STATE COLLEGE — Penn State trustee Paul Suhey admits relieving Joe Paterno of his head coaching duties in November 2011 over a late-night phone call was not the right tact.

“We apologize, we screwed it up as far as how we delivered the message,” Suhey said Friday in an interview. “Our decision, we’re not going to go back on. But we messed that up big time.

“People are still so hurt by that, and you know, damn it, we screwed it up.”

The Paterno decision will go down in the annals as the trigger of when Penn State alumni and diehard fans turned against the board, and the anger has not relented. They email the trustees, write letters — even call them out in advertisements in this newspaper.

But, four trustees, in an interview with the Centre Daily Times’ editorial board, said they are committed to turning the corner, opening up and building on the progress the university has already seen in responding in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky abuse scandal. The trustees — Suhey, Deviney, board Chairman Keith Masser and Paul Silvis — said they hope the university community will meet them in the middle as part of moving forward.

The trustees say they did not fire Paterno, thought they stood behind it as the right decision given the details of the presentment.

That’s all they are sorry about? Sheesh! They are lucky they have any athletic program at all.

EXACTLY. This is all the Alumni care about. How does this effect JoePa's legacy. Forget it folks, his legacy is that his public image was a farce as he let his long time associate diddle little kids down the hall from his office, even after being aware of the 1998 charges and the 2002 incident.

The Alumni act as if they can put the toothpaste back in the tube. They feel if they complain loudly and long enough, that everything will go away, or that everyone will feel bad for them and JoePa. Sorry folks, it ain't going to happen. The louder and longer you complain, the more of a joke the rest of the world think you all are.

Keep the focus on what is important Alumni, not the kids who were abused by Sandusky, when lots of people knew about what a slime he was - EVEN JOEPA. Keep on harping on how it effected JoePa. Let the world see EXACTLY what kind of people you are. You are doing more to highlight your arrogance and moral decrepitude than any outside force could ever do.

Couple this with JoePa strong arming the university such that JoePa policed the kids on the football team. So many times players should have been kicked off the team, or out of the university, but JoePa said "I'll deal with it". Yeah, he dealt with player actions the same way he did with Sandusky's. ZIPPY!!! The Alumni act as if they can put the toothpaste back in the tube. They feel if they complain loudly and long enough, that everything will go away, or that everyone will feel bad for them and JoePa. Sorry folks, it ain't going to happen. The louder and longer you complain, the more of a joke the rest of the world think you all are. Keep the focus on what is important Alumni, not the kids who were abused by Sandusky, when lots of people knew about what a slime he was - EVEN JOEPA. Keep on harping on how it effected JoePa. Let the world see EXACTLY what kind of people you are. You are doing more to highlight your arrogance and moral decrepitude than any outside force could ever do.

Yup. JoePa already donned a police cap when he let it be known that he would "self-police" his players when they got in trouble.

(Sandusky, who saw that happen repeatedly when he was JoePa's sidekick, was counting on exactly that "performance" from Paterno when it applied to his campus "excursions")

The Alumni is simply showing the exact same thing that got them into the fix -- "Let's have a winning football program at any cost & the rest of things be damned!" (This is otherwise known Biblically as a spirit of defiance...something that at times has drawn temporal judgment from God Himself)

There's no contrition among many of these Alumni.

They only want to park the blame on the perp only (+ the Board of Trustees for not bowing down to their tantrum-tossing), unaware that the spirit of a place is what oft allows the creepy things to live there hospitably.

By April of 2012, per Business Insider in an article where they labeled the Penn State cover-up THE BIGGEST PR disaster of 2012, the campus had hired "Edelman and La Torre for crisis management in April 2012. The school pledged to spend $208,000 a month for 12 months on PR support, but the damage was done."
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/biggest-pr-disasters-of-2012-2012-11?op=1#ixzz2NEwFqxfE

FACT: The eyewitness -- McQueary -- got hired 3 years AFTER reporting what he did to Paterno.

Wow -- 3 years later he gets a job -- that's a real quid pro quo, isn't it????

Paterno had the influence to ANY time during that time find out from McQueary if the authorities had followed up with him.

You do realize that in investigations like this it is against the law to leak details of the investigation -- or are you just plain ignorant of how the law works.

If he did talk with McQueary about it, then Paterno ALSO became part of the cover-up.

No -- if he did and there was an ongoing investigation then he broke the law. Once it was passed to his superior he was out of the loop.

You do realize that in investigations like this it is against the law to leak details of the investigation -- or are you just plain ignorant of how the law works.

I didn't say JoePa had to go interview law enforcement reps.

JoePa didn't even need to get a full accounting from his underling.

All it took was a simple Yes-No question: "Have authorities talked with you about what you saw?"

How is getting a "yes" or "no" from an eyewitness "leaking details of an investigation?"

