Paterno Gets the Boot for Amoral Judgment

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Saturday’s loss to Nebraska added insult to injury for the Penn State Nittany Lions and Happy Valley. Although Penn State held their own, Nebraska took the win with a final score of 17-14. The 3 point loss knocked the Nittany Lions from #12 to #19. Nearly 108,000 fans packed Beaver Stadium to support students and staff in spite of the child molestation scandal dominating the media. As the final second ticked off the game clock, fans wondered if the home field loss was due in-part to the absence of legendary coach Joe Paterno. Paterno got the boot via phone late November 9^th for his amoral judgment in the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal. Paterno is accused of not doing enough to stop Sandusky’s predatory improprieties. “Penn State’s Prize-Winning Pig”, Paterno was more concerned with protecting his reputation than saving the innocence of young children.

 Claims Paterno knew of and did only the bare minimum to report Sandusky having “anal” sex with a boy about 10-years-old in a Penn State football locker-room shower has sickened and outraged Americans. In the Grand Jury report, Mike McQueary, known in the report only as “graduate assistant”, testified, “He saw a naked boy, Victim 2, whose age he estimated to be ten years old, with hands up against the wall, being subjected to anal intercourse by a naked Sandusky” (Sandusky Grand Jury Presentment, 2011.p.6-7).  McQueary claims he conveyed this incident to Paterno, who in turn reported it to Penn State administrators. However, University Trustees hold the position Paterno had a higher obligation to follow-up with the university and by calling campus police and/or state police resulting in the “prize-winning-pig” Paterno’s ousting from Penn State.

So, why are others, like Mike McQueary who actually witnessed the sex abuse, still employed by the university and not charged by public officials? As a university representative, he had a moral and legal responsibility to report the act at the time of the incident, but he failed to do so. McQueary is currently on paid administrative leave following threats to his life and Penn State’s review of the witnessed events. Breaking news suggests McQueary has consulted an attorney in fear of possible ramifications of his inaction. It is mind-boggling a human being could witness a sexual predator raping a 10-year-old boy and not be impelled to call police or intervene. What happened to Heroes? Because, if I had seen this horrific act playing out, someone would have had to call the police for me beating the Hell out of the pedophile! It takes a village to raise a child, but it only takes one person to save one.

Sandusky, a former defense coordinator at Penn State and founder of The Second Mile, a charity for at risk youths, is charged with numerous felonies in connection with the sexual abuse of at least eight boys, which he met through the charity. Recently he is accused of “pimping” those victims out to wealthy donors. “[Steven] Turchetta characterized Sandusky as very controlling within the mentoring relationships he established with Second Mile students…Turchetta testified Sandusky would be “clingy” and even “needy” when a young man broke off the relationship he had established with him and called the behavior “suspicious” (Sandusky Grand Jury Presentment, 2011.p.5). Sandusky made at least 61 phone calls from home and 57 calls from his cell phone to one victim. Sandusky reportedly bought marijuana for another victim and drove him around while it was smoked. It seems Sandusky prefers “water-sports” to football, showering with nearly all his victims.

“The mother of Victim 6 confronted Sandusky about showering with her son, the effect it had on her son, whether Sandusky had sexual feelings when he hugged her son in the shower and where Victim 6’s buttocks were when Sandusky hugged him. Sandusky said he had showered with other boys and Victim 6’s mother tried to make Sandusky promise to never shower with a boy again but he would not” (Sandusky Grand Jury Presentment, 2011.p.19-20).  

Sandusky’s predatory perversions perfectly fit the pedophile profile: seek out children from broken homes which are financially deprived; seek out troubled at risk children; become involved in the children’s lives outside the program, away from supervision; woo victims with the buying and giving of “hush” gifts; and play the little “games” daddies play (the tickling of the belly, hand upon the thigh, soap wars in the shower, wrestling, giving back rubs and showers). Now, remind me WHY it took so long for this man to get arrested. Oh, that’s right –a university’s reputation, along with the reputation of their prize-winning-pig! Until the pig got caught in the slop –now Sandusky is on the butcher’s block for the “good” of the university. However, can Penn State recover from the stench?

Gary Schultz has to be the top pin-head-pervert-protector. The Grand Jury report suggests, “Although Schultz oversaw the University Police as part of his position, he never reported the 2002 incident to the University Police or any other police agency, never sought or reviewed a police report on the 1998 incident and never attempted to learn the identity of the child in the shower in 2002…no one from the university did” (Sandusky Grand Jury Presentment, 2011.p.10). What type of amoral, self-centered coward who has these connections doesn’t report a child predator? Schultz should be banned from Penn State and serve a stint in prison for his inaction resulting in the abuse of more children. Furthermore, every person who protected this low-life intruder should be headed for a 10×10 cell in a jumpsuit labeled “property of Bubba”!

With civil suits threatening Penn State, the trustees’ are busier than a one-legged-man in a butt kicking contest –covering tracks and asses in hopes the consequences of employing perverted, morally inapt staff members don’t hurt the university’s pocketbook too much. However, they cannot erase the unflattering media coverage sure to haunt the University’s legacy for decades to come. Penn State’s toughest hurdle may be explaining why Jerry Sandusky is currently collecting $58,000 in pension payments; in addition, why he was allocated permission to continue to use Penn State property after the 1998 investigation, as long as he didn’t continue to bring children there. What the Hell kind of logic is that? Did Penn State officials honestly think if this predator did not have their facility to rape young boys the rapes would not occur? The logic or lack thereof, Penn State administrators used was not only ineffective, but allowed a pervert to prey on young boys for many years. The egregious behavior of all involved in this scandal is heartbreaking and sickening at best.

As a survivor, let me share with you what these victims have been put through, and the effect it will have on society. Normally I do not discuss this very personal part of my past with the public; however, in this case I feel it is imperative. Victims are often ashamed, sexually confused, angry, mentally tortured by visions of the intrusion, endure nightmares, suffer from guilt, develop personality disorders, entertain thoughts of suicide, and have challenges with intimate social relationships. These victims need the public to cry out and lend them strength through understanding and action in hopes one day they will see themselves as survivors and not victims.

If readers are interested in viewing the Grand Jury Report, it can be found at http://cbschicago.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/sandusky-grand-jury-presentment.pdf , linked through CBS Chicago.com. Be warned, the details are disturbing and will cause anger, disgust, and sadness.

 Edited By Carol Farragher