You have no idea of what specifically McQueary told Paterno. Until you know that, you cannot very well assume that there was probable cause that a crime had been committed. The theory that we all have an obligation to go running to nanny (or fifteen different bureaucratic nannies) every time that we become aware that there is a vague possibility of criminal behavior is a prescription for turning our country into Central Europe circa 1935. No thanks.
As I understand it, Paterno was not a mandatory reporter under Pennsylvania law at the time. So much for legal obligations. He had a lot of moral obligations. If he were CONVINCED that a single instance of criminal sexual assault on a minor by Sandusky had, in fact, occurred, I would agree that he had a moral obligation to report to police, and prosecutors and, if necessary to judges. Beyond that, despite his great prominence and his status as a respected and revered member of the local community, there was not much more he could do. He did report to the appropriate school authority who was in charge of the only police department likely to respond. Wishing and hoping that the other police authorities would step on the toes of the Penn State PD gets you as far as Obozo wishing and hoping for economic recovery.
Should Paterno have had a sandwich board made up and personally picketed Schultz's office or the courthouse?
What if Paterno, who certainly knew McQueary better than thee or me, thought McQueary was adequate as an assistant football coach but had the credibility of a moonbeam or of a crackpot like Ron Paul, or of a serial liar like Mitt Romney? Was he supposed to start running to every nanny in sight if he was CONVINCED that the evidence given to him totally lacked credibility? Hey, we all have but one life to live and ought not waste it on fantasies (if that's what Paterno thought he was dealing with). Unless he subjectively believed whatever he was told and unless what he was told amounted to probable cause (more likely true than not applying normal standards of judgment) he had an obligation not to engage in defamation by passing on unreliable rumors. He might have, in any event, told McQueary to do the reporting since Paterno was not a witness at all and McQueary apparently claimed to be a witness, the only available one, in some unknown way. No one but Sandusky could know the name of the victim, if any.
Neither you or I KNOW what Joe Paterno thought or even what McQueary told him specifically since McQueary has three different mutually exclusive stories(one of the indicia of unreliability when judging credibility. There is a reason why we insist on due process of law, on the right to confront one's accusers and cross-examine them, on the right of discovery of facts, documents and other evidence pre-trial, on the right to have appeals heard in the case of errors, etc.
When I lived in Connecticut, the late and great (IMHO) Most Rev. John F. Whealon, Archbishop of Hartford (ca. 1971-1991) was accused by the Hartford Courant of having become a registered Republican voter (suggesting that he was about to pull a stealth coup by leading the entire body of Catholics of the Archdiocese of Hartford into (gulp!) the GOP. The archbishop responded in the diocesan newspaper to the effect that the abortion issue had made it impossible for him to continue as a Democrat even though, as a political liberal, he agreed with the Democrats on what he called the little issues: social security, medicare, welfare, wars, spending on weapons, etc. He said that the Democrats were always right on the little issues but had been grievously wrong on the two biggest issues in their history: slavery and abortion. He also reminded them that it was the Courant and not he who had publicized his change of registration. He understood moral obligations and that they need not be splashily written across the sky. How do you know whom, if anyone, Paterno contacted about the McQueary rumor? I don't either.
Please read Michael Novak's NRO column, Ben Novak's lengthy piece on how this mess occurred and the statewide grand jury report rather than merely sensationalized press coverage by self-congratulatory howling mobs of ignorant sports opinion writers, eager to beat their brethren in the competition over who can get out ahead of the pack to get the first bite of the corpse of an 85-year old man of considerable honor and distinction.
Joe Paterno, if he was a culprit at all, is most certainly not the main culprit. That would appear to be Sandusky. Each and every other employee of the university who had to do with knowledge of this matter or investigatory responsibility had a GREATER obligation.
I refuse to deal with claims of ethical lapses because, in my experience, infinitely flexible and malleable "ethics" is what moral relativist liberals (not you) substitute for those rigid old morals that are generally prescribed by God Who seems impervious to their desires to render good as evil and vice versa.
Please also read my #77 and, if you can get a copy of it, The Franklin Coverup which details even more horrendous evils by a Omaha, Nebraska satanic cult which not only exploited and abused to the nth degree young boys obtained out of juvenile detention but then had them blow each other away with shotguns while the perps watched. The perps included police officials, judges, FBI and a wide swath of perverted "community leaders." I don't claim that Penn State was that bad but it would be a very strong template for elitist abuse of children with the special extra of the still unresolved murders and other crimes. The author was a state legislative committee chairman charged with investigating.
Since I am a computer illiterate, I am asking WPaCon if he can post a link to the grand jury report which appeared in full in the New York Slimes.
All I know is a decent humnan being would have told Sandusky you are not welcome to use these showers anymore.
You’re wrong. I don’t give a **** what his legal obligations were. His moral obligation was to report the rapist to law enforcement. Jopa (spit) is rotting in Hades now, getting his just due for failing to protect children.
Personally I hope Satan himself is holding what is left of his miserable soul up against a locker room wall and boning him up the backside for eternity while he screams out to God himself for mercy.
And I hope God ignores his cries just like Paterno did.
Have a nice evening.