Posted on 11/10/2011 11:35:54 AM PST by WPaCon
A Harrisburg civil attorney who has been advising some of the alleged victims of former Penn State defensive coach Jerry Sandusky released a statement today about the board of trustees action last night firing coach Joe Paterno.
"The board of trustees got it wrong. They should have consulted the victims before making a decision on Mr. Paterno," Ben Andreozzi said. "They should have considered these victims watch TV and are aware of the students' reaction and may not want to be associated with the downfall of Mr. Paterno. The school instead elected to do what it felt was in its own best interest at the time. Isn’t that what put the school in this position in the first place?"
Andreozzi is working with Let Go Let Peace Come In, an organization providing services to child sex abuse victims, which is offering free counseling to the alleged victims. "The way the Board reached its decision raises more concerns than the decision itself. There is no indication the Board considered the impact of the decision on the abuse victims," Andreozzi continued. "The school let the victims down once, and I think they owed it to the victims to at least gauge how the immediate termination decision would impact them as opposed to Mr. Paterno's resignation at the end of the year. These victims do not live in a bubble.
"They see the students reaction to the termination, and to think this does not weigh on their minds would be naive."
I am glad that you are sorry about Penn State’s football season. But I am actually a Florida State Alumni. You would think I would be thrilled with Joe getting the boot as it just makes Bobby even more superior (he retired in 2010 unfortunately). lol. But I am not because it is just sad all around.
It isn’t up to the victims to decide who needs to be fired. Paterno is certainly not innocent. He eased Sandusky out as assistant coach, but let him have continued access to Penn State athletic facilities long after he knew that Sandusky was using them to molest children.
I guess you and those idiot rioters didn’t hear what Joe himself said about the sick situation, huh?
No I didn’t. Why don’t you tell me because you seem to know it all. I wouldn’t be surprised to find that you knew about this situation yourself since you seem to be in the know.
The reports also state up to 2008 when he resigned from second mile due to an investigation, he continued to maintain he was innocent of any and all of the charges.
I wonder if rumors of your friend were out and they told you it was all a lie - would you support your friend?
Sorry, but what this guy did or failed to do is despicable. The cult of Penn State—students, coaches, officials, fans—are no different from the Hollyweirdos who rallied around Roman Polanski. Just as they thought being a great artist should pardon the sin of drugging and butt-raping a middle schooler, then fleeing the country instead of facing justice, the Penn State cult believes being a great coach should pardon the sin of whistling “Dixie” while your homie fondles young boys.
Blind celebrity worship is one of the things that’s bringing America down.
Officials at Penn State created an environment that ENCOURAGED perversion, and that no sex was wrong.
It was the stated goal of President Spanier to become the most Gay-Friendly Campus in America, and Penn St. had the first All-GAY fraternity in America. (I’ll bet they have an interesting Hell Week)
With Adminstration-sponsored events like “QueerFest”, or the ‘Become a Lesbian for a day’ “C##tFest”, they CREATED an atmosphere where the perversions of a sicko like Sandusky found not only a home, but acceptence, and a staff willing to cover it up, for the sake of the MONEY the Football Program dragged in.
Penn State FIRED it’s 27 yr National Championship winning Women’s basketball coach, Rene Portland,in 2006, for telling a parent she would not tolerate Homosexuality on her team, claiming she created a “Hostile, discriminitive environment”
When people ask HOW something like this could have happened, and how it could be covered up so readily by the administration of the University, show them this.
In this kind of an atmosphere, can you hardly be surprised that sexual abuse of children would go on?
This is close to tin foil hat territory. Even if it were true, it doesn't absolve him. We're talking about the rape of a child.
Too bad JoePa didn't get it a few years back and took on Sandusky.
How about his replacement - he was there at the time - should he go?
Penn State replaces ousted head football coach Joe Paterno with Tom Bradley, above left, a longtime assistant who also coached with Jerry Sandusky,
BINGO! The school went knee jerk without thinking this out. Penn State will lose so much from this mess. Of course the school and football will survive but it will cost them so much more than just paying the 9 victims which by the way, If I was Penn State, I would ONLY pay the victims that were abused at the school. Why pay for a victim that was at the perps home or at the camp site that the school had nothing to do with it.
I don't agree. PSU would keep itself open to even more potential liability if they let Paterno stay. Although Paterno met the minimum legal requirement - he failed to live up to the implied moral obligation he had as a leading member of the university staff.
Additionally, the Board of Trustees had to consider the wider implications to the university as a whole. PSU is NOT just sports. Because of this incident, enrollment applications, booster funding, alumni funding, corporate funding, government grants, etc. are all affected. Not to mention the impact on recruiting in ALL sports - not just football.
As far as consulting the families - I would not say that it was necessary. The families have NO say in what PSU does vis-a-vis personnel matters. But, it would have been decent of the Board of Trustees to give the families a prior "heads-up" as to their decision BEFORE announcing it at a press conference.
I went to PSU and lived right across from the football practice facilities in the "Nittany Dorms". I saw Paterno quite frequently in the parking lot. Even got to speak to him from time to time, so I was more than a passing acquaintance. We rarely talked football.
At the time, my impresssion was that he was a decent, honorable man. He had scruples - such as when he benched players for getting drunk at the bars, or when he dismissed Paul Lankford from the team for being involved in a robbery.
He was forgiving, though. If drunk players went to counseling and kept their noses clean, they were allowed to play again. He told Lankford to man-up and admit his guilt, accept the court's punishment, serve a one-year dismissal [BUT remain in school at his own expense], and keep his nose clean. After the year was up [and Lankford met all of the requirements], he was re-instated onto the team.
This is why I am puzzled - the circumstances of this incident is NOT the Paterno I knew ...
>>an organization providing services to child sex abuse victims, which is offering free counseling to the alleged victims<<
You get what you pay for.
What a crappy statement to make - but if you’ve been on any PSU message boards, the “blame the victims” or “media” bandwagon is thriving.
Penn Staters (admins, students, alum groups & fans) - where is your moral compass? Where is the outrage at the horrific crimes? College football was here before you were born, it will be here after you’re worm food. You will survive the loss of your coach - the inability to see right from wrong is a bigger problem.
Police on the scanners last night were estimating 500+, which grew to over a thousand by the time they started sweeping the streets.
Pictures of the crowd are all over the internet and Twitter.
Two thousand would be easily believable.
Just assumed since you hail from the great state of Pennsylvania you would be a Penn State fan and that you were quite concerned that Penn State might have to pony up some money!
I would also guess that you didn't see the video of Joe last night laughing and smiling with all the attention he was getting?
The difference between this case and the SMU case was that the SMU case involved infractions of NCAA rules. The PSU case is a criminal case that does not involve the NCAA. If there is a body that needs to penalize Penn State football for this cover up it is the Penn State Trustees. They have the power to shut down the program and probably should do so.
TB will be gone at the end of the season.
After hearing what I have heard and seeing what I have seen I think his fears are well founded.
What do you think that says about the people at PennState?
I think Penn State won't play football for at least one, maybe two seasons....you're going to have to bring in an entirely new coaching staff, potentially release the current players to go to other schools, and try to recruit new players....there's no way you'll be ready by the start of the season.
When McQueary reported to Paterno, it was not the first time for Sandusky. Sandusky had already been investigated for showering with boys at Penn State. So Paterno had no reason not to believe McQueary. Paterno knew that McQueary’s account was likely the truth, since Sandusky already had shown a pattern.
If Bradley knew what Paterno knew, then yes, Bradley shoudln’t stay a minute longer than Paterno.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.