Chronological Chart of Sandusky’s Abuse from the 2010 Grand Jury Presentment:

•Victim 7 - Abused 1997 in PSU pool.
•Victim 10 – Abused 1997-1999 in pool and Sandusky’s home
•Victim 4 - Abused 1998-2000 in various locations.
•Victim 6 - Single shower incident 1998.
•Victim 5 - Single shower incident 1998.
•Victim 3 - Abused 2000 at Sandusky home & in shower.
•Victim 8 - Abused PSU shower 2000, Victim has not been identified, only by hearsay witness.
•Victim 2 – Abused PSU shower 2001 - witnessed by McQueary – reported by PSU officials, who reported it to Second Mile.

(Four years of apparent stop of abuse.)

•Aaron Fisher (Victim 1) – Abused 2005-2008 at Sandusky’s home & CMHS.
•Victim 9 – Abused 2006-2009 at Sandusky’s home

Chronological Chart of Sandusky’s Abuse from the 2010 Grand Jury Presentment:
•Victim 7 - Abused 1997 in PSU pool.
•Victim 10 – Abused 1997-1999 in pool and Sandusky’s home
•Victim 4 - Abused 1998-2000 in various locations.
•Victim 6 - Single shower incident 1998.
•Victim 5 - Single shower incident 1998.
•Victim 3 - Abused 2000 at Sandusky home & in shower.
•Victim 8 - Abused PSU shower 2000, Victim has not been identified, only by hearsay witness.

•Victim 2 – Abused PSU shower 2001 - witnessed by McQueary – reported by PSU officials, who reported it to Second Mile.

And all-powerful JoePa supposedly ne'er inquired of his "supervisors" where they reported this crime???

Even if he didn't care a dime for the kids, did JoePa at least have a heart for an old coaching buddy??? (To find out if he was "going down"???)

Either JoePa had a heart of steel...
...to never inquire further of men -- men, btw, in which he carried much more power than they...
...or he did inquire to enough degree to know that this was all still out of the radar of the authorities...

In which case, if the latter, he tossed the victims and potential future victims under the bus of protecting the image of the program.

Btw, with the "PSU officials, who reported it to Second Mile" -- why was there little hue & cry by State College people the first five months of 2012 over Second Mile???

McQueary said that Paterno did do that. Paterno made sure that McQueary did meet with Schultz and Curley to tell them what he witnessed

(Sorry, but Penn State bureaucrats DON'T qualify as "the authorities" -- as in LAW ENFORCEMENT "authorities..." )

But, leave it to an apologist of people who regarded an AD & financial overseer & Second Mile Foundation as report-worthy "authorities" on criminal matters to see things the same way those under indictment do!!!

And all-powerful JoePa supposedly ne'er inquired of his "supervisors" where they reported this crime???

Do you even understand how reporting works??? Supervisors don't answer to those they supervise and don't answer their questions about things that the law requires remain confidential.

Btw, with the "PSU officials, who reported it to Second Mile" -- why was there little hue & cry by State College people the first five months of 2012 over Second Mile???

There was and is and has been a hue and cry from State College people about TSM but no one including Freeh and the state authorities paid any attention to it.

The accompanying question is:

Why is there no hue and cry about The Second Mile's involvement in this, including the failure of the Centre County Youth Services and Department of Public Welfare in Harrisburg amongst diatribers like you and other Paterno haters??? They were/are the governing authorities who let Sandusky slide in 1998 -- not Penn State -- and they are still getting a freeh pass.

Where is your hue and cry for that???

•Victim 2 – Abused PSU shower 2001 - witnessed by McQueary – reported by PSU officials, who reported it to Second Mile.

You know, when an organization working with kids knows that one of its own is abusing kids, and doesn't report it...that tends to -- in MOST communities -- raise the ire of the locals...

But State College 7 months after the scandal broke???

From State College's local newspaper, lead graph:
Second Mile volunteers and donors wanted the organization for at-risk youth to continue, but they knew it had reached an end. That became official Friday morning...

"For The Second Mile, the impending dissolution is a sad ending to the charity Sandusky started in 1977..."

Second Mile to shut doors amid Sandusky scandal, lack of donor support (May 25, 2012)

A kind of "Twilight Zone" kind of, "Yeah, we want Second Mile to be a forever fixture here in State College, but, hey, we recognize PR is PR and we'll quietly allow it to slip away into the night." What were these local CentreDaily journalists thinking? Instead of saying "Good riddance" to Second Mile's nightmarish presence on their local scene, they lamented with sadness its closure.

Writing such words -- knowing that the locals wouldn't be riled up by them -- only conveys the mind set of State College residents...who weren't exactly holding up placards and publicly protesting Second Mile & its bottled-up "we don't report child abusers" stances!!!

(I guess since $ talks in State College, they thought that they'd just continue to let their bank accounts do their talkin'...as the linked article mentions that Second Mile donations dried up...I guess that was the "full extent" of State College "fury" eh???)

And this wasn't simply only the local paper...while the local media covered Second Mile frequently, it seemed rare that they actually were supposed to play "hardball" in many of those interviews. They needed to repeatedly ask the tough questions of foundation reps.

