Thanks for posting. Yesterday at my Grandson’s birthday party, his grandpa from the other side, knowing I’m a PSU alum, asked what I thought of the Sandusky verdict. I thought he was guilty as sin.
Then I added that I was dismayed that the media accounts kept stating that Paterno had not contacted police. I told him that he did contact the proper jurisdiction, the campus police. He exploded, yelling he disagreed and that I was just attempting to protect Joe. He left the room. To him I might as well have been saying Keystone Kops.
What would have happened if Joe had contacted the State College Police, Centre County Sheriff, the State Police, or the FBI?
I wonder if someone had reported to you suspicions of child rape ( or child molestation of some type) if you would merely ‘report it to the next level’.
I am not a required reporter. I am merely a parent and if I had heard of any of the activity going on in the PSU locker room ( I mean really grown mean shower with prepubescent boys???) I would have been screaming my head off. What kind of community d you live in that thinks it is okay for some adult to shower with children?? I don;t get that at al
“What would have happened if Joe had contacted the State College Police, Centre County Sheriff, the State Police, or the FBI”?
Joepa would of been known for doing the right thing. That being said he didnt contact the police, FBI etc and forever he will be stained with being part of the coverup. Rightfully so! PSU made the right move in removing him
Then I added that I was dismayed that the media accounts kept stating that Paterno had not contacted police. I told him that he did contact the proper jurisdiction, the campus police...
...it so happens that I don’t think Paterno should’ve been terminated over this situation, although I can understand why others do...if he’d had the moral fiber he was supposed to possess he would’ve retired ten years ago, and not have deprived some deserving younger coach the opportunity at a blue chip job...but he did in fact report what he’d been told, albeit to a nominal superior (nobody, but nobody was actually superior to Paterno at PSU)and fulfilled his moral obligation, again albeit in true minimalist fashion...he was terminated as a result of his high handed treatment of administrators who wished to (rightfully) exercise his retirement years prior, and they, sensing a rare opportunity, struck him down, payback for his prior dissing of them...Paterno’s hubris was so exaggerated that he thought he could still control a situation that had bombshelled the campus; he publicly stated that he, not they, would determine his fate, saying he would retire at year’s end...but, in the end, he was fired for petty administrative reasons, opportunely, but not directly, tied to the scandal...
...by the way, if anyone believes that the football program in 1998, when Jerry was still the celebrated DC, was not aware that he was under suspicion of lewd behavior with a child in a shower, a situation conveniently swept under the carpet, I certainly don’t know what to say, except that sometimes suspension of belief just beggars the imagination...
First, after spending a day to think about what to do Paterno did not contact the campus police. Paterno only contacted Tim Curley, the Athletic Director. Gary Schultz was only pulled into the mix after that and we don't know whether that was Curley's idea or Paterno's.
Second, there is a head of the University Police, but it's not Gary Schultz. Gary Schultz was the Senior Vice President of Finance and the police reported to him - as did physical plant (like, say, those who maintained the football showers; do you want to tell me contacting Schultz was also contacting the head of football showers?).
The head of the FBI and the head of the CIA report to Barack Obama, but if you whisper something to Obama, that's not the same as reporting it to the FBI or the CIA - just as reporting something to Gary Schultz wasn't the same as reporting something to the university police.
And, in fact, it wasn't. Gary Schultz never reported the shower incident to the university police.