51 replies to this topic

[Telastyn]

My folks met at Penn State. They attended the football games and rooted for the team when I was young. As Miami came and went, as Notre Dame hired liars, as Pete Carroll paid his players then fled, as SMU died, as Nick Saban turned tail... for 61 years Joe Paterno ran a clean program. He focused on education and making his charges better people as a university should. He's helped thousands of students, and went above and beyond in support of the institution, despite better football offers; despite better monetary offers because teaching students to become better men was more important than either.

61 years of devotion. Countless decisions he had to make, many that were morally difficult. Losing out on prospects, losing in general because Penn State would not stoop where the competition stooped. 61 years of good decisions, but one mistake somehow invalidates that?

I am disgusted by Penn State for firing Joe Paterno. I am embarrassed by the culture in America where dedicated employees become numbers in Peoplesoft and are fired to save shareholders a few cents. I am embarrassed by CEOs making mistakes and getting millions of dollars, corrupt investors literally stealing from the government getting bailouts because they lost that money... What employee will show any shred of dedication when even JoePa got canned?

I am shamed by the flood op-ed stories by cowards who scream for blood due to one horrible decision a decade ago while ignoring the 6 decades of good decisions. How can we function as a country when we choose to crucify someone who has done so much good when so many have done so little?

[Cornstalks]

I could google this, but I figure it's relevant to the thread and there'll be others with the same question: Care to give a super small summary as to why he was fired? I saw the headlines but didn't click 'em.

[Sirisian]

This article on wikipedia summarizes it.

Never heard of the guy. Yeah it's sad when one mistake can cost you your job, but it sounds like he was told about a situation and then was an accomplice in a cover-up. Seriously this doesn't look good for any of the people involved especially for that Mike guy. I have no idea what that guy was thinking, but there is some serious morality issues in that group.

[alnite]

Question is, why are they taking action now, as opposed to a decade ago when the incident happened? It just seems to be a unusual time to bring back an old scandal.

[dpadam450]

Question is, why are they taking action now,

Probably because the article says they were young. Most likely young kids that are in that situation don't want to talk about/are more embarassed than an adult might be. Even girls get raped and feel embarassed to come out about it.

had seen Sandusky performing a sex act on a 10-year-old boy in Penn State football's shower facilities. Paterno then reported the allegations to Penn State athletic director Tim Curley. In November 2011, Sandusky was arrested on 40 counts of molesting eight young boys over a 15-year period

[SenatorBobDole]

I think a lot of people have some miss information about the story as well. The news where I am at is telling it as if the coach saw it, told someone, and then didn't say anything else. It seems that someone else saw it and reported it to the coach who then reported it to his boss. It seems like the coach is being made the scapegoat for the people hire up that decided not to act.

[tstrimple]

ONE MISTAKE? Fuck that! Due to his inaction a child molester was allowed to prey on young boys for years. He could have put an end to that!

[Telastyn]

I could google this, but I figure it's relevant to the thread and there'll be others with the same question: Care to give a super small summary as to why he was fired? I saw the headlines but didn't click 'em.

(as of date of writing, based on what I've read)

10 years ago, a grad student saw a retired assistant coach having sex with a ~10 year old boy.

He did not intervene. He talked with his father. Neither called the police.

The grad student called Paterno the next day. Accounts differ about what level of detail was went into. Paterno waited until the next day (a Monday) and told his boss. He did not call the police.

His boss told essentially the University's administration of the report. They did not call the police. They told the perpetrator that he was no longer to be in contact with children on campus, and somehow thought that sufficient given the info they knew.

[NiteLordz]

And yet he was on campus as of last week

Btw I live in state college. The riots last night was shameful!

[Eelco]

Isnt school supposed to be the place where you worry about spelling rather than sports?

[Wan]

I don't know anything about the situation and can't say how much blame each individual deserves, but it sounds like me the entire system failed. If there's one place children should feel safe it's in school.

Isnt school supposed to be the place where you worry about spelling rather than sports?

Difference cultures and all that...

