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."
1) This whole situation is just horrible. The hearts of all of us in Happy Valley go out to the victims and their families.
2) I hope to God that the Mark Madden rumors are not true.
3) The general opinion around here is that JoePa is innocent and is being unfairly criticized by the media. That's why students were chanting "F*** the media" and tipped over the tv van.
4) Saying there were 2,000 people at the riot last night is one of the most ridiculous reports I have ever seen. At first, I thought it was a typo and they omitted a zero. The media has done a better job estimating attendance at Glenn Beck rallies and the annual March for Life.
5) I watched Bradley's press conference in a restaurant in downtown State College. A large portion of the people there were either crying or close to crying. Others have told me the same thing was happening where they were watching the press conference.
6) This whole situation is one of the most unbelievable things I have ever witnessed.
Penn State creating new 1%ers. The plaintiffs lawyers are slobbering to sign up the guys that Sandusky buggered.
“The board of trustees got it wrong. They should have consulted the victims before making a decision on Mr. Paterno,”
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.
It’s entirely possible that JoePa was under threat not to go to the authorities, at the risk of bodily harm to himself, or to family members......if so, that might absolve him.
I’m sure there is a lot more to this story that we don’t even know about yet.
Rather odd response. The first concern of the victims is that the coach was fired?
This story stinks to high heaven.
This is by far the worst scandal in any football program in U.S. history. A 25-year death penalty by the NCAA should be pronounced immediately. Otherwise, that body can’t justify what it did to SMU for a far less serious infraction.
Speaking of 1%s, how about shipping the State College riot police up to Wall Street?
Someone said this before, but protesting the firing of a football coach gets a stronger reaction than trying to take down the capitalist system.
Paterno resigned effective at the end of the season.
The BOT only sped it up a little.
How anyone can read the GJ report, and conclude that Paterno could stay at Penn State another minute, is beyond me.
The media was not the problem, the children that rioted over a coach should be a wake-up call to those institutions that allow an individual to become larger than the institution he’s supposed to represent. He’s a football coach, not Jesus and he should have been canned twelve years ago.
When those rioting children grow-up, they’ll understand the concept of responsibility and what happens when a single bad decision snowballs just because the path of least resistance was followed. Nobody ever said that dong the right thing was easy, it’s often the more laborious decision.
They should start by jailing those children responsible for the destruction of property and forcing them to work with battered children for a few years.
Although tipping the tv van was a bit extreme, it was refreshing to see students “get it” and take on the media.
Oh I don’t know ...maybe because the perp would have been in jail if they cared as much about these kids as they did their football games. By the way it’s not nine any more it’s seventeen and counting and there are reports Sandusky was pimping these kids out to Penn State donors sorry if this ruins your schools season!!!
How would the victims have felt to see Paterno carried off the field on his players’ shoulders this weekend, or to see him given a 100,000-person standing ovation?
SMU just cheated in their recruiting and everyone knew they weren’t the only ones doing it!!!
JoePa enabled a Child Molester!
End of story.
“BINGO! The school went knee jerk without thinking this out....”
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I guess you and those idiot rioters didn’t hear what Joe himself said about the sick situation, huh?
That said, the Trustees may have information the public does not. I hope the Madden rumors are not true also, but I keep coming back to the fact that Sandusky "retired" in 1999 at age 55 after a police investigation in 1998, in the prime of his coaching career. And he never sought another coaching job. Was there a deal? If so, was JoePa in on it? How could he not be?
I'm afraid there are other shoes to drop here.
I don’t believe they violated any NCAA rules so the NCAA will walk no, run away from this a.s.a.p.
My heart goes out to these victims, and I hope that they get the counseling that they need. I have a good friend who was molested and to this day she has a hard time not believing that it was partially her fault. These victims need to be made to understand that it is not their fault, nor is any of the fallout resulting from it.
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