" distance.="" i’m="" going="" give="" these="" students,="" who="" young="" living="" at="" epicenter="" this="" nightmare,="" some="" time="" do="" same.="">></lots></p>
<p>Thank you. As the parent of a son trying to sort through all this - the patience is appreciated.</p>
<p>“has any adult that had any knowledge of the assaults behaved honorably this far?”</p>
<p>“Certainly. At the very least, the HS superintendent, principal, and coach, at least some of the mothers, McQueary’s father, and quite likely other people that we don’t know about.”</p>
<p>McQueary’s father told his son to go home. Not so sure characterized honorable behavior. I know he reported to Paterno, but the true honorable thing would have been to do more.</p>
<p>Keystone Central School District officials were asked to comment on the following statements Wednesday:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Several reputable sources say the guidance office talked to the victim and his mother, then discouraged them from contacting Children and Youth.</p></li>
<li><p>Those same sources said when the family questioned that outcome, they were told by a Keystone administrator (Karen Probst) that Sandusky was a “great man” and they should go home and think about it before taking further action.</p></li>
<li><p>The district only took action after the family, frustrated with the school’s response, went directly to Children and Youth Services with its complaint, and after C&Y officials told the district Sandusky should be banned from contact with students and barred from school property.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Early Thursday afternoon, Superintendent Kelly Hastings was questioned about the situation, but begged off answering until she could confer with other district officials.</p>
<p>“Ohiomom, regarding what the GA saw and what he reported, I don’t want to get unduly graphic, but … it is hard for me to figure how the evidence could escape the notice of his mother, if she did the laundry…” </p>
<p>I don’t want to get unduly graphic either, but they were in the shower.</p>
<p>Chocoholic, it’s been widely reported the Superintendent reported it. If not, the school will have a lot of answering to do.</p>
<p>I’m sure Sandusky is an accomplished liar. I’ll bet he can cry at the drop of a hat too. Pedophiles and drug addicts learn to lie, often and well.</p>
<p>My understanding is that his son called him, distraught. (Who knows what he said, or whether he was even making sense.) The father told him to come home, they discussed it, and the father advised his son to report this long-term family friend to his boss. Consequences be damned, apparently.</p>
<p>That sounds honorable to me.</p>
<p>Chocoholic, I am not going to spend hours looking for it, but I believe we are talking about two different schools. The superintendent in the case I am referring to was male. Not only that, but he specifically tried and failed to find out from CPS–or whatever it’s called there–what had happened.</p>
<p>OhioMom, I take your point about the shower, but I would have thought that the damage would have taken a while to heal.</p>
<p>^^ Of course, Grcxx3. I have a college junior, and they just don’t always react the way we hope they would, especially in the heat of high emotion. But most of them have good hearts and when they have time to stop and consider, they usually come around to a more rational way of thinking. </p>
<p>BTW, I don’t like the media characterization of what happened Wednesday night. A bunch of emotional students gathered, a tiny handful did some minor property damage, and then they all went home. Calling this a “riot” is laughable to those of us who remember Chicago '68 and Watts.</p>
<p>^^ Oh, that would explain it. There may be 2 different Superintendents and two different instances.</p>
<p>LasMa - while I do not in any way support the actions of the students who protested the other night, I can - in some way understand them. For the most part, this is probably the first earth-shattering event that has ever hit them. Those of us over 40 (okay, over 50) have the advantage of age and experience with respect to dealing with situations such as this.</p>
<p>For my son - he’s experienced a lot - but always from afar. We were living in Egypt (among Muslim friends) when 9/11 hit. We were many times zone away when Katrina destroyed our hometown. And we were here in the US when the revolutions in Cairo occurred. They were all incredibly devastating and difficult to watch. But for my son, this is the first major event for which he has had had a front row seat - and it has been frightening for him. </p>
<p>My hope is that all these students - the ones who protested and the ones who didn’t -will, with maturity and age, eventually look at this as a major learning experience.</p>
<p>(according to the mother, the school did not react properly at first. They tried to dissuade her. )</p>
