Posted on 11/10/2011 1:31:44 PM PST by Colofornian
Edited on 11/10/2011 1:42:30 PM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
Folks, this is Joe Paterno's legacy.
E-mails jump into my inbox defending Paterno...
I won't remember what Paterno did, but what he didn't do. What he didn't do is what got him fired...
Firing Joe Paterno doesn't fix everything, but it's a great start.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
2001:
THE BLUE & WHITE SOCIETY ADOPTS KIDS FOR A DAY OF FUN
The Blue & White Society, the student constituency of the Penn State Alumni Association, will will adopt 40 “little lions” from Jerry Sandusky’s Second Mile foster children program and treat them to a day of fun that will culminate in a Lions’ basketball game at the Bryce Jordan Center. Two groups of 20 youth from the Second Mile program will attend one of the following games: The Lions vs. Purdue on Saturday, Feb. 17, or the Lady Lions vs. Michigan on February 25. A pre-game party before each game, organized by the Blue & White Society, will feature the cheerleaders, a variety of games and activities, and an opportunity to meet the famous Lion. For more Alumni news, go to http://www.alumni.psu.edu
Yes.
It's a GOVT school. Penn State -- the state college located in all places, State College.
See also: Penn State's Legal Liability is Serious, Analysts Say [ 2011-12 budget $279M state appropriations]
10/5/1999:
Paterno: I always like to kid some of the guys on the staff who are getting gray -haired. Somebody said to me “Jerry Sandusky is getting gray and somebody else is getting gray and you are not getting gray.” I said “There are guys that have ulcers and there are guys who are carriers, I happen to be a carrier.”
I worked for the state...they had a very strict policy as to how things were handled. I did state, however, that I followed up on every incident of which I had direct knowledge, and they were all handled appropriately
Still no info re: Sandusky’s relationship with Paterno post 1999?
February 28, 2000
University Park, Pa. — MBNA America has agreed to be the lead sponsor for the MBNA Jerry Sandusky Testimonial Dinner and Roast, scheduled for Friday, April 14, 2000.
Hosted by Penn State Intercollegiate Athletics, the event will be held at the Bryce Jordan Center and will kickoff the annual Blue/White Weekend in University Park. The dinner and roast will be attended by an impressive lineup of past players, coaches, Penn State administrators, and others who wish to share their thoughts and some untold stories about the retired Penn State Nittany Lion football coach.
Net proceeds from the event will benefit The Second Mile through a newly established Second Mile/Jerry Sandusky endowment fund. Longtime defensive coordinator for the Nittany Lions, Jerry Sandusky, 55, retired last year after 32 years as a member of the Penn State football coaching staff to devote more of his time to The Second Mile.
The Second Mile is a nonprofit organization founded by Sandusky in 1977. Its mission is to challenge young people to achieve their potential by providing opportunities for them to develop life skills and self-esteem. The Second Mile offers 10 prevention, early intervention, and community-based programs and services to more than 100,000 children in Pennsylvania each year. The Second Mile is funded through private sector contributions.
“I’m thrilled MBNA has agreed to take the corporate lead in helping Pennsylvania children through this event,” said Sandusky. “MBNA has had a long-standing relationship with Penn State University and the State College community, and we are excited that they are a new corporate partner for our organization. I am also honored and moved that Penn State Intercollegiate Athletics has initiated this event and provided the opportunity for others to contribute to the endowment fund.”
“MBNA is proud to support Jerry Sandusky and a quality organization such as The Second Mile,” said Ric Struthers, senior vice chairman of MBNA America. “The people of MBNA are committed to helping the communities where we live and work. At our State College facility, MBNA people have volunteered for events sponsored by The Second Mile and have seen firsthand the impact this organization is making on young people throughout the state of Pennsylvania.”
MBNA Corporation, a bank holding company and parent of MBNA America Bank, N.A., is the largest independent credit card lender in the world. Last year, MBNA extended its relationship with the Penn State Alumni Association by signing a 10-year agreement to offer Penn State credit card programs, and consumer finance, deposit, and insurance products to students and alumni.
For ticket information please call Intercollegiate Athletics at (814) 863-0351. Reserved table sponsorships are available. Contact Hank Lesch, The Second Mile vice president of development, (814) 237-1719, ext. 104, or e-mail at .
Sandusky Roast to be
broadcast on the Internet
For those who cannot attend the MBNA Jerry Sandusky Testimonial Dinner and Roast at The Bryce Jordan Center at University Park at 7 p.m. Friday, April 14, the evening will be brought to you via the Internet. Those interested can view a RealPlayer streaming video feed at http://www.PennStateSports.com. The dinner and roast will kick off the annual Blue/White Weekend. For the full story on the event, go to http://www.psu.edu/ur/2000/sanduskydinner.html.
Sandusky, who engineered Penn State Football’s defense for several decades, retired at the end of last season. Sandusky is the founder of The Second Mile, a charitable organization that addresses the welfare of children.
