Big Trouble at Penn State!

[Redwingtom]

I don't think anybody is giving him THAT much grief for not pummeling Sandusky at that very moment. We're giving him grief for not calling the damned police when it was apparent this was being swept under the rug!

[h2oville rocket]

I understand that shock and being overwhelmed play a part in people's response, but come on- a young boy is being raped in a shower where you work and you go home and call your boss the next day? If a young woman was being raped as you walk though the park would you call the cops a couple days later? I'm not suggesting that anybody physically assault the guy, although I'm not sure how dangerous a naked, wet guy would be, especially to someone built like McQ, but no way could I stand by and allow that to happen without intervening. Not then, not now. And I know a little bit about it since the first time I reported child abuse was when the lady across the hall was pounding on her three year old when I was in college. Called the police. Then. While it was happening. Not sure how anyone can defend this guy.

[gmartin]

Wow!!!!! I just read this. A former DA/Prosecutor in the Sandusky case went missing.

Ray Gricar, the man who declined to prosecute Sandusky in 1998 --after setting up a sting that resulted in Sandusky making something close to a confession --hasn't been seen since vanishing in 2005. Dead or alive. He's just ... gone. With him went the answer to the question the world wants to know: Why didn't someone stop alleged pedophile Jerry Sandusky years ago? That was 1998, remember. Four years before Penn State grad assistant Mike McQueary told a grand jury he had seen Sandusky sexually assaulting a young boy in a football shower in 2002. And it was two years before a less-publicized allegation from 2000, also made by an eye-witness --a Penn State janitor who told co-workers he had heard, and then seen, Sandusky sexually assaulting a young boy in the shower. Today that janitor has dementia and apparently won't be able to testify against Sandusky. That's a disappointment. What happened in 1998? That's a mystery. And it's a mystery that gets more mysterious the deeper you look.

[footballguy51]

I don't think anybody is giving him THAT much grief for not pummeling Sandusky at that very moment. We're giving him grief for not calling the damned police when it was apparent this was being swept under the rug!

Did he know it was swept under the rug? Or was it handled and Sandusky was being permitted to still be associated with the team? Was the 2nd mile thing part of some community service that he was required to do? Jerry Sandusky did the wrong thing here, but since when do you go around and vilify everybody associated with him as if they were doing it, too. McQ and Joe Pa both reported the incident. From that point, it was being handled by their bosses. What happened after that could have been how it was handled. People that have more of an intimate connection to such occurrences obviously are more up in arms than what I am, just as many more people were angrier with Mike Vick about the dog thing than I was.

[Flipper]

Re McQ...all you need to do is say "coach, get the f**k away from that kid" and remove the kid. Re paterno and Penn State, Sandusky was still around the program this year...his book is still on sale at the University bookstore. At what point to you as a person and collectively as an institution cut ties from a known pedophile?

[h2oville rocket]

People that have more of an intimate connection to such occurrences obviously are more up in arms than what I am, just as many more people were angrier with Mike Vick about the dog thing than I was.

You raise a good point- if ten year olds being raped and dogs being electrocuted because they can't fight don't have a direct connection with me why should it bother me? Guess I'll take a chill pill and kick back- I'm sure the good folks at Penn State will do the right thing and if not-so what?

[Flipper]

Yeah...so what if Penