The earliest news articles were written as if the reader knew what the heck was going on. This whole mess of child molestation at Penn State? Huh? Has this story been in the news before? If so, I do not recall it. But, it seems it must be an ongoing saga if those named are being accused of lying to protect the school, if not their own necks. But, last, why is Joe Patero gonna retire in light of all this when, as I understand it, he’s not even been accused?
Can anyone make sense of this? All I can say is that it just goes to show that you shouldn’t get caught woth your pants down!
The story broke Sunday and has absolutely dominated sporting news since then.
The alleged basics are as follows.
In 1998 assistant coach Jerry Sandusky was accused of child molestation. the investigation was handled quietly by campus police and no charges were brought.
By 2002 Sandusky had retired but was a welcome figure on campus and even still had an office there. A graduate assistant caught him anally raping a 10 year old boy in the shower. They went to Paterno who reported it to the athletic director. Sandusky was barred from bringing children on campus, but no one ever reported anything to the police.
At this point Sandusky has now been charged with a whole bunch of sex crimes on minors and several officials at Penn State have been charged with obstruction and failure to report the crimes. Paterno is not being charged… at least not yet, because he met his minimal reporting obligation by reporting it to the school. But a lot of people are calling for his head (quite reasonably IMHO) for not having called the police or following up to make sure someone had.
One of his coaches allegedly abused a child in the locker room. Patero knew about it and reported it to the school but not the cops. The school did nothing, and Patero did nothing else.
I ask because when I first heard the story, and the first inklings of cover up, I just assumed they meant boy as in 18, 19, 20 year old. Something that was technically legal but certainly off putting. The distancing and slight cover up made sense.
A ten year old, I’d be hard pressed to not shoot him, let alone tell the cops.
It says the 84-year old :eek: coach claimed that he “serve the best interests of this university and the young men who have been entrusted to my care.” The mind boggles. Anyone know if the student body is just taking this or are up in arms that he’s not leaving in shame tomorrow?
This story reminds me of the Maple Leaf Gardens scandal, which broke as a huge news story here in Canada in 1997. Same thing, guy preying on disadvantaged boys there for charity sports programs.
You would think that this sort of thing would blow wide open the moment anyone had even the slightest whiff of what was happening. Naturally! Who would cover such a thing up?
But when you have such a huge disparity of power, it can go on for longer than seems possible, with more people knowing about it than seems plausible, before it gets to the point that people start getting charged.
To give you an idea about how mind-bogglingly so this is, I would point you in the direction of Paul Quarrington’s King Leary, a great novel about a senile old hockey player coming to terms with his past and himself. It contains a passing reference to rumours of boys being abused at the “Toronto Gardens” (home of the “Maple Leaves”) which would come to nothing because the victims were just poor boys. King Leary was published in 1987 - fully ten years before the story broke publicly.
The guy who witnessed and reported it to Paterno and other higher ups says he reported a but who he estimated to be about 10 years old being anally raped. Paterno and the other higher ups say the report was more vague. The other two higher ups apparently at first denied ever hearing any report, and are now charged with perjury.
Then they’re delusional. I realize that JoePa has been a superlative coach and, by all outward appearances, a good human being for his entire tenure at Penn State. He let a guy get away with raping a child–WITH NO REPERCUSSIONS AT ALL! He should indeed have been fired.
Raping young boys can and should have brought down the career (and a whole lot more) of the rapist. Covering it up is what’s bringing down everyone else.
Every day that Paterno saw Sandusky on campus in the company of young boys was another act of negligence. It was not some one time mistake. Not to mention the fact that these were disadvantaged youths who were brought on campus for the purpose of making their lives a little bit better.
