Sexual abuse charges Rock Penn State University (Page 12)

Hard to say for sure but seems like Joe Paterno knew things were about to crumble and he started planning for it by financially shielding some of his assets from possible civil lawsuits.

According to the NY Times he transferred his stake of ownership in their current house to his wife for $1.  A law professor that specializes in elder law has never heard of that happening for tax or government assistance purposes and doesn’t see any tax advantages to the move. 

I'm not buying it. First the story was that he saw what happened, called his father and then told JoePa. After the SHTF, he is now saying he stopped it (but, significantly, the quote in the paper today was something along the lines of "not physically" - whatever the hell that is supposed to mean). To me, his story stinks. First it was "I followed the chain of command" - then when everyone around me is getting fired, and the ex governor of the state is saying I did not behave in an ethically/morally responsible manner, it becomes "I stopped it and I called the police". So why did it take 10 years to see what happens? And why didn't he claim credit for stopping it when the first news reports were coming out? I for one would not want to leave even a hint of an impression that I had seen that kind of thing and simply walked away.

We often have to make reports in my line of work. I nearly always ask what the outcome of my reporting was. I can only imagine if I nearly never reported that I would absolutely want to know the outcome. Especially if I witnessed personally a prepubertal child being sodomized by a man in his 50's!

Not to mention that i *heard* (but don't know) that McQ went to a Sandusky sponsored gofl tournament a few weeks later....

I'm in the heart of Penn State country. Not as close as Fred, but a bit over an hour away. I grew up here too.

I am amazed at the cult of JoePa worship that goes on here. I always respected the whole mystique of the place, especially with the focus on making "student athlete" a serious phrase, not an eye-rolling oxymoron. How many coaches have libraries named for them? I couldn't care less about the outcome of a football game, but that whole greater-than-the-game institutional aspect held appeal for me.

But man, the apologetics for JoePa's inaction are staggering around here. I have been fighting with old high school acquaintances (hardly actual "friends") on facebook about this.

The crux for me is in the fact that they want to have it both ways. JoePa has been a larger than life force, THE defining icon of PSU, the man on the pedestal. In many ways he earned it, I suppose. But he's just a man. And now that the man has been shown to act on behalf of the institution's interests over the innocent, they want to say "he reported it."

Here's where I blow a gasket. So this guy, in control of everything, with power and authority and final word on all things in his kingdom, and it was a vast kingdom - this man finds out that his 2nd in command has been seen raping a boy in the shower, and suddenly, he simply gets to say "oh well tell our boss and that will be the end of that."

Really? That's the basis on which people say "he did all he could do, he was bound."

Unbelievable. Like Fred, at the outset, even I, a casual observer, thought "boy I hope Joe steered clear of this." And as the week went on, I got madder and madder.

I keep asking the people who say that we're rushing to judgment without all the facts, "so, tell me what facts could come out now that make this scenario palatable for you? What possible 'detail' can you imagine that would lead you to be more likely to say 'oh, well now I understand why there wasn't more done.' It is only getting worse."

I mean, if the guy was embezzling, and they reported it, I could imagine a scenario where the authorities say "ok, act normal, we'll set him up in a sting, but now we know so you did your job. We'll get to the bottom of it." But child rape is not embezzling. You stop it now, immediately, and when nothing is happening, you ask people WHY ISN'T ANYTHING HAPPENING?

And for God's sake, that is not hindsight. That's obvious moral human behavior. I feel really sorry for people who say "well, how do you know you would have done differently?" If you don't KNOW that you would, you have issues man.

This is what should happen to Sandusky and his kind.  Only in a perfect world.

Agreed.  I am a PSU grad and I am right there with you.

Confused? Really?

I doubt it.  I've read enough of both of your posts to not buy that.  I'm sure you're disappointed, and I could go with disillusioned (how the hell do you spell that?), but neither of you are confused.

Good men stood by and did nothing.  It's easy.  It's sad. It's horrible.  It's NOT confusing. You are NOT confused.

Keep in mind that Mccrreeery and Joe Pa are not the accused...  Jerry Sandusky is the accused.    The story is about Jerry Sandusky not the other Knuckleheads..

Jerry Sandusky , Jerry Sandusky....what did he do...?

I'm not confused about that part.  I'm confused about how I feel about my school, confused about the details since nothing seems to match up, and confused about what to do with my life sized cardboard cut out of Joe Paterno in my basement.  perhaps I should burn it. 

Penn State is part of my identity and right now it's hard to be associated with it.  I'm just sick/stunned/disgusted with how this happened and CONTINUED to happen.

Part of the story is, and I'll grant you the main part.

The other part of the story, and the reason why PS is in such hot water right now, is the enablers that allowed Jerry Sandusky to continue doing what he did and look the other way.  Had McQueery actually reported the incident to police and a prosecution immediately followed, this would not be the story it is.  This is, as SI states, the biggest scandal in college sports history, even if it isn't necessarily about sports.

New York Times article about how the investigation finally got traction.

Seems like an alarm should have been sounded in 1998. Fail. 2002 - fail. How many boys were abused because people failed to care or act? If not for a 2010 blog post, this might still be occurring.

Some people want to mitigate Joe Paterno's sins of omissions. Outsider looking in, it seems he is the one person in that community who had the unquestioned reputation and voice to unmask the predator. So much respect, trust and authority put to such little use.

Yes yes yes. This is where I get hung up. It's not even like Joe was protecting his own name at the time, but Penn State's. Had he been the whistle-blower, he had the status and authority to be unquestioned. He would have been the hero who saved the day. Yet all the apologists want to suddenly let the lord of all he surveyed, off the hook as following channels.

Sadly, another case of child molestation has popped up in another major sports program.  This time it's within Syracuse basketball and an assistant coach there who allegedly molested a child back in the 80's. 

I can't post the full link right now, but if you search ESPN outside the lines Syracuse, it's the first link.

I won't comment too much as there seems to be more details available by the minute.

Yeah been following this one all night, not sure where it is headed, could get real ugly again

Then Penn State didn't hurt you one bit. In fact, I'd venture a guess that it was a big part of what made you a person who IS "sick/stunned/disgusted" over this deal.  Be rightfully proud of that.  I'd say that part of your identity is firmly where it should be.  YOU are Penn State.  The rest of us understand that.