[way2lazy2care]

From the wiki:

On November 7, Pennsylvania state police Commissioner Frank Noonan said that Paterno fulfilled his legal obligation to report suspected abuse, although "somebody has to question about what I would consider the moral requirements for a human being that knows of sexual things that are taking place with a child," and that, "I think you have the moral responsibility, anyone. Not whether you're a football coach or a university president or the guy sweeping the building. I think you have a moral responsibility to call us."

this pretty much sums up my thoughts. Joe Paterno is arguably not in the wrong, but given his position and the crimes he was made aware of he had a responsibility to take more action if he didn't want it to reflect badly on him and the school. Keeping statutory rape on school grounds by a school employee under wraps for 9 years is going to get you in trouble.

[SiCrane]

Question is, why are they taking action now,

Probably because the article says they were young. Most likely young kids that are in that situation don't want to talk about/are more embarassed than an adult might be. Even girls get raped and feel embarassed to come out about it.

Well it's more like the grand jury just delivered the indictments so this is the first time the public as a whole got to know about it. As for why it took this long for things to work through the legal system, the police weren't notified until years later and then the district attorney in charge of the case became a missing person in 2005 (and is currently legally dead even though the body hasn't been found), and apparently it took a while for the investigation to complete after it restarted.

edit: actually, I double checked and the DA who went missing closed the case for insufficient evidence about a year before he disappeared.

[capn_midnight]

I'm disgusted with Penn State fans for treating football like a religion and "JoePa" (I puke in my mouth every time I hear someone say that) their Pope.

[ManOfThePast]

Penn State is an amazing place. And what happened there is really, really sad.

capn_midnight, I know you're biased because you had a bad experience at Penn State.

[phantom]

So, basically, what you are claiming is that 'being a good American Football coach' is more important than 'ensuring an act of abuse of a child is reported to the police'?

Because that's how I read it..

In my opinion him and anyone who knew about it should be fired and prosecuted due to failing a duty of care.

As per the wiki page on it the original abuse was witnessed in 2000 and the abuser was still active in at least 2005/2006.

You can say 'oh he told those higher up..' all you like but for something as serious as this he should have been following up or reporting it to the police himself.

This isn't a 'mistake' this is a lack of action by someone in a duty of care which resulted in a sexual abuser being allowed to continue his abuse for another 5 or 6 years at least.

but hey, at least he was a good football coach...

[Telastyn]

No, I don't care much about how well he did at football.

60 years of dedicated work at helping his students should provide some benefit of the doubt as to what was known, and more than a prompt phone call dismissal.

[Hodgman]

Was this coach guy the only one who got the axe? Did the rest of these creeps get fired too?

[Promit]

Number one, you shouldn't be shocked when a highly public major scandal ends a career, no matter how illustrious. That is just how shit works. Number two, the man failed to notify relevant authorities about sexual child abuse by his staff, or really do jack shit about it. The court system can establish his final guilt or not, but that's not "one mistake" and you do the school and the victims a massive disservice by saying that. Especially given that there were TEN incidents, not one.

So where is the line, huh? How many unreported child abuse instances would you like before the man got fired?

[DaBookshah]

My folks met at Penn State. They attended the football games and rooted for the team when I was young. As Miami came and went, as Notre Dame hired liars, as Pete Carroll paid his players then fled, as SMU died, as Nick Saban turned tail... for 61 years Joe Paterno ran a clean program. He focused on education and making his charges better people as a university should. He's helped thousands of students, and went above and beyond in support of the institution, despite better football offers; despite better monetary offers because teaching students to become better men was more important than either.

61 years of devotion. Countless decisions he had to make, many that were morally difficult. Losing out on prospects, losing in general because Penn State would not stoop where the competition stooped. 61 years of good decisions, but one mistake somehow invalidates that?

I am disgusted by Penn State for firing Joe Paterno. I am embarrassed by the culture in America where dedicated employees become numbers in Peoplesoft and are fired to save shareholders a few cents. I am embarrassed by CEOs making mistakes and getting millions of dollars, corrupt investors literally stealing from the government getting bailouts because they lost that money... What employee will show any shred of dedication when even JoePa got canned?

I am shamed by the flood op-ed stories by cowards who scream for blood due to one horrible decision a decade ago while ignoring the 6 decades of good decisions. How can we function as a country when we choose to crucify someone who has done so much good when so many have done so little?

I read the wikipedia page. Seems as if this Joe Paterno guy got pretty much what he deserved. Probably lucky to not end up in jail, I have no idea why you're so keen to support a guy who turned a blind eye to sexual abuse.