I think Paterno should have notified the police as well. But which police??? Certainly not the campus police. Penn State's CYA (for Penn State) rules required that he report only to designated superiors in the university who were NOT sworn officers. Then the university rules provided that it was his superiors who would make the decisions as to whether to notify the campus cops and that no other law enforcement personnel be notified. Can you spell institutionalized coverup????
Given the obvious passion of PSU president Graham Spanier to make PSU a haven for gay everything (draw your own conclusions as to that!) which he announced upon his appointment as PSU president in about 1995, he was obviously reluctant to blow the whistle on Sandusky for behavior that Spanier probably viewed as an understandable "alternative sexual preference" for pre-pubescent boys on the part of the long in the tooth pervert monster Sandusky. It is only the "bitter clingers," the Bible beaters and the gun nuts and those pro-lifers who would object to Sandusky's cutting edge advancements in human "sexuality." Unfortunately for that "gay" blade Sandusky, his jury apparently shared the objections of the bitter clingers, etc. Hopefully Spanier's jury will be relentless in following in their footsteps. Likewise the juries that will judge the two university bureaucrats to whom Paterno DID report. There is not a jury in Pennsylvania's Bellefont and Centre County that would convict Joe Paterno for the very good reason that HE VIOLATED NO LAW. He was not a mandatory reporter. He also witnessed absolutely NOTHING personally.
McQueary is STILL on the football program payroll. Outside of PSU, no one knows McQueary and no one cares what happens to him. He cares about that paycheck. IF he witnessed the sexual assault even by hearing it, it was his job to put a stop to it then and there, report it to law enforcement authorities (again a violation of university rules but never mind) and take responsibility for his own accusations. Joe Paterno was not his lawyer, not his daddy, not his servant, not required in any way to become an advocate for McQueary and his theory. He also was not a mandatory reporter as to child abuse and particularly not mandated to report that MacQueary thinks he heard a sexual assault in the shower room.
However, since Joe Paterno is dead and is nationally known, he is a convenient scapegoat and dead horse to beat to take attention away from the living perps. Left wing sportswriters who imagine their job to be sitting in "moral judgment" according to the prejudices of the left are not very fond of Joe Paterno's life and legacy. He was a conservative ethnic man who took real responsibility for his players, was never politically trendy, and whose devotion to on the field excellence showed in his results on the field. All in all, Joe Paterno was a perfect target for the Keith Olbermans not because he was guilty of anything but because he was one of the very best coaches in the business. He is being hanged for his virtues and not for any sins.
The local elected prosecutor Ray Gricar disappeared in 2005 with his laptop and in his car while apparently investigating Sandusky under circumstances that suggest the prosecutor was murdered but the case goes cold and neither the politicians nor the university officials nor even the subsequent prosecutors nor many relevant law enforcement operations seem to give a sh*t. I am going to go out on a limb here and speculate that Ray Gricar was not murdered by Sandusky who was probably too busy raping little boys. The circumstances suggest rather that more important folks have seen to it that no one cares to find Gricar and find out who killed him. Nationally Gricar was a nobody. Locally, he was an important somebody. Something is verrrry wrong in Happy Valley and ought not to be ignored.
Paterno was aware of the 1998 investigation of Sandusky for molesting boys. When McQueary told him of the new incident in 2002 it s not like there was a blank slate. McQueary may not have known about the previous incident but Paterno knew. I really have a problem with that because Paterno seemed like a real good guy in everything else but his behavior in this matter was, to me, simply abhorrent. I have read a little about Gricar. It is pretty suspicious what happened to him.
“If only Uncle Joe knew this was going on”
The truth is, he had to have known to some degree, he likely knew to a great degree, the evidence is there for anyone to find, but you seem incapable of looking.
He was a great coach, spectacular on the field and with his players; we will never know to what degree he failed as a man, but unfortunately the best you can say about him in this matter is he was too busy to deal with the plight of a bunch of young boys being exploited by a pedophile who was his former very famous assistant, the former face of Penn State defense, the coach who made them linebackerU.
That's not a good thing to remember is your best as a man......