Former Penn State Coach Arrested
 

http://www.centredaily.com/2011/11/0...-arrested.html

Sounds like a certain "legend" coach has some explaining to do!:eek:

and I was just saying to someone about a week ago that the only Big 10 team that I considered above the law was Penn State.

How Could It Happen - Great Article
 

This certainly shook me out of my funk. Ewwwwwwwwwwww.

Great article, but very disturbing and sickening. If Joe Pa knew that this kind of stuff was going on, and it sounds like he had some idea of it, and all he did was to report something once to the AD and then not do anything else, I would call for his resignation. If the AD swept it under the rug, he needs to be fired. Period. Heads should roll. It is too bad that this will taint a strong program and those who are part of Penn State athletics who had nothing to do with it.

Agreed. I'm ill after reading this. The lives that could have been essentially saved if they had told the proper authorities. Sickening.

Find it interesting that Holtz and Co. on ESPN never discussed it. Guess too much is pretaped.

Penn State...not proud
 

I have cried about this because I am disheartened and disgusted as a Penn State Alumna. Part of our Alma Mater says, "May no act of ours bring shame," and that is all I am feeling right now--shame! Many of the regulars on GC know how much pride I take in being a Penn Stater but, today I am not quite proud to be associated with the university.:(

I first heard about it when it was on the bottom of the screen of during the football game last night but didn't pay a lot of attention to it (okay, the print was very very small.)

Then, this morning, I read the 2nd posted article on my phone and was flabbergasted.

i thought it may be more "factual" if I went to a website more connected to Penn State area and came up with the 1st article.

Unfortunately, I would bet 100% that it is happening more frequently but unreported.

Let's hope that the victims can now tell their stories.

Just wow. Hard to believe these people could just look the other way while this went on. the Second Mile needs to come under harsh scrutiny as well. Poor boys.

If my daddy was still alive, this scandal would have killed him. He was so torn between Pitt & Penn State to begin with, but incredibly furious when he heard of pedophilia.

The one article said, "We’ve got to stop treating football as a religion." Every person who even heard about these atrocities is as guilty as the man or men who perpetuated them.

And please don't insult my intelligence by saying this is a Pitt-PSU thing. It's an issue of responsibility and moral conduct, period.

Ummm, you're the first person to bring up Pitt. :confused:

Obviously, Sandusky deserves nothing but to be sodomized with a burning chainsaw, but this graduate assistant is runner-up in the Asshole Department as well. Who sees what he saw and doesn't try to intervene or at least scream? In a situation like that, you call 911 and not your dad. He was 28 and not 22. He knew better. There appears to be this undying loyalty to the organization. If Joe Paterno's name is sullied because of this, so be it. :mad:

It's 8 known victims now...but I imagine that more are going to come forward. I hope they are getting all the love and support in the world right now.

honeychile, I def. don't think this is about a Pitt-PSU thing. You are 100% right about this! I am disgusted. I went as far as pulling everything PSU-related off my FB page because I am that upset. I called my mother to request she not buy me anything PSU-related for Christmas or my birthday. I know people are going to say that it's not the whole school and this or that but, truthfully--this whole time I have defined much of who I am by the education I have received at such an incredible university. When you base a lot of who you are on something like that and this happens--you feel as though part of your identity has been ripped from you (and I'm not even one of the poor victims). I cry as I write this. This is a sad day.

I didn't want anything I said to be thought of as part of the great PA rivalry. I would feel the same way if this was at any school, including Pitt.

This is not a sports thread.

This is not a sports topic.

You're right in many ways. That's why I don't like to treat a sport like a religion.

You know, I think that any of us would be in shock and severe distress if this news was about our Alma Mater, too.

I think this is far bigger than the football team, or the football coach, and sadly for a fine educational institution it will cast a wide shadow over your University.

I'm sorry to say that, but I think it will prove to be the case, ultimately.

I cannot stop thinking of all the young boys who could maybe have been spared such horrible anguish if an adult had acted as we all hope adults will, and had done the right thing. That has to be more important than how it will look for JoePa's legacy.

I actually had a "friend" choose to de-friend me because she thought my upset about this whole situation was way overboard for her. I am so disgusted--as anyone should be!

This is the part that sickens me the most. How could you witness this happening to a child and leave? How?

IF these allegations are true, I would bet that Coach Sandusky has been up to no good for decades, and that there are many more innocents who have suffered, but have not yet been heard from.

This whole scenario stinks-how the hell could Sandusky have enough of a comfort level to bring boys to the university to abuse them? Did he have that much power that he thought that no one would believe these kids, or that no one would dare turn him in? And if someone did turn him in, he could count on the backing of higher ups? OR did he want to get caught?

As to whether it is going on at other universities, it was not the football players that were abused, it was 10 year old boys who were part of a charitable organization that he was heavily involved with.

He is the very lowest of pond scum.

The part that worries me a lot is, if I got the story right, these boys were in his home. Have we learned nothing from Michael Jackson? There is no reason under the sun for your child to have a sleep over, or private get-together with a grown up at his house without you being there. None. This man deserves to be strung up, as do all of the people who knew, or suspected that there was something wrong. But the parents who would send their son off with some stranger just because he's famous need to accept a certain amount of blame for this.

It was a 2 year investigation? I'll bet you a dollar there are a LOT of boys out there from before that, and maybe some will come forward.

And to be clear, priests and football coaches are on the same level of disgusting these days? One more reason to pay football coaches a living wage and that's all! If they're going to be a religion, they can get paid priestly salaries. Vow of poverty, anyone?

Obviously, this is all my friends are talking about right now. This is an incredibly hard time to be a Penn Stater and to even associate oneself with this university. Right now my facebook feed is blowing up with discussion of this with many different opinions. This article is one I wanted to share, there may be more, but as this situation unfolds I just deeply hope that justice is done. I will keep posting articles as I find ones worth reading.

