Former Penn State Coach Arrested

[preciousjeni]

Originally Posted by ASTalumna06

I can only speak for myself, but the reason we're personalizing it is because other people (non-Penn Staters) are making it personal. I looked at one of my sorority sister's Facebook walls yesterday, and one of her "friends" posted, "If you're an old woman who's attracted to little boys, you're a cougar. If you're an old man who's attracted to little boys, you're a Nittany Lion."

People are ignorant. And that ignorance is offensive, and it's insulting something that we love so dearly. Today, my heart breaks.. And not for Paterno, and not for Spanier, but for the students and alumni who have to deal with the fact that their alma mater will forever be looked at as "the school where that coach raped young boys.". People are already referring to the school as Pedophile State University. It hurts. Plain and simple.

I think SWTXBelle summed it up best. I want to believe that these things couldn't happen; not neccesarily to a person I adore, but at a place I love.

When I was a teenager, one of my former teachers was convicted for having a sexual relationship with a fourteen year old student. This woman was a Bible teacher at a Christian school and she had won awards for her teaching successes.

The students LOVED her and she was well respected, so we were particularly devastated when the news came out. Looking back, this incident shattered the sense of trust and community on the campus and it was embarrassing for all of us.

On the other hand, coming through this experience changed me forever...for the better in my opinion. Since then, I have stopped idolizing people and I now maintain a level of skepticism in my interactions with people.

If that's the result of this incident for the Penn State community, it will mean that the next time something awful happens, people will be more willing to take action.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by preciousjeni

When I was a teenager, one of my former teachers was convicted for having a sexual relationship with a fourteen year old student. This woman was a Bible teacher at a Christian school and she had won awards for her teaching successes.

The students LOVED her and she was well respected, so we were particularly devastated when the news came out. Looking back, this incident shattered the sense of trust and community on the campus and it was embarrassing for all of us.

And I think that's exactly why many Penn Staters are taking this the way they are. Their sense of trust in the institution and in people at that institution has been violated, and they now find themselves losing something that forms part of their identity (and Penn State is hardly unique among schools in that kind of loyal identification with the school). There is a reason we call our colleges Alma Mater -- "Nourishing" or "Nurturing Mother."

What you say about what can come of this eventually is spot on, I think. But right now, many people for whom Penn State is Alma Mater are still trying to absorb the news and come to terms with it. It's a very fresh wound. Those people need to grieve for the trust that has been lost, so I would expect to see people working through the stages of grief.