The House of Blue

The above is a whole bunch of horse shit.

I work civilian for the USN. I jumped rank and pissed a whole heck of a lot of people off when my superior was doing something wrong. I got chewed out and had a verbal reprimand put in my file. But, they had to admit I was right and I gave them hell every step of the way when my superior's superior was "discussing" it with me because he didn't like all the flak he caught when I jumped him. I'd do it again in the same circumstances.

In this case, we are talking about little boys being molested. Worrying about your own skin and chain of command is an excuse that isn't worth a damn. Period.

The assertion that you cannot go to the police when a felony of that magnitude is reported to you (as opposed to observing it youself) is absolute fucking nonsense. PERIOD! (Look, I can capitalize words too...) There is no other way to describe it. Complete and utter nonsense.

The assertion that he would never coach again for making an accusation that might have turned out false is more nonsense. He would not have been making an accusation to the police. He would have been reporting an accusation of a significant felony to the police. The assertion he would have been burned for that is more nonsense. Further, there is no moral culpability for reporting to the police an accusation made by someone else even if that accusation turns out to be false. The culpability is on the accuser's shoulders.

I cannot believe I am reading this absurd cop-out and abdication of responsibility.

When you (in general) have a serious criminal felony of this magnitude reported to you (in general, again), you have a responsibility to inform the authorities who can investigate and determine veracity. Leaving it up to superiors who have a vested interest in not seeing such things come to light (versus the police whose job it is to root out such things) is an absurd abdication of responsibility. Using fear of your superiors is a pathetic excuse.

I am a Director of Operations for a very large company with locations on 3 continents. That said...and im going to type this in your language (all caps) so you can clearly read it.

TO HELL WITH MY JOB IF IT MEANT PROTECTING INNOCENT CHILDREN FROM A PREDATOR!

To further add, IF (and im sorry but no comp would EVER take on the PR nightmare of firing someone who report child abuse) and only IF i were to be fired for refusing to allow my bosses to cover up not one BUT TWO separate cases of sexual abuse of a child i would own said company.

There is no job, no status, no amount of damn money more valuable than the safety of a child.

But im sure you'd have the same ignorant stance if was your son getting "tickled" in the shower by a monster.

did you not read the story they called th police ok they made there invest and found nothing to prove anything. OK. End of story, a ton of this crap is what it is lecture they try to fit in what they think and not what is proven by Joe. Hear say is what it is. Joe told his boss and the police were brought in.. And the perp was fired then brought back not as a coach but in another order.
The man was neaver found to have did nothing wrong untill now. ?????
OH well not worth me fighting over go cats.

The covered it up on 98. They covered it up again in 2001. Paterno then allowed the piece of shit to keep bringing kids on campus knowing what he was doing. And lets go with your pathetic take. He still allowed the piece of shit to bring CHILDREN on campus AFTER TWO F**KING INSTANCES!!!! How in Gods name can you defend what he did...or didn't do. Its exactly THAT outlook that Paterno shared with you hat lead to dozens of CHILDREN molested.

And you actually talked about fear of losing your Fn job being more important than stopping potential abuse...SEXUAL ABUSE of CHILDREN.

Coward.

Whether I got fired or not I would've went to the police. An assistant coach told Joe pa who wouldn't make that stuff up. That's enough for me to contact the police. I couldn't live with myself knowing something like that and not taking proper action. If the people above my paygrade didn't like it then the hell with them. I would rather work for someone that has higher morals than just a chain of command.

Jeff, we hear it all the time that UK basketball is bigger than the coach. It is the same at Penn State no matter who is the coach. As they say, they did play football before JP came on the seen and they will continue being a football school.

Screw going to the police. If it was someone I knew doing something like that. Someone I had a very close relationship with. I'd got straight to his house and beat his ass for doing something like that in and around my program. Its the absolute worst scandal in college sports history. Penn St. should be burned to the ground.

1. Going to the authorities (and them not doing anything) would have absolved Paterno of a whole lot of responsibility. He didn't do it. I don't know or care about '98. One of Paterno's assistants explicitly told him of the sexual behavior he personally witnessed. Paterno reported up but not to the police. Failure of morality. Paterno testified to that himself: when specifically questioned regarding the account described to him he admitted that it was described as being sexual in nature under oath. There is no way around that.