These kids were from troubled homes; there were probably issues with substance abuse, poverty, and G-d knows what else. Only in one instance did a parent get involved. My suspicion is that Sandusky targeted kids whose parents weren't that engaged, and may have been happy to have them out of their hair, to victimize. In fact, he "groomed" the kids for years prior to the alleged assaults.

I'm not trying to excuse what happened, but not every parent is emotionally or physically present enough to blow the whistle on that behavior. Predators know what they're doing when they target certain kids.



Apparently, he's a former football player and now an employee with PSU.

Yup. He may also have "befriended" some of the parents as part of the grooming process. Unfortunately many sexual predators will go after the vulnerable kids for a number of reasons.

I can't wrap my mind around this either.

To make matters worse since many are from dysfunctional homes they may not all get the help they need; especially those children who don't come forward.

Interesting article which does bring up the "chain of command" for reporting such horrible crimes. However, any institution- from church, to workplace to universities- which has this type of procedure no doubt relies on the good faith that the person whose role it is to contact authorities actually follows through and does just that.

Therefore, I fully disagree with the author of that article that Joe Paterno did all that he was expected to do. He may have initially followed protocol, if such a system was in place at Penn State. However, he became just as guilty as the other filthy pond scum when he did not pursue the matter when it was evident that a crime report had not been filed. He was aware a crime had happened, and he was futher aware that there had been ZERO follow up on it from a criminal investigation standpoint. At that time to hell with any institutional policies, you call authorities immediately.

I predict he resigns within the week.

Exactly. I'd be flipping out, getting the child out of the situation as quickly as possible, and before telling anyone else, I'd find a phone and dial 911.

Even if I was freaked out at the time and simply ran to tell someone else within the university community, I'd be pretty pissed if nothing was done about it, and I'd sure as hell confirm that the news eventually made its way to the police.

There are the legal requirements and then there are the moral requirements. Joe, the GA, and janitor, to varying degrees, probably met the legal requirements, but as to the moral, can't say they did. That being said, I have not heard how hard Joe pursued the investigation, or how long it took him to report it- and if he could get his head wrapped around the possibility that his friend and member of his clan of coaches there was a pedophile- after all, most pedophiles are married men, often with kids of their own. They are often involved with activities associated with kids-coaches, teachers, boy scout leaders, etc. Not to slam the 99.99% of coaches,teachers and volunteers who day in and day out, make a positive difference in the lives of kids. They don't walk around with a red P on their chest. But ultimately, Joe had the moral responsibility to follow through.

In Oklahoma, if you suspect child abuse you can be criminally prosecuted for not reporting it. I speculate that the laws in Pennsylvania are not dissimilar. JoePa and the whole lot of 'em should be criminally prosecuted if they knew anything.

It looks like the state is indicting just about everyone related to the crime. I hope this can be used to educate people about it being required that they report crimes such as these.

OK, I got a very inappropriate LOL out of the fact that JS's autobiography is called "Touched: The Jerry Sandusky Story."

As far as JoePa's involvement...it's my understanding that he didn't witness the abuse firsthand, but was told about it by a third party. He reported that to the appropriate parties, and from there an in-depth investigation should have been carried on - NOT by Paterno. He is not the administrative or disciplinary arm of the university. Why on earth are people trying to place everything on his shoulders?

This is the part of the article that hits home:

If every person that suspected child abuse in an institutional setting were permitted to take the law into their own hands by contacting authorities, it would become incredibly easy for anyone with a vendetta against a colleague, a superior, or an underling to ruin a career and a reputation by making unfounded reports with no check. That is why they are to report to the heads of their institutions, whose responsibility it is to make the report, based on whether or not there is 'reasonable suspicion' that abuse has occurred.

What? So, if you witness a brutal crime in an institutional setting, you're not supposed to call the police? That's just asinine.

He didn't witness it. That's my point. He was told about it by another person. What that person's motives are he does not know. He's Joe Paterno, not Carnac.

I mean, as far as the janitor who saw it and walked on by, there isn't lava hot enough to dump him in. That's a whole different matter.

I'm not talking specifically about Paterno. The portion of the article that you quoted said that those who contact authorities are taking the law into their own hands. That's the part that is asinine.

Again, the line is, "If everyone who SUSPECTED child abuse..."

And yes, if everyone who suspects a crime has taken place called the police, the police would never be able to do their jobs.. They'd go crazy. That's why you see Judge Judy laugh people right off their high horse.. Because they walk into court THINKING that a person had damaged their property, but there's no one there with them to verify that they actually saw the person hitting their car with a golf club.

In an institutional setting. Institutional setting =/= everyday life.

I could say I "suspect" my history professor of child abuse and go straight the police. Never mind I have never seen my history prof in the presence of a child and am just pissed about the D I got on my paper.

http://msn.foxsports.com/collegefoot...scandal-110711

Police say Paterno didn't do enough.

Again, I know nothing about Pennsylvania law, but reporting is a legal requirement for absolutely everyone with knowledge of abuse in Oklahoma. That would have included Paterno in this hypothetical.

And even that legal requirement doesn't result in the deluge of reports to DHS that you'd think occur. I've made many reports when clients came in and informed me of ongoing child abuse. It's not a big deal. It first goes to a caseworker who then checks to see whether the child is okay. They get to interview the child and make sure their living situation is minimally satisfactory and then they either move on, recommend services like a safety plan or ask for a pickup order to take the child into protective custody.

In 33's situation where she "suspects" her prof of being a child abuser, she could go to the police with any facts she has, but just thinking someone is the sort of person who'd abuse kids isn't going to be enough to make it criminal for her not to. Clearly, the folks up at Penn State had more than mere suspicion.