One of the most cowardly, disgusting, alarming sports scendals ever has been brought to light.
Let’s assume Ashton Kutcher isn’t reading this, and that everyone knows the background behind this story. In case Ashton is reading this, here it is anyways.
On November 4, 2011, former Penn State defensive co-ordinator Jerry Sandusky was indicted on 40 counts related to alleged sexual abuse of minors. The indictment came after a three-year investigation that Sandusky allegedly had inappropriate contact with a 15-year-old boy over the course of four years, beginning when the boy was just 10 years of age. The boy’s parents reported the incident to police in 2009. A grand jury identified eight boys singled out for sexual advances or sexual assaults by Sandusky from 1994-2009, however, at least 20 of the incidents allegedly took place while Sandusky was still employed at Penn State.
The following day, Sandusky was arrested and charged with seven counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse; eight counts of corruption of minors, eight counts of endangering the welfare of a child, seven counts of indecent assault; and other offenses. Athletic director Tim Curley and senior vice president for finance and business Gary Schultz (who oversaw the Penn State police department) were charged with perjury and failure to report suspected child abuse by Sandusky.
According to the indictment, in 2002 assistant coach Mike McQueary, then a Penn State graduate assistant, walked in on Sandusky having anal intercourse with a 10-year-old boy. The next day, McQueary reported the incident to Paterno, who informed Curley. Allegedly, the only action Curley and Schultz took was to order Sandusky not to bring any children from Second Mile to the football building, an action that was approved by school president Graham Spanier. The indictment accused Curley and Schultz not only of failing to tell the police, but also of falsely telling the grand jury that McQueary never informed them of the alleged sexual activity.
Sandusky was freed on $100K bail pending trial, but has now been banned from Penn State’s campus. On November 6, 2011, Penn State banned Sandusky from campus.
This entire scandal–assuming you have any moral or ethical values whatsoever–is absolutely ridiculous.
11 years ago, an eye witness saw Sandusky abusing a child, between the ages of 11 and 13, at the Lasch Football Building and did not report it to the police. Two years later, Sandusky is caught again abusing a child, this time estimated to be 10 years old in the same Football building.
Rather than reporting these incidents to authorities in order for proper justice to be served, they were reported via chain-of-command, where each person tried to merely save their own asses and disassociate themselves with what was being brought to their attention. A laundry list of either eye witnesses, or those who had direct knowledge of the incidents–President Graham Spainer, Vice-President Gary Schultz, Athletic Director Tim Curley, Head Football Coach Joe Paterno and more–continued to do nothing rather than report what was being told to the police.
Not only should Sandusky have been arrested over a decade ago when the incidents allegedly began, but it’s nothing short of disturbing that the names listed above, with as much power and responsibility at Penn State, had the ability to stop something like this from happening, and chose to keep quiet. What does this say about the state of our society?
Obviously, there’s no undoing the past. What happened to those young boys can never be truly rectified. There are, however, some wrongs that can be made right. For starters, Spanier and Curley have been relieved of their duties, as has Paterno (Spanier, however, remains a tenured professor at the school).
Students at Penn State held a candlelight vigil last night–that’s right, while also protesting the firing of Paterno. Actions like these speak volumes about how stupid and short-sighted these students are. While it was unfortunate the way Paterno was fired–an 84-year-old coaching legend with 409 wins, 2 National Championships, 3 Big Ten Championships and a Hall of Fame resume as a head coach for 46 seasons, Paterno was notified of his firing via phone call–there is absolutely no other way around it. Many argued that he should’ve finished the remainder of the season to go out into retirement the way he had planned, including coaching today’s game against Nebaska, but the fact remains that he knew of his assistant coach’s sexual misconduct with several young boys and did absolutely nothing.
There was no choice, no options for what to do with Paterno–relieving him of his coaching duties, effective immediately, was the only appropriate course of action. It’s a debate that has no argument.
Joe-Pa’s life, coaching career and legacy as both a coach and a mentor will forever be tarnished because of this, and rightfully so. Especially since Paterno is seen as a role model and the ‘do the ‘right’ thing guy,’ despite pretending these incidents didn’t happen for nearly a decade. What many don’t understand, including these students protesting for the sake of protesting, is that there’s a line to be drawn between what somebody does in their respective career, and what they do off the field. No one is questioning Paterno’s status as a legend as a football coach, or what he’s brought to Penn State football in a half-century of work. He’s built a legacy that no one will ever come close to, a legend that people will tell their grandkids about. But there’s absolutely nothing to be said in Paterno’s defence for his actions or his firing–he was dead wrong, end of discussion.
As for Sandusky, nothing that happens to him will be too good. If convicted of his charges, he could face life in prison, which would be a small reward to those directly affected by his sexual abuse. Just the thought of his house reportedly being close to an elementary school makes my skin crawl.
And so, rather than bringing justice to Sandusky in 1994 when these incidents allegedly began, Penn State and everyone associated with the school chose to save face and and cover up a pedophile and is disgusting, cowardly acts, rather than biting the bullet early and throwing everything out in the open, as well as saving several young boys from irreversible emotional trauma.