Posted on 11/10/2011 11:02:18 AM PST by reformjoy
I don’t think he should have been fired unless he admits he broke the law or is found guilty of breaking the law.
On another note, ESPN sucks but they do have a monopoly. My wife mentioned last night that there seems to be a lot of monopolies since obama took office. Comcast is another one that comes to mind.
You’d be shocked to know how easy it is to take a kid out of school. The schools don’t protect your children. You MUST do it.
As for Paterno, if he’s found guilty, so be it. But I just can’t believe that he knew children were being raped and did nothing about it. From what I’ve read he was told Sandusky was horsing around with some kid. I would be very careful about calling someone a child molestor without concrete evidence. A person’s life can be destroyed over a false charge. It’s much worse than being “Cained”. And this may have been what Joe was thinking.
Then you have to ask “Why didn’t the grad student call the police? Why didn’t he confront Sandusky? Was he worried about his job?” He called his daddy. So, did the daddy ever ask his son “Whatever happened to that coach you saw raping the ten year old?”
Paterno as the most powerful man on campus is guilty in his way.
I agree with your points except the last. You do not know that Paterno was aware of the 1998 investigation.
He also was driving force on campus supporting student activities, other athletic programs and civic organizations. It was not all about football but the development of young men into adults, see the testimonies of his ex-players.
Yes, he was after success but was also known to suspend star players for infractions.
Paterno was not the most powerful man on campus, but probably the most respected. Shoot, everyone has been saying for the last couple of years he is incapable of running the team, now he is all-knowing and all-powerful.
You can’t have it both ways.
You're glossing over quite a bit.
How about JoePa should've said something along these lines...
"Hey, Sandusky. You admitted to wresting and showering with a pre-pubescent kid and soaping him up, and then picking him up and hugging him, your genitals making contact with his body. And you knew it was wrong demonstrated by your apology to the kid's mom. We don't abide pedophiles in our program here at Penn State, so your last day is today. We'll release a statement that you've been fired and we'll turn over our own findings to the DA in case they missed anything. Furthermore, you will not be allowed on campus again and Penn State will formally disassociate itself with your charity. I would advise you to dissolve the charity completely. I will be resigning from my position on the board."
I think that would've been a grand start. And would've breen the actions of someone actually worth emulating. Or at least someone who wasn't only concerned with his own legacy.
He was not aware of other incidents as most of Central PA were not either, just look at the awards, etc. bestowed on Sandusky since then.
In his grand jury testimony he doesn't say that the actions were "just... inappropriate." He says specifically "sexual" and "fondling."
And how did you know that Paterno knew all this? Do you have evidence that he had access to the police and related reports? Here in Iowa he would have had no ability to access that information as he wasn’t a party with cause.
Paterno was the REAL power on campus.
I cannot fathom an investigation of this nature in which Paterno is not questioned by the police. An alleged sexual assault occurs at a person's place of work and the boss isn't questioned to corroborate any details or to attempt to uncover other related instances? If Paterno wasn't questioned, it's only because "they" didn't want to really find anything.
If I knew that my employee who ran a charity for children out of my office was being questioned for sexual impropriety with a child, you can be sure that I would find out everything I could about the results of that investigation, including a first-hand account (directly or indirectly) as to the charges. If he didn't do that, in my estimation, he's negligent at that point in 1998. Not just later on in 2002.
You can continue to dance with an indeterminate number of angels on the head of a pin. I'll stay in reality.
“You are told boys are being sexually molested and you don’t call the cops?”
The Campus Cops knew about it.
Paterno was fired b/c he said he was determined to coach the last game——but the Penn State PTB knew the fans would take the opportunity to turn Joe into a hero.
They couldn’t let that happen.
Joe should have let the PTB “ask him” to coach the last game——let the fans have their day—— then let Joe go quietly into the night.
Oh they did far more than just enable him.. This whole thing stinks to high heaven, and I firmly believe at this point when all this is said and done, it’ll turn out Sandusky wasn’t the only pedophile abusing kids in all of this. Too many people had to turn a blind eye throughout too many areas, for me to believe it was just one guy... I think others were involved and they were protecting each other.
None of that’s been proven yet, but I really think that is where this is going, and I hope to god that if it does wind up going that, that the prosecution will not back down if it finds (and I believe it will) very powerful people involved.
Campus Cops are rent a cops. Seriously, I would never in college years trusted my legal process to the “campus police” not in a million years. They were a laughable joke, they basically handled noise complaints from frat parties, no way if I saw serious illegal actions going on, would they be who I would contacted.
And yes, you are right, they knew, and did nothing. PSU knew by 98 at the LATEST this guy was a pedophile, IMHO.. they pushed him out quietly and covered it up. I have NO doubt about that at all.
Do you live on campus or in the area? Paterno was not the REAL power on campus, just the most famous.
If an employee if mine is investigated and the investigation reveals NOTHING, as the DA determined, access to the investigation is not available to me, not should it be. Paterno would not have had access to that.
Also, the assualt that took place was in the jursidiction of the AD, who Paterno had notified.
What else was he to do? In hindsight, everyone blames Paterno, yet he made sure the eyewitness was provided access, under Paterno’s direction (which provides credibility) to the very people at PSU responsible for addressing the incident. At that point, the police, DA, Child Protective Services and the 2nd Mile were all aware of the incidents connected to Sandusky.
Who else was Paterno to notify?
What's Penn State's motto again? Is all that a bunch of crap that is supposed to just look good on an emblem? He knows he should have done more. Any person who's had to deal with situations like this knows that he should've done more. And it's not a matter of personal hindsight. It's a matter of the hindsight that we've gained over decades of experience with pedophiles, employment and liability. He didn't even do enough to be able to look the Board of Trustees in the eye and say "I did everything I could to ensure kids were safe from being molested on the Penn State campus." And that's really all we need to know.
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