WTF? Whats up with this “the coaching must go on” mentality there?
I don’t know about Pennsylvania, but if you are a teacher in Virginia, and you "believe that abuse of a minor may have occurred” you are required by law to make a report to whatever authority has jurisdiction over the minor. It doesn’t matter if it was in your school, or any direct connection to your professional duties. You are “A mandated reporter,” and your responsibility is a matter of law. If you are unable to identify the minor, you must report (in Va, that is) to Child Protective Services in your jurisdiction, and they are required to investigate.
Paterno says he told the School authorities, and did not know that it was a very young boy being raped, but none of that changes the failure to make full report, and ascertain that the report was acted upon.
Perhaps Pennsylvania has no such law, but the ethics remain unchanged.
Tris
This is what I have been wondering. If it had been me, I would have done whatever it took immediately to get the kid safe, and then taken it from there about reporting. At least, I hope I would. (And then I would hope like hell that the kid would back up my story.)
Roddy
One thing I do find it VERY disgusting is the PSU students protesting the firing.
But, then I give it some thought. What if it happened at most successful football schools? Say Stoops at Oklahoma or Beamer at Virginia Tech (wow, tough to think of coaches with more than 10 years).
[ol]
[li]Something very bad happens with an assistant 10+ years ago[/li][li]That assistant hasn’t been with the team for 10 years[/li][li]Popular coach reported the incident, per the rules set in place*[/li][li]10 years later, the details come to light in the media[/li][li]Popular coach suddenly gets fired today over that incident, despite a years of good works.[/li][/ol]
Oh yeah, I’m sure all of the students and fans would think “Good riddance”. It’s disgusting, but hardly unique to Penn St fans.
I say this as a Nebraska fan, who was appalled in the mid-90s when fans blamed the anti-Husker media for reporting coeds attacking players’ fists with their faces.
*Although I’d think most would’ve handled it differently. But you get my point about the fans.
This is what has been confusing me…why didn’t McQueary try to interrupt what he witnessed, or at the minimum immediately grab a phone and call the police? Why is there no outrage at HIS lack of follow-through?
And I’m very confused about how this young boy came to be alone with this man anyhow…what kind of youth football program has one boy alone with one coach for any length of time, especially on a college campus, which seems to me to be a strange place to have young kids hanging about. Was he in a program with a bunch of other kids and Sandusky had him stay late? How was that explained to to parents when they came to pick him up after the program? I can’t imagine my son going to football practice and not leaving when all the other kids did, and me sitting in the car in the parking lot just wondering what was taking him so long to come out. It’s the logistical questions like these that never seem to get explained.
I’m outraged at his behavior. IMO it’s certainly worse than Paterno’s. I’ll bet he’ll be gone inside the next week.
Ok, I’ve had time now to read more about this (that timeline on the school paper website was very odd and unhelpful with all its references to January 1, 1968) and this Sandusky situation sounds eerily like the Michael Jackson situation, with parents being flattered into letting their sons actually sleep over at this guy’s house!
And in some ways, I can understand how possibly, McQueary might be so shocked and stunned by seeing a coach, that he probably admired, doing what he was doing that he panicked and sought advice and counsel from his father, possibly figuring that since Sandusky and the boy saw him that if he called the police, there would be nothing going on by the time the cops got there and it would be his word against the word of a revered coach…I can see this if the guy were 18…but he was 28! I would hope my 28-year old kids would not have to ask permission to report something like this.
It has been explained. He founded a charity for at-risk youth called The Second Mile in 1977. He took kids from there to visit the football facilities at Penn State. Sort of like field trips.
They will probably be the next to seeinvestigations and executive shakeups or complete dissolution of the program.
I agree. How a person doesn’t run in and grab the kid is beyond me. How many different people failed these poor kids boggles the mind.
Apparently McQueary doesn’t lack physical courage: according to this story, he once stepped in and broke up a knife fight between students in a campus dining hall. It doesn’t say when this fight happened.
Every new thing I learn makes the story more inexplicable.
Unfortunately it is all to easy to understand. In real high stress situations fight or flight kicks in, and the conscious mind goes out to lunch. Obviously for McQueary it was flight. And no matter how much any of us want to think otherwise, until we are in the same circumstance we can’t know for certain what we would do.
Not that I’m defending McQueary. He has had nearly a decade to correct his flight response and do right by the kid. And he hasn’t.
Presumably that rule applies to primary and secondary school faculty and staff but the principals in this case are faculty and staff at a university.
Was the charity always meant as a way to get access to children? In other words, was he abusing kids as far back as 1977?
Who exactly did Paterno report it to? Does this person have a name? Why isn’t this person named in the news? Did this unnamed person tell anyone else?
The football coach reports to the athletic director. At least on paper. In many cases the coach wields far more power in the organization. Tim Curley was the AD and has been charged with several crimes.
It was reported this morning that he will not… due to multiple death threats.
Interim Penn State President Rodney Erickson speaks to the alumni (via email, received personally):
I doubt I’m the only one to consider the second paragraph with a large dollop of cynicism but thought that the call to responsible behavior in the last full paragraph was well-placed, considering the riots and death threats. Penn State isn’t helped by its supporters going off the rails.
I would guess this guy has been hired with one of the two following mandates:
1.) Dig into the story as deeply as possible, issue a full and honest report, and then retire or resign with the thanks of the Board.
2. Do whatever makes the story fade from the headlines ASAP.
My more cynical nature says mandate #2 is more likely, but maybe I’m wrong.
#2 could be true, but it seems like it would be the worst of possible choices if there is a single official Penn State action that could be deemed covering up anyone’s misdeeds.
And the policies of these large organizations are designed solely to cover the collective asses of the large organization and are often contradictory to the law. Any thinking person shoould know this.
I sometimes work for large construction companies and I have been subjected to “safety briefings” before being allowed to enter the jobsite. The briefing usually consists of " If you see a violation or illegal activity on this jobsite do not call the police or city authorities call this number instead and report to our “safety officer” only.
While I can honestly sign the paper that says I’ve “read and understand” these policies ( not that agreed to obey them) I can still tell you if I observed an illegal activity on a jobsite, especially one involving a young child and sodomy, my first call would be to the police department and damn the consequences…and I think most thinking human beings would agree with me.
Yeah, but… What’s the alternative, really? No internal investigation? That’s even worse, isn’t it? As long as they aren’t hampering law enforcement investigations, let them have their own as well.