SANDUSKY RECEIVES HONORS UPON RETIREMENT
Long-time Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky has been honored as the American Football Coaches Association’s (AFCA) Division I-A Assistant Coach of the Year, and will also receive a Career Achievement Award by the Philadelphia Sports Writers Association. A member of the Penn State football coaching staff for 32 years before his retirement following the Alamo Bowl, Sandusky is largely responsible for Penn State earning the moniker “Linebacker U.” Founder of The Second Mile, a charitable organization which addresses the welfare of children, Sandusky plans to be more involved in The Second Mile upon his retirement. For the full story, visit the sports information Web site at http://www.winmill.com/PSUFootball/preview/htpages/home.cfm.
Your point in posting these press clippings is... alot of folks thought Sandusky was a swell guy?
No, it's a good Q.
The "so what" is that then what Paterno heard from McQueary that first Sat. in March, 2002...wasn't any huge surprise to him.
Already the report was credible from a credible person. Obviously, Paterno gave it credibility; otherwise he would have just told him to go meet with his superiors himself. Instead, Paterno met with them FIRST.
When you get confirmation that you have a pedophile spanning four years of such gut-wrenching actions...that would suggest he needs to be stopped.
Arrested.
Kept away from kids @ kids' camps @ State College, Erie & Harrisburg -- all run by Sandusky.
Does Paterno elevate his sense of Sandusky as a threat?
We don't know. The answer is probably for the rest of that winter of 2002 into the Spring and perhaps Summer & Fall of 2002.
At some point, he knew Sandusky wasn't arrested.
At some point, he knew McQueary have never been interviewed.
AT some point, he knew the admins had stonewalled the report.
Yet for whatever reasons, Paterno dropped the perceived threat level Sandusky posed to kids.
That's why the columnist of this thread wrote: "With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had done more," Paterno said in a statement. That's pathetic. You need hindsight to tell you that you must do whatever you can to stop a dangerous criminal?
The bottom line then of the "so what" is: I don't see how people can claim that Paterno didn't know enough of a history of Sandusky ('98 to early '02) -- and then put 2 & 2 together re: his access to 4th graders on up run thru sports camps throughout the state.
Those sports camps weren't hidden obscure camps.
Paterno needed to do whatever it took to at least get Sandusky arrested/investigated by local authorities. It's not as if he was a local man with little influence.
That is certainly clear in hindsight. I'm sure it is to Paterno, who probably wishes he had a second chance to deal with this mess.
Our differences are in our personal response to the story. Some think Paterno should be sharing a cell with Sandusky. I disagree.
Rita? Here's a comparison. And it's not an insult to what you know, it's just to give you an idea about how horrific this in scope - length of time, boys involved, and men in power with moral authority who either chose not to act or acted only to cover it up.
What you wrote is to the Penn State scandal as Borger is to the State of Texas.
And we're getting a glance that by the time this is over, it will be as Borger is to the Earth.
And one word from Paterno would have stopped all this madness and saved dozens of little boys from being raped ...
I don't think he should go to jail. He will be dead soon. But, some here think he should still be coaching. Are you one of those?
Ask me what I think should be done with the actual homosexual child rapist.
BS!
H. Staff may also submit their own report of known or suspected incidents of child abuse or neglect to the Indiana Department of Child Protective Services by calling 1-800-800-5556.
I. Staff shall report know or suspected incidents of child abuse or neglect directly to the Indiana Child Protective Services when there is reason to believe that the incident of child abuse or neglect was not adequately reported.
I don't think Paterno is the criminal here. Ask me what I think should be done with the actual homosexual child rapist.
First answer the question. Thank you.
The story apparently begins as early as 1994 or earlier, but let’s start in 1998. Jerry Sandusky worked with troubled youth as part of a charity called The Second Mile, which he helped found years earlier; Joe Paterno was actually on the board at some point, perhaps as a honorary trustee. Jerry Sandusky played for Joe Paterno from 1963-65, and served on his coaching staff starting in 1969. By 1998, Sandusky had served as defensive coordinator for years, was a close personal friend of Joe Paterno’s (for almost thirty years), and was the ‘heir apparent’ to replace Joe Paterno.
However, in 1998, the University Police conducted an investigation into incidents (plural) involving Sandusky showering with preteen boys in the Penn State football locker room showers. Sandusky would have been in his mid-50s. There’s nothing appropriate about that. Forget molestation. When you’re a man in your 50s working with troubled boys, showering naked with them is not therapy. It’s wrong. The GJ documents are careful to tell us that University President said he never saw the 1998 report; those document are frighteningly silent about whether Joe Paterno was interviewed in 1998, knew about the investigation, or saw all or part of that file or report.
Based on complaints by a mother, a DA looked into allegations of molestation but decided he did not have enough evidence. I may be wrong (I do not have the stomach to go back and read the reports again), but I do not believe the University Police report file was available to the DA, and I do not believe the University Police reported Sandusky to legal authorities.
This was Paterno’s defensive coordinator and friend and assistant coach of thirty years. It was the Penn State football locker room. What’s fairly clear is that Sandusky’s problem with little boys was widely known after (or before) the investigation. It would be disrespectful of Joe Paterno to think he was so naive and disrepected that everyone else would know and not tell Paterno.
