I don’t think you have to be a parent to be sickened by the news coming out of Happy Valley over the last 10 days. If you are not familiar with the ongoing scandal, I’m going to give a brief outline. Be prepared: it’s not a nice story and it involves allegations of the sexual abuse of children. If you do not want to know about it, please do not continue to read.
Here goes: A Pennsylvania grand jury has charged former assistant Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky with 40 counts of sexually abusing eight boys. The grand jury report said that another member of the coaching staff at Penn State witnessed at least one incident of active sexual abuse of a child, by Sandusky, taking place in the team’s locker rooms in 2002. He said he reported it to legendary Penn State coach Joe Paterno who, in turn, reported to the school’s athletic director. No one reported anything to campus or local police.
There is much more to the grand jury findings and the charges made by the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office. There is at least one other witness who testified to the grand jury and there are potentially more than eight current victims.
There are so, so many issues at hand in this scandal that I’m having trouble wrapping my brain around them. I’ve been trying to write this post for a week but I simply could not figure out how to tackle it. It’s clear I’ll probably have to come back to this topic a few times so I’m just going to start with all of these people who knew something had happened, who SAW it happen and who did nothing meaningful to protect the children to whom Sandusky had access.
The graduate student who reportedly told Paterno he witnessed “something” in the locker rooms at Penn State made a reasonable first move. He told his superior, Sandusky’s former boss, a man who has preached good behavior and ethics as the right way to be a winning football team. However, he apparently then sat back and waited for someone else to take real action.
Paterno also made a reasonable decision. He says he notified the school’s athletic director and figured it would go up the chain of command. He, apparently, then waited for someone else to take real action.
Penn State’s athletic director and the school’s senior vice president for finance and business spoke to Sandusky and banned him from further use of the locker rooms. Then, apparently, they did nothing else.
It is unfathomable to me that these men could have eye witnesses to the rape of a child (I’m afraid some of the incidences can only be described as “rape”) and believed their moral and ethical duty ended when they passed along the information to someone else. The rape of a child is not equivalent to stealing petty cash from the lockbox in some secretary’s desk. This not even equivalent to stealing thousands of dollars from a travel fund. The rape of a child is not the same as making bad play calls or having an affair with some administrator’s spouse. The rape of a child is not even the same as a male member of the coaching staff making inappropriate comments to a female sideline reporter.
These men either witnessed, or were aware of a witness, to the rape of a child and they made a half-hearted attempt to “deal” with it internally. They obviously hoped they could create a scenario where they could all “move on”. There is simply no ethical or moral code that would support that decision. Violence against any other human being, but particularly against a child with limited capacity to defend himself, should be met with nothing but the swiftest legal means possible. From the junior member of the coaching staff, to Joe Paterno, to the administrators who were aware of the information, they all had an obligation to go to police. They all had an obligation to make sure the incident was investigated properly by people (detectives) with the experience to see through a alleged predator’s lies and manipulations to get to the truth of what happened. And they did not.
Just imagine what might have happened if Joe Paterno, the hero of college football with nationwide recognition, stepped forward and said “We discovered horrifying information about someone we trusted. We were tricked and our trust was abused, just as children appear to have been tricked and abused. We have reported the incident to police and are cooperating fully with their investigation. This is what we do to assure our fans and our players that they were right to believe we have their best interest at heart. This is how strongly we condemn what is reported to have happened at a place we have worked hard to make safe and welcoming. We further condemn child abuse in any form and we support victims in their pursuit of justice.”
Can you hear the applause? Can you hear sports anchors pointing to this further evidence of Joe Paterno’s greatness and the fact that he truly embraces and espouses an ethical standard of living? Can you hear victims stepping forward because Joe Paterno told them it was all right and someone would have their back?
No? That’s because he didn’t say any of that or anything like it until it was too late. Just think though…
