ALLEDGED - Penn State sex scandal prompts 2 resignations

This guy wasn't a stranger. Paterno should have asked him what was going on. This is not a legal requirement, but it is what you would expect a father figure to do. Paterno admitted that he was wrong and that was why.

As an aside, My understanding is that DA who made the decision in '98 disappeared under mysterious circumstances.

 

That doesn't really contradict that there were no signs of an investigation. You are now telling me that if he knows they at least said hey we aren't going to file charges and at least had an investigation, paterno wouldn't have/shouldn't have expected there to be further interviews? Especially after a second incident?

 

I would have responded that way. If I find any type of violent act at my place of business, I call the police in. Even if said violent act is done with.

 

Do we know if this did or did not happen in 2002 or before 2002?

Yes, disappeared in 2005.

I'm saying that there were interviews and investigations prior to the 2002 incident. The police investigation was provided to the DA. Was Paterno aware of the details of those previous investigations? Was he aware of the results of any of the investigations by child welfare? What was Paterno told about those previous investigations? Why is he not blamed for not going over the detectives' and child services' heads for that previous investigation?

 

Details are vague, but it is sounding like Sandusky basically ran a pedophile ring out of Penn St. for wealthy alumni. The DA also mysteriously disappeared and had his laptop wiped clean years ago. Could you imagine if those two dots got connected?
It would be basically the end of these powerful college football programs as we know them around the entire country. No way can a university allow a program such latitude.

 

You mean out of 2nd Mile for wealthy donors?

Obviously that's much different than out of PSU for wealthy alumni.

PSU has no kids to pimp out.

 

Whats most troubling to me is how many people involved with the justice system could see this happening, and nothing be done.

We are talking about DAs, head of police, probably a dozen attorneys, state child services, etc. that were all involved in investigating this at one point or another, and nobody cared/was able to do anything.

 

How do you know there was no immediate danger? How do we know he wasn't going to rape another boy a week later and Paterno could of stopped it had he immediately went to the authorities. When a predator is lose, there is ALWAYS immediate danger.

 

Its easy to say how you would have reacted bro and I respect your opinion but until youre in that situation, in the moment, you honestly dont know. Neither do I. We all like to think we would do the right thing and hope that we would and hope that everyone we know and are close to would do the right thing but unless you have ever been in that type of situation we have no idea how we would react. Logically speaking, your first instinct would be repulsion and disgust maybe some dry heaving or regurgitation. Your first instinct wouldnt be to call the police, your body and brain would react first.

Im not surprised by the statements you make about the prison population and about how victims of molestation feel. That makes pretty good sense.

By no means am I finding loopholes or excusing the behavior of one Jerry Sandusky. He should rot in a jail cell with animals bigger and stronger and crazier then he is. What he did is repulsive and gross. But those are are his actions, not Joe Paterno's, Mike McQueary's, Graham Spanier's, Gary Schultz, or the AD's whose name escapes me. The actions of each individual should be looked at separately and then together to see who is responsible for what. Again, the 1998 incident should have set off an alarm. It didnt. The 2002 incident certainly should have set off an alarm as well. It didnt. The problem is that Paterno knew something happened but testified and has been substantiated that he didnt know exactly what. In 1998, Mike McQueary who was then a graduate assistant for PSU was the one who saw that incident in the bathroom. Not Joe Paterno. So the question is, why didnt Mike McQueary follow up with the police? Paterno could have but McQueary was the one who saw it all. He didnt stop it. Didnt report it to the police. But hes escaping blame almost entirely and remains employed at PSU because his name is not Joe Paterno and hes not the one who has preached morals for the last 46 years as a HC and 62 total as a PSU coach. Why is that? Lay the blame where it belongs.

 

Difference between Joe Paterno and the Pope? Joe Paterno got fired.

 

McQueary getting the pass pisses me off more then Paterno getting the pass(until yesterday at least). I agree 100% Boik. You do have to look each individual. McQueary is more of a scum bag then Paterno IMO. I think McQueary is in on this more then most believe. I believe he is on that coaching staff mostly because he was bribed to turn the blind eye to the situation. Its absolutely disgusting to think McQueary, and even his DAD, knew the situation and continued to act as if not. Pathetic.

 

Contacting campus police right then and there would of been the best thing to do because they could of responded to the situation faster. But after that, they're of no use. They don't have the means to investigate that local and state police do.

 

He reported this to his AD, not any type of police.

