The actions of both Second Mile and Penn State - from JoePa on down - all say the same thing to Sandusky:
“We don’t care if you do it, just don’t do it around here”
How the hell JoePa, McQueary, and anyone else associated with this could let Sandusky set even one foot on campus, let alone the very facilities where he was seen anally raping a 10yr old boy is beyond me. How JoePa and others could continue on knowing that Sandusky was INVOLVED WITH AN ORGANIZATION FOR YOUNG BOYS… and do nothing.
How anyone can find any sort of excuse for JoePa, McQueary and the others is beyond me. You have to be absolutely devoid of any sort of moral compass to not see this, and it’s sickening.
I’m shocked and dismayed at some of the posters ITT. Sad and pathetic.
Am I the first person to wonder if the result of all this lunacy is going to be that the next Mike McQueary will decide to just keep his mouth shut? Dollars to donuts this one wishes he had! The bad guy got nine more years of freedom, the young boy wasn’t helped an iota, and the two people who made a good faith effort to do the right thing are finding themselves second-guessed and scapegoated and their lives utterly ruined by a hysterical, wildly punative populace who has lost all perspective and can’t be trusted to think straight. I know I’d damn sure think twice before I tried to do the right thing regarding a serious crime involving one of this country’s present or potentially future emotional hotspots if it meant someday my fate would fall into the hands of this crowd! And that’s a pretty damn ridiculous thing to have to say!
Do you have any evidence that that Paterno knew of Sandusky’s history, that there was not in fact an investigation, or that Paterno knew the truth about the steps the AD and others took?
Why does your shock not cause to re-evaluate your premises? You assume that all these people KNEW the truth, yet decided to cover it up while not even bothering to take any substantive steps to prevent Sandusky from continuing to assault boys on their campus. This course of action is not only morally repugnant, but it does nothing to limit their past or future liability. Why would they do that?
I’m sure the future McQuearys’ appreciate your judgment of their character, and they will keep quiet about child rape because your scathing criticism is just too withering.
He did what at the time he thought was the right thing to do. So did Paterno. As has been mentioned upthread, Sandusky was no longer under Paterno’s employ and neither he nor McQueary had any reason to cover up for him. They simply did what their experience and training taught them to do, which was to go up the chain of command, trusting no doubt that the campus police would be notified and an investigation launched. This is the way criminal activity involving school personnel has been handled in colleges all over this country. So they did what they were supposed to do. Now their motives are being impugned and they’re being excoriated and their lives ruined simply because they didn’t intuit that they should behave differently than they’d been trained to do. The logical and reasonable thing to do would be to prosecute Sandusky (and Curley, Schultz, etc. if there is evidence of criminal wrongdoing or a cover up) and then all school personnel should be notified that there has been a change in policy and henceforth any knowledge or suspicion of felony-level crime is to be reported directlt to the local police. That would be the sensible and most effective way to go about it. But no, instead everybody has to jump to the conclusipn that it’s a cover up, that Paterno and McQueary are as bad as Sandusky himsef, and that henceforth Penn State past and present is to be hated for all time and if the local newspapers had any integrity they’d ban the letters “L”, “S” and “U” from their pages. It’s utterly ridiculous the way people are reacting to this incident and the ultimate result is likely to be the exact opposite of what it would be if this incident had been handled reasonably instead of at the hands of impassioned people with blood in their eye.
That’s a bit casually harsh. They would cover it up and act as if nothing happened for the same reason that these types of coverups always occur - because they’d rather deny everything now and hope that any long-term fallout occurs after they’re gone than act responsibly now and risk being tarnished with scandal anyway.
If they’d turned Sandusky over to the police, Penn State would have been linked to a child molester even if it had done everything right. So they covered it up. The fact that this not only allowed the abuse to continue but amplified the fallout is why doing the right thing is best regardless, and why doing the wrong thing is morally repugnant.
He was a 28 year old graduate assistant who’d previously been Penn State’s star quarterback. This was not some guy who Paterno barely knew. Paterno already knew what he thought of this guy. Paterno invited him in when he came over on a Saturday morning.
I’m just stunned that anyone could defend Paterno in this. I just can’t articulate how wrong I believe his defenders to be.
He knew. Of course he knew. He’s as much as said so. And he is still only concerned about himself. If he had an ounce of goodness in him, he would take this like a man and pray for forgiveness for turning a blind eye to the young boys that were being abused by his buddy Jerry.
He makes my fucking stomach hurt. McCreary needs firing too. How he could witness that and do nothing but run out like a fucking girl is beyond me.
Goddam, I can’t even think about those poor boys and how hurt and confused they must have been, and probably still are, without wanting to puke. And we’re supposed to think that Paterno did enough? He should not have been content until he KNEW that Jerry no longer had access to young boys at the very least. And if he was any kind of man at all, he would go out there and tell those students that are rallying to his defense that he doesn’t fucking deserve their support because he failed to protect those kids. But no, he wants dignity. He didn’t offer those boys any dignity and he sure as fucking hell doesn’t deserve any now.
You know, truly I don’t, because who can divine Joe Paterno’s thoughts, really? But the investigation and admonishment are a matter of public record. So, let’s apply a little common sense here. Do you think that the iconic coach of one of the most storied football teams in college football history wasn’t aware of the disposition of his defensive coordinator regarding a child sexual abuse investigation given the media shitstorm that followed? And if he didn’t, do you really want such a daft, ignorant individual in charge of your football program?
Any lingering doubts I might have had about Paterno’s culpability (and frankly I didn’t have many) disappeared when he refused to quit until the end of the season, forcing the university to fire him instead. And particularly his comments about “the victims or whatever.” He clearly doesn’t consider the molestation a big deal, certainly not more important than PENN STATE FOOTBALL.
Yeah, I can see by how an insane application of “just following orders sir!” might have solaced Paterno when he saw the molester with kids at games and was fleetingly curious which ones would be raped later, but I hold myself to a higher standard.