<p>Not that it matters, but:
**
John DiNunzio, Keystone Central School District’s interim superintendent at the time,** said the boy’s mother reported the incident to the school principal and head football coach. At that point, DiNunzio said he was notified.</p>
<p>DiNunzio said he never spoke to the mother or the child. He said the principal and coach told him the boy alleged the “inappropriate” incident happened while the two were alone in a room on wrestling mats.</p>
<p>“It was strictly a touching type of situation,” DiNunzio said of the allegations.</p>
<p>A bit ironic that Paterno’s son is the coach that was bumped up to take McQueary’s place.</p>
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</p>
<p>We are saying the same thing. </p>
<p>And if Rakowitz is a licensed psychologist, yes he would have an obligation to report to Child protective Services. BUT, if he was told it was already reported by someone else, from PSU, then he would have no obligation to report again. So the question in my mind is, who was it who failed to report? Probably Curley. Maybe Schultz. According to the indictment, “Curley and Schultz assured the graduate assistant that they would look into it and determine what further action they would take”. It appears that what was done was to notify Second Mile. Maybe (and this is purely speculative) they passed the buck, thinking that Second Mile, especially if headed by a licensed psychologist, would have to report. Maybe Second Mile was given the impression that it had already been reported, so did not feel it necessary to do again. But, as others said above, if PSU and Second Mile share the same legal counsel (who SURELY was involved in decision-making as to how to handle this) he would know who, if anyone, reported to CPS. So ultimately I think that attorney has a lot of explaining to do.</p>
<p>It is heart-breaking for the young victims. Boys, more so than girls, are even less likely to tell about sexual abuse.</p>
<p>I am also sorry for all the fall-out effect this will have on current students there, especially those who are freshmen. What a nightmare.</p>
<p>As the Coach said, hindsight is wonderful.<br>
Let us not forget another University where the hockey players were accussed of rape by the DA and later after all the **** fell on them, found not quilty.</p>
<p>All Univerisities have policies for reporting sexual abuse of any nature. All the ones that I am familiar with have internal review PRIOR to reporting to police, etc. We don’t know the facts and until we do, we should not castrate the Coach or anyone else. Perhaps the assistant coach did not state exactly what he saw or reversed himself when talking with the atheltic director. We do not know whether he stated “wrestling” or not.</p>
<p>And we’re back to square one.</p>
<p>I would like to address the riot the other night.</p>
<p>The entire school was in shock and the nation was piling on about the horrible, horrible penn state family that thinks of nothing other than football. Paterno had announced his retirement earlier in the day. It was 10 p.m. Media was everywhere. All these students with pent up emotions were all home, in dorms or on the street talking to each other.They were trying to get their heads around was was happening.
The university president had been fired. </p>
<p>So what does the school do. They have JoePa call them on the phone and they fire him. They announce it at 10:00p.m.A few thousand of these 40,000 students streamed into the canyon as they have during many other occasions. You get that many students and that much anger and frustration and some are bound to start trouble. One newsvan was flipped and a few light posts broken.</p>
<p>There are no excuses for the behavior. However, why not have waited until the next day or until the college had some leadership in place. Announce it in the morning when students were in class or at jobs and it was daylight. This would have made such a big difference.</p>
<p>Penn State students have been unfairly characterized. Let us not forget these same students run the WORLDS largest fund raising event in THON giving $7 million dollars a year to childhood cancer.</p>
<p>To hear the media stating they were afraid of violence at the game shows how little they know of Penn State. I think the media was disappointed there was not continued unrest. The show is over. Go home.</p>
<p>
<a href=“http://www.wpxi.com/news/29737641/detail.html[/url]”>http://www.wpxi.com/news/29737641/detail.html</a> How is this not a riot? Should it simply be called civil unrest or disobedience and that a few things were overturned because it isn’t at the same scale as the Rodney King riots? I don’t get that. Should we say the Grand Canyon is just a hole in the ground? Is it just a matter of scale? Watch the video. It looks scary to me.</p>