2. You said service or a job where one had to go around higher pay grades. My anecdote was USN civilian. Not service by any means (except civil which doesn't mean anything) but it sure is heck is closer than PSU plus I went around much higher pay grades which is the exact specification given. I got away with just a verbal reprimand because I was right regarding a VERY significant deal.

3. There is no requirement to remain within chain of command regarding criminal matters outside the military. (I have no idea regarding the rules within.) You (in general) may be required to report to your superiors but you cannot be told to not report anything to the police. You (in general) could not lose your job for doing so. Sure as heck not Paterno. Even if one could, so what. Still only one morally acceptable choice.

4.Legality does not define morality bears repeating. Absolving himself of moral responsibility by reporting to his superiors does not absolve him of moral responsibility to report to the authorities. There is no reason whatsoever to say that police doing nothing in '98 absolves him of responsibility to report either.

False.

Joe Paterno was the most powerful man at Penn State -- and some could argue maybe all of Pennsylvania -- during his heyday. The athletic director, college president and other administrators may have been his superiors on paper, but he was calling the shots on anything that had the slightest thing to do with football. And despite what he and others have said, they swept this under the rug to protect his precious football program.

Everyone in power at Pedo State knew that Sandusky was a serial rapist. They did not report him to the authorities. Instead, they:

--Made sure he got a pension.
--Gave him an office on campus and keys that would give him access to any athletic facility on campus to use as he pleased.
--Did absolutely nothing to help his past victims or keep him from abusing new ones.

I don't know how anyone could look at the facts and come away thinking Paterno -- or any of them, really -- did the right thing.

Here's the deal. When you are in a position of authority, say like a commanding officer, and you have to face an issue like this then you have several obligations. First and foremost, the accused is presumed innoncent and care must be given not to wantonly tread upon that and impede any succeeding investigation. Secondly, and JUST AS IMPORTANT, you have an ABSOLUTE OBLIGATION to PROTECT THE VICTIM to the BEST OF YOUR ABILITIES. But, and here's the kicker, you are legally and morally obligated to ensure the matter is completely and thoroughly investigated and to not do so is a blantant violation of the duties and responsibilities that you've been entrusted with. Granted, Paterno wasn't sworn in to "support and defend against all enemies foreign and domestic" but as the defacto head of PSU, he was ABSOLUTELY obligated to report and follow up on the 2001 allegation.

The PSU leadership err'd way to much protecting Sandusky's reputation (as well as the institutions) and did NOTHING to help the victims. If the 98 investigation didn't set off red flags then certainly McQreary's statements to the PSU leadership should have. Bottom line is while I can, by just a little bit, understand why PSU officials took some caution to ensure they didn't smear Sandusky upon learning of allegations in 98, there is ZERO excuse for what happened afterwards. Two known seperate incidents, one witnessed by a PSU coach, and NOBODY did anything. There was NO attempt to find the alleged victim, ensure his well being, get his side of the story and most importantly, ensure he was safe from a child predator. It's shameless, inexcusable and doesn't pass the smell test. JoePa had a MORAL obligation, if not legal, to follow up and ask specifically what the administration was going to do about it. Instead, at best he willingly turned a blind eye to the whole issue and kept his head in the sand until it blew up last year. I LOVED JoePa and have had a hard time reconciling the fact that he failed when the odds were the greatest and many children suffered because of his failure. It's as simple as that.

As you have been told repeatedly by others, you couldn't possibly be more wrong on all counts. Your "chain of command/pay grade" doesn't even remotely apply in this situation. It's not like McQueary told Paterno that he saw Sandusky stealing some practice jerseys or cleats out of the field house. He was sexually assaulting a young boy, and Paterno was only concerned about his legacy and the image of Penn St. The same goes for McQueary, Spanier, Curley and Shultz in that they were only concerned about their careers and the image of Penn St. I don't see how any of them can look at themselves in the mirror, especially McQueary, who saw it first hand and had the opportunity to put a stop to the horror, but instead worried more about his career. Thanks to these selfish cowards, the lives of other boys were ruined. Hands down the most disgusting thing I've ever seen in my years of following college athletics.