 

I'm sorry, but when you have reason to believe that someone in your organization/company/church/whatever is actively molesting children and you don't report it to the authorities, then there's something morally wrong with you. Fundamentally wrong.

I don't mean this as a personal attack, by the way, even if does sound like one, I admit. A lot of people tend to operate this like. It's what kept child molestation go unchecked in the Catholic Church for centuries. But it's still fundamentally wrong.

 

Another thing that just sickens me concerning Paterno. He claims that some of what he did is because McQueary told him he had only seen "fondling" and not an actual rape. Really? A grown *** man fondling a kid in the showers isn't serious enough to warrant a call to the police either?

 

And now Penn State is being funded by a bunch of pedophiles renting kids from Sandusky. It's getting to a point where they need to just shut the program down until they get this thing figured out.

 

the fact Paul Posluszny said sandusky was still around all the time when he was there after the 2002 thing just says everything and they had penn state football players helping with sanduskys activities still its just disgusting

 

If they were investigated properly wouldn't that had included Paterno being interviewed by the police? I think he would have noticed no one contacted him and then would have realized that perhaps the info was never passed on to the proper authorities.

 

Exactly. McQueary is the one who holds more moral culpability then anyone because he actually walked in on said molestation.

Unfortunately in a country where people get sued for looking at people wrong one must live by the cover your *** philosophy. I certainly would report it...after I told my bosses what happened on their premises. If it happened off work grounds then it gets reported immediately. The issue is that if you work for an organization, you have some responsibility to protect your company or university in this case as well. It certainly should have been reported but again, how can you report when you arent 100% aware of the extent of what happened?

 

You're suggesting he was completely oblivious to one of his staff members and his future successor being investigated by the police. I find that pretty hard to believe.
Let's pretend for a moment the police lied and said they found no evidence, or they did just find no evidence. No you know of this accusation against him. What do you think when you have a witness, not another accuser, at witness, saying hey I just saw the same guy having sex with someone in the shower? I understand what you are getting it and it has some merit. But I think would mean joe paterno doesn't really think things through very well.

 

Something else to keep in mind....

The Attorney General of the State of PA in 2004? He had to have known about this.

The current Gov of PA.

I have a feeling, this is gonna get very...very dark.

 

Ok I started reading these posts and got to page 4 before I had to skip to the end and say my peace. I am seeing people say things like I would have done the same thing and told my supervisor/hr to give my work time to prepare? I understand we are all Human and we each have a fight or filight response built into us all, but after the nerves settle you have to gather your thoughts and say to yourself. THAT CHILD NEEDS HELP! You at least pick up the phone and dial 911. This CHILD needed medical attention, he needed to speak to a counselor Immediatly not a few days or weeks later.

 

Not sure if this has been mentioned, but Paterno has gotten himself a criminal defense lawyer. Pretty odd for a man who did his legal duty.

 

Last I saw, this actually hasn't been confirmed.

Aside from that he may want to protect himself from civil suits. Retaining counsel isn't exactly odd.

 

I'm pretty sure I read that it was his office (when he was AG) that opened the current investigation.

 

We have really only started to hear about how deep this goes.....and its already damning to the program and the school. Good on the school for doing the right thing in firing Paterno, after he released that ridiculous statement saying he would step down at the end of the year (which he was going to do anyway) and the board of trustees should stop wasting their time talking about him he showed how out of touch with the situation he truly is. Can you imagine the scene this week after all of this to see Joe Pa on the sidelines celebrating a win and a record? I mean thats obscene, the school couldn't have that happening. I mean think about the kids involved and the community. This is so much bigger than Penn State football and its fans. Good for the school in recognizing it had to act immediately since Joe Pa didn't do the right thing and step down immediately.

I can't see any excuse for Paterno, there are a lot of people that covered for Joe Pa obviously but he knew about a possible child molester on his staff and did nothing, no excuse for that, anyone trying to rationalize that is just ignorant. When this starts going to civil court and criminal court a lot more is going to come out and the people making the rationalizations about how they could understand how a man like Joe Pa did not do a thing to protect young kids from being raped are going to go stop rationalizing Joe Pas lack of personal responsibility to a community built around his football program. Joe Paterno's legacy is tarnished as well it should be and this is far from over, his name is going to come up in criminal and civil proceedings and its only going to get worse for him and his legacy.

How the school is keeping McQueary around is a mystery to me, he should have been the first to go. Honestly it makes me suspicious about what he knows or how deep this goes, him still having a job at Penn State is absurd. The school failed on this one big time.

