“I wonder if the same people that have been calling for ending the football program at Penn State will now call for The Walt Disney Company to close down ESPN.”
“ESPN has some explaining to do. But once it knew, ESPN didn’t give Fine ESPN’s facilities as ‘candy’ to lure additional boys, nor let Fine orally and anally molest them on ESPN’s premises, as far as we know. That can’t be said of Penn State.”
The point of my post is that the baby should not be thrown out with the bathwater in any case.
I believe in the rule of law. Those that committed crimes or knowingly looked the other way while crimes are committed need to be prosecuted and punished. I would be for death penalty for these crimes against children. If convicted, fry Sandusky and the coach from Syracuse. If convicted, imprison any official that allowed crimes to be committed.
What I don’t understand is how many here convict and want to punish those that had no knowledge or part of the crime. I think it’s more than a stretch to say that the entire 2011 Penn State football team participated in Sandusky’s crime, hid their knowledge of the crime, or protected Sandusky from authorities. Yet, many have called for closing down the entire program. Should the redshirt sophmore third string offensive lineman have his life plans turned upside down due to the decisions and actions of others? I think to close down an entire football program, basketball program, or network over the actions of a few only creates more victims.
Try it this way. Should a Catholic parish be closed down due to the improprieties of a priest? Should a Boy Scout troop be closed down due to inappropriate actions of a Scout Master?
At Penn State, I believe what you'll find is that many people above the level of Sandusky knew about his issues for years. They not only enabled them by taking no action, they took actions to prevent knowledge from reaching the appropriate sources.
In your examples, if a Scoutmaster was abusing boys for thirteen years, and the Troop Committee knew about it, and the Chartered Organization Representative knew about; if the Troop Committee and COR elected to hold their own investigation when a Scoutmaster was observed anally raping a Scout (actually, the boy as Penn State was likely not old enough to be a Boy Scout) and elected not to alert any law enforcement, the local District or Council, or the state's child welfare agency, then that Troop would have it's charter pulled by BSA National Headquarters in Texas.
If a priest was buggering altar boys for more than a decade, and (I'm not Roman Catholic and don't know the right terms) those in charge of that church (including local members of a governing board of the parish) not only knew about it but actively covered it up, allowed the priest to continue to have access to altar boys and to take them on trips with him, and elected not to notify the police when the priest was caught anally raping an altar boy in the confession booth, then heads need to roll above and beyond disciplining the priest.
The problem was football at Penn State and how the program was allowed to take precedence over the rule of law. We're finding out more and more about how the program operated above the rules of Penn State and Pennsylvania law - where Paterno was allowed to determine whether incidents involving football players would be reported to the police even if state law required it. If the football players are there for an education, then let them continue to learn on scholarship. If they're there to play football, then the NCAA should make an exception to the one-year loss of eligibility rule and let them transfer as they wish - if football is more important than a Penn State education.
But treating football as more important than morality, law, and ethics is what caused the problem. Removing football for a period of two years - or requiring home games to be played in an empty stadium - is the appropriate remedy. What Penn State did is much worse - incalculably worse - than what was done at SMU, and innocent players there had their lives turned upside down due to the decisions and actions of others.