<>(Sorry, but Penn State bureaucrats DON’T qualify as “the authorities” — as in LAW ENFORCEMENT “authorities...”)<>

Wow — that must be news to MSNBC, the Penn State PD, those
at Penn State facing criminal charges, and Harrisburg politicians since, as you can see in the police reports below, that it was the Penn State University Police Department who spearheaded the 1998 Sandusky investigation until the Department of Public Welfare intervened and quashed it:

http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/MSNBC/Sections/NEWS/redactedpolicereport.pdf

Get your facts straight ——

Paterno and far more higher ups than him turned a blind eye to a known pedophile... THe idea the didn’t know or did what they shoudl have was, is and always be NONSENSE!

They knew, probably before, but certainly after, they pushed Sandusky out after the incident in that hotel room at that bowl game years and years earlier that he was pedophile and every last damned one of them turned a blind eye for years to it.

Frankly there are a lot more people at Penn State who need to be gone over this.. fans upset JoePa got pushed out a few weeks early over it are MORONS and in denial.

Wow — that must be news to MSNBC, the Penn State PD, those at Penn State facing criminal charges, and Harrisburg politicians since, as you can see in the police reports below, that it was the Penn State University Police Department who spearheaded the 1998 Sandusky investigation until the Department of Public Welfare intervened and quashed it:

(I didn't say that the Penn State University POLICE Dept. wasn't a law enforcement body; I said an athletic director and a financial director -- Penn State bureaucrats -- weren't law enforcement authorities...If you're a Boy Scout leader at a Mormon church and you report child abuse to a higher Boy Scout leader & a church leader, yeah, those people can be held accountable if they fail to report those crimes, but that doesn't make them "law ENFORCEMENT authorities")

Even among campus police forces, what muddies the water is that "Many university police forces employ a combination of police officers, security guards and student workers." Campus police -- and most campus forces, therefore, are not heavily invested in "detective" type investigations. Hence, such cases need to be handed off to other local investigative forces.

Sandusky was Paterno's buddy. He was there only because of Paterno's approval. One word, and Paterno could have permanently gotten Sandusky banned from the Penn State campus within 5 minutes. The fact that he was STILL there after many, many rumors and allegations against him indicates Paterno did NOTHING about the sexual abuse when it was obvious something wrong was going on.

Paterno is, in my book, just as guilty as Sandusky, and BOTH should have been fired, arrested and jailed years ago.

No sympathy for the creeps from this poster.

Ditto, ditto, ditto.

Even taking Paterno at his word, we know that a man Paterno trusted told Paterno that Sandusky was engaged in sexual conduct with a child.

Armed with this information, Paterno did... the absolute legal minimum required of him. He didn't exercise any of his not-inconsiderable power to make sure the reports were investigated. He certainly didn't even do anything to limit Sandusky's access to more children.

Paterno is undoubtedly keeping Hell warm until Sandusky gets there. Those who enable, protect and defend child milestones are equally guilty in my book. Even if they're also good football coaches.

Frankly there are a lot more people at Penn State who need to be gone over this.. fans upset JoePa got pushed out a few weeks early over it are MORONS and in denial.

When you read the State College Centredaily -- and other regional TV station news content from that area...most Penn State alumni are seemingly more upset at the Board of Trustees for...
(a) what they regard as capitulation to the NCAA;
(b) Paterno's firing [tho some only objected to how it was done]

What we usually don't see from the State College alumni and the State College media is:
Objections from them that they are STILL -- 1.5 years later -- paying the salary of one of the cover-uppers (the athletic director)...who's been mooching off of the Penn State budget all this time...with nary a negative word from the locals or media!!!

I also haven't seen them object to Spanier's post as a tenured prof (his presidency was a separate issue in which he resigned).

And, as post #34 shows, we get the local newspaper lamenting with "sadness" the closing of Sandusky's Second Mile Foundation last May...whereas if the locals had been really upset with Second Mile, they would have erupted with sentiments of "good riddance."

Instead, two journalists who wrote that piece knew that their comments represented the same sentiments as their readers...otherwise why inject highly inflammable commentary into a simple news story about Second Mile's demise?

No...there's this great pride-filled spirit of defiance loose among State College's elite and their online Jopologists.

They are more provoked over Freeh, over the NCAA, over the Board of Trustees, then they ever were re: the Cover-uppers, the Second Mile Foundation or over their local media treating these people/entities with kid-glove "softball" questions.

They still have screwed-up provocation priorities!!!!

Elsewise, there would have been a call to fire AD Tim Curley long ago...there hasn't been ANY such groundswell because the Penn Staters are still worshipping at their altar of college sports glory.

I said an athletic director and a financial director -- Penn State bureaucrats -- weren't law enforcement authorities.

So then just why is the Chief of Penn State Police Department Harmon reporting to Gary Schultz???

Why is Gary Schultz involved in the 1998 investigation as part of law enforcement???

Why did Gary Schulz call Chief Harmon in 2001 to check on the records of the 1998 Sandusky investigation.

He wasn't some elusive bureaucrat but head of the PSPD -- and everyone knew it.

And the university legal counsel that were called upon for advice knew it as well.

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