 

Come on man. He was told that a grown *** man was only merely "fondling" a 10 year old boy in the showers. Nothing wrong there...

/sarcasm

About McQueary. Speculation is he's the one who blew the whistle on this. I can't imagine any other circumstance that would allow him to still be coaching...

You're also right in that this is only the tip of the iceberg. All hell is going to break loose when the names of the Penn State boosters who Sandusky pimped these kids come out. If Sandusky spills the beans in return for a plea bargain, god help us. Question is, does he even make it to trial? Does he commit suicide? Does he mysteriously go missing like Ray Gricar?

 

Are any of those cases hearsay?

 

Anybody catch what Barry Switzer said? Essentially, no way the staff didn't know with how close staffs tend to be.....fairly damning stuff from an outside observer

 

No. Which is a good point. However, if your kid tells you his friend is showing up with bruises at school, do you call child welfare and the cops, or do you go tell the students teacher and hope they pursue it?

 

Doesn't that become an outcry witness situation? Perhaps a lawyer can clarify

Edit: also a teacher is a mandatory reporter so there is no hoping in that case I would think

 

There's always hoping. And again lets not confuse morality with lawful actions. In some states people have to report incidents of child abuse,etc. But not all states.
I am however, going more for the hearsay comparison. point is do you pursue something with law enforcement just because you heard of it second hand? Or do you hand it off to someone and hope they do the right/lawful thing.

 

Just saw that on ESPN, pretty damning coming from a former College head coach. It is hard to believe that something like this wouldn't have been discussed by the staff at some point. We are only hearing the beginning of this, its going to get uglier and uglier for the entire staff that was under Paterno when we start finding out just when people suspected and what they suspected and how they all did nothing.

 

I completely agree on morality v legality. In most states in the situation you described, teachers are mandatory reporters. Now unless multitasking once again made me miss something I apologize.

In a situation like you described, one would hope that erring on the side of caution and reporting the incident to the police would never be wrong. Perhaps you lose a friendship or a relationship due to the police investigating the allegation then so be it.

Edit: in keeping with hope, I would hope that the teacher saw it before your kid, then it is out of your hands. I had an issue like this when I was a kid. I had an older brother, and older kids in the neighborhood, we all loved to play rather brutal games of tackle football. Well, being the smallest kid there meant I was the BSD of the group, for example they all left crying at one point because I rocked them. Well these kids for scared of taking me on head to head so they tried to tackle me by my shirt. I'd run through it, leaving what looked like someone was choking me. I also had a TON of bruises. To wrap this long story up, I had an elementary school teacher stop me after school, take me into the principals office and asked me if everything was okay at home. I told them yes, and explained why I was all beat up. They naturally called my brother and friends in to confirm, along with my parents. I can personally assure you that they take it very seriously in school. This was in the late '80s early '90s

 

I'd call the school/teacher for sure.

I might call the cops or child welfare, but I don't know. I guess a lot would depend on how well I knew the kid and their family and how much I believed my kid to tell me the whole truth.

 

Ok now if no one followed up with you and no one came to interview you or your kid, you would just what?

 

Do people report something to the police and "hope" it gets pursued? There are people being charged criminally with the cover up. Assuming that Paterno was part of the cover up and not a victim of the cover up is still an assumption. An assumption based on sides of the story that aren't Paterno's.

 

There's been at least 8 people come forward already and it will probably reach the teens according to ESPN. My guess is the counsel is being retained to protect himself from civil lawsuits and the oncoming class action lawsuit coming at PSU.

 

Why would they interview me if I never saw the kid or bruises? I'd be a useless interviewee IMO, and frankly I'd hope they wouldn't even waste their time talking to me. And if they didn't have to interview my kid I'd likely think they interviewed the actual kid getting allegedly abused, the teacher, and/or the kid's parents.


As to follow up, I'm sure I'd try and follow up at some point but I doubt I'd be calling every day to check up, so I might not check for a week or two. I can't imagine (again, depending on how well I know the allegedly abused kid and how much my own kid talked about it) it'd be the top thing on my mind day in and day out.

 

If I had reported it; was told that no action was taken against the parents because the boy got bruises from neighborhood bullies; was told 4 weeks later by my kid that another boy had bruises; I report the second incident and never hear back, then I probably assume that no action was taken against the parents because it was neighborhood bullies.

Also keep in mind that we are talking about a 70 year old man. He isn't going to conduct a rogue investigation because he suspected police detectives and child services are involved in a cover up.