Well, within months, Sandusky unexpectedly announced his early retirement. The official story is that Paterno told him that he would never be the head coach at Penn State. That’s probably true. And he was probably told that because . . . he showered with little boys.
Instead of disassociating completely with Sandusky, Penn State or Joe Paterno - because Joe Paterno was, as far as anyone who knew and understood the program believes, the athletic department in 1999 - decided to grant Sandusky ‘emeritus’ status.
Instead of disassociating with him, they gave him an office in the athletic building, with keys to the facilities, a parking space, a phone, internet access, discounts on campus, a tuition discount for himself and his adopted children, the rights to hold sleepover youth athletic camps on campus, and the rights to bring boys with him to insider football program events, such as sidelines and pre-game banquets. If you envision a child molester as an old man luring boys with candy, then Sandusky’s candy was bringing boys to the Penn State facilities and inside the football program, and Penn State - with Paterno’s knowledge, or at Paterno’s instruction - gave Sandusky the candy.
I have to believe that Paterno, as a decent man, could have called the President of Penn State into his home (he was that powerful) and said “no man who showers with boys is going to have access to MY football facilities.” At the very least, Paterno could have kept Sandusky from bringing boys to special football events, such as pre-game banquets.
In 2000, a janitor caught Sandusky in the football showers again, performing oral sodomy on a preteen boy. He didn’t report it to the police because he was ‘too scared” (but he reported it to the other janitors). Whether scared of long-time hero Sandusky (whose defense won the 1987 Orange Bowl National Championship), or bringing shame on Penn State, or reporting Joe Paterno’s friend of three decades, we don’t know. But I find it difficult to believe that Joe Paterno, who ran his program so that he knew if his boys broke curfew, even if it was in a town twenty miles away, would have heard that his good friend and former coach had another boy in the football showers. It was never reported and Joe Paterno apparently did nothing to stop Sandusky from bringing boys around to football events, to keep Sandusky from having access to the football showers, or . . . anything.
In 2002, Mike McQueary, former star QB for Penn State and then a graduate assistant, walked in on Sandusky anally raping a preteen boy in the football showers at 9:30 on a Friday night. McQueary didn’t stop Sandusky (who had been a coach when McQueary played) or rescue the boy. He didn’t call the police. He called his father and the decided that McQueary should report the incident to Paterno . . . the next morning. McQueary did.
Here’s an open part of the story. Paterno says he was only told that there was “fondling” and “maybe something of a sexual nature.” McQueary told his father it was anal rape. McQueary told the AD, Curley, and the Senior VP of Business and Finance, it was anal rape. Why wouldn’t he tell Paterno that?
Both the Grand Jury presentment and the GJ findings are very careful not to disclose what McQueary says he told Joe Paterno.
Paterno waited one day to call the AD, Curley, to whom he ‘reports’ on the organizational chart. Of course, in real life in 2002, everybody really reported to Paterno. Paterno was the man with the power that came with respect, 34 years of coaching, and National Championships. In fact, when Paterno was 78, the Trustees of the University asked Paterno to retire. He simply said no. That’s how powerful he is. Keep that in mind when people say Paterno reported this to his superiors. There may have been an organizational chart, but until the Trustees were forced to act and fired Paterno yesteday under this intense national spotlight, Paterno had no superiors at Penn State for two decades or more.
Curley and Schultz did nothing. They never reported the incident to the University Police, state youth protection, or any law enforcement. Sandusky kept his office in the Athletic building and emeritus status until this Sunday. He held sleepover camps for boys (although on the University’s other campus) through the Athletic Department until 2008.
Joe Paterno says “I fulfilled my legal duty. I reported to my superior.” And then he never followed up. He never asked about police involvement, or why Sandusky was still around, or hosting camps, or why Sandusky wasn’t charged with anything. Nobody at Penn State even tried to find out the identity of the boy who was raped.
The Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner stated publicly that Joe Paterno had a moral duty to report this to the police.
But for nine years, Joe Paterno, whom I believed to be a righteous, decent, moral man, hid behind the “I told my superior” and watched as Sandusky still roamed freely. He either didn’t ask any questions . . . or he didn’t care what was heard.
And now, we find that as of yesterday, there are twenty known victims of Sandusky, while there were only eight in the indictment. And we wonder why the indictment and these details were held until Joe Paterno could pass the All-Time Wins As A Division I Coach record. Because they were held.
But it wasn’t an incident in the showers in 2002. It was an unspeakable pattern of activities resembling Hell in a Hieronymus Bosch painting. Something that you would think could only come from the mind of a depraved novelist. It was a group of powerful men with moral authority who chose not to use that moral authority and not to act, or to act only to cover this up.
It was the total abdication of all moral authority by a man that tens or hundreds of millions of people had viewed as the Nation’s Grandfather for at three decades.
And it was a world concentrated on how a football program and football coaches would be affected when at least twenty young boys had been unspeakably violated. And, just as when nobody at Penn State bothered to ask the name of a boy raped on a shower, most people lost sight of them
Interpret that any way you like.
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