Posted on 11/09/2011 9:50:40 AM PST by Colofornian
Joe Paterno, the Penn State football coach who preached success with honor for half a century but whose legend was shattered by a child sex abuse scandal, said Wednesday he will retire at the end of this season.
Paterno said he was "absolutely devastated" by the case, in which his one-time heir apparent, Jerry Sandusky, has been charged with molesting eight boys over 15 years, including at the Penn State football complex.
PENN STATE ABUSE SCANDAL Paterno retiring | His statement Reiter: Chaos in Happy Valley Trustees launch investigation Alleged victim's moms rip Penn St. Whitlock: Paterno has got to go Timeline | Photos | Grand jury report
He said he hoped the team could finish its season with "dignity and determination."
The trustees could still force him to leave immediately. It also could take action against the university president, Graham Spanier.
He said the school's Board of Trustees, which had been considering his fate, should "not spend a single minute discussing my status" and has more important matters to address.
The beloved 84-year-old Paterno has been engulfed by outrage that he did not do more to stop Sandusky after a graduate assistant came to Paterno in 2002 after allegedly having seen the former assistant coach molesting a 10-year-old boy in the Penn State showers.
"This is a tragedy," Paterno said in a statement. "It is one of the great sorrows of my life. With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had done more."
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.foxsports.com ...
With the benefit of simple common sense and basic humanitarian ethics, ALL at Penn State who knew could have done more!
This has been in Breaking News for a few hours now.
Coach Paterno live in a glass house of “higher ethics” which we now know was just good press. At his core, his job was to shepherd young men and protect them. He did next to nothing to do so. Read the open transcripts from the grand jury. What his coach did was child rape, and he either ignored what was going on, or turned a blind eye. He should step down today, and do so with his head held low.
I totally agree. Joe Paterno fulfilled his minimum legal obligation by calling his superiors regarding Sandusky, but he failed to use his considerable influence to see that the administrators pushed forward and reported the criminal acts to the police. Paterno had to have known that Sandusky was not under arrest or in prison.
How many other children were violated before the scandal was exposed?
I still have to pinch myself to see if I’m dreaming on this one. Just unbelievable.
Had that been one of his grandsons I bet he would have done more.
He should be arrested and taken to jail. I can´t believe the college would allow any one of these accomplices to stay on. That´s unconscionable in itself.
This is not a child abuse case.
This is a GAY abuse of young boys case.
Makes free shoes sound a little less serious. ;0)
I have already ran into a few dopes on suicide watch over this. Penn State football and Joepa are a religion here. I made the mistake of asking one of them if they thought he had any responsibility for the conduct of his staff. That didn’t go well. These people are cultists. The lady I talked to didn’t even go to PSU.
Joe treated this as if were nothing more than a recruiting violation, instead of CHILDREN BEING ANALLY RAPED.
I can’t believe they will let him complete the season. What the University should do is fire the entire coaching staff and notify the NCAA they will not be playing the remainder of their 2011 season or possible bowl games. This University faces some huge litigation costs and what they do from this day forward may impact ultimate judgements. It is not time to pussy foot around to avoid hurting the feelings of their 84 year old coach.
Only because the cat's out of the bag - didn't seem too concerned about those children at the time.
He deserves to get loudly boo'd at the Nebraska game - and I hope they sue him for everything he (and Penn State) has.
Got to believe a few. Sandusky was in the Penn State facility with a young boy or boys a matter of days before he was indicted. That's 10+ years after Paterno was told of the incident in the shower. To me, that is the most damning evidence. Joe is going to have a tough time convincing anyone he couldn't have kicked the evil SOB out of his locker room no matter what the administration may have told him to do. In some respects, that is aiding and abetting in the commission of a felony.
I read the entire grand jury report and it is absolutely disgusting! Paterno was told by the grad student what happened and he had a moral obligation to follow up. No one can use the excuse that he wasn’t told the details. The report says the grad student and his father met with Paterno the very next day and “reported what he had seen”. It doesn’t say it was specific but it doesn’t say it wasn’t either. He’s a liar if he says he didn’t know the seriousness of it.
It’s not like he shot the President or anything.
Just kicking Sandusky out of the locker wasn’t enough, he should have strangled the sonofabitch.
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