“am not going above my superiors heads at that point. At that point it’s on the witness to go up the ladder. Only he knows what he actually witnessed.”
Not even for a criminal offense?
By your own admission you would not go over your superiors’ heads. By that rationale, the assistant coach didn’t go over his superior’s head. He reported it to Paterno so that he did the right thing, in your opinion. So, you wouldn’t go over your superiors’ heads but it is OK for the assistant coach to go over his superiors’ heads? What kind of twisted logic is that?
Who dropped the ball? The assistant coach? No. Paterno? Yes.
For criminal offenses as severe as child molestation I, had I been the coach of PedState, would go to the top of the food chain immediately, which, in this case, happens to be the campus police...but that’s just me.
You do realize that that is what happened by following the chain of command. Paterno notified Curley, Curley notified Schultz, who is the head of the University Police. Schultz notified Spanier, the President, and legal counsel was brought in, all in a matter of days. It's documented in the Freeh Report. Read it.