For the record, I have reported numerous incidents of sketchy behavior, in my private capacity as parent and volunteer, and in my public capacity as representative of my employer. At the time, proof of crime was not available, but the reports led to investigation, people coming forward and eventual prosecutions in some cases. A notable conviction was of the apparently loved and respected police department youth officer assigned to the school district. Do you think that was easy? I also investigated sexual harassment claims brought before my employer. Sometimes people lie and have ulterior motives, and sometimes they tell the truth. It is complicated, and I put my own employment on the line each time.
My original point remains the same as it did with “Grandpa”. If you want to report a crime or suspicious incident that occurred on the campus of Penn State, University Park, PA, with its own area code and zip code, and five times larger than the city in which I live, the only jurisdiction is the campus police. Paterno could have gone to the desk clerk, a patrolman, or the
head administrator. He chose the latter, plus that man’s boss.
If he did so to plot a cover up, I hope that will come out in his supervisors’ trials or in Louis Freeh’s report. I am disappointed that Joe didn’t do the many things he could have done, but changing the realities of jurisdiction wasn’t one of them.
No. Paterno's only interest was in notifying the Athletic Director. Here's Paterno's Grand Jury testimony:
Q: To whom or with whom did you share the information that McQueary had given you?
Mr. Paterno: I talked to my immediate boss, our athletic director.
Q: What is that person’s name?
Mr. Paterno: Tim Curley.
Q: How did you contact Mr. Curley?
Mr. Paterno: I believe I did it by phone. As I recall, I called him and I said, hey, we got a problem, and I explained the problem to him.
Q: You indicated that your report was made directly to Tim Curley. Do you know of that report being made to anyone else that was a university official?
Mr. Paterno: No, because I figured that Tim would handle it appropriately. I have a tremendous amount of confidence in Mr. Curley and I thought he would look into it and handle it appropriately.
So even if Schultz was the university police (and he wasn't), Paterno didn't contact the university police. He contacted the Athletic Department.
Next, Here's a copy of the Penn State organizational chart. Notice where the Senior Vice President of Business and Finance (now the SVP of Finance and Business/Treasurer) is. Then look down at all of the full departments that report to him. Commonwealth Operations, Physical Plant, Human Resources, among the ten.
Do you think mentioning to Gary Schultz that there was a light out in Room E-328 of the Minsky Building was the same thing as contacting Physical Plant? Why then would drawing the Sandusky matter to his attention be the same as contacting the University Police, just one of ten departments under him? It's just as likely he was contacted because he was in charge of Human Resources (after all, Schultz never let anyone inside the police department, including the chief of police, know about the Sandusky matter).
So, no. Paterno didn't contact the university police. By his own testimony, he only contacted the Athletic Department.
Then, by the time Schultz was brought into it, it was a Senior Vice President of the university to whom Human Resources reported, just the same as the University Police and Physical Plant. Bringing Schultz into the mix had nothing to do with "police," and Paterno didn't bring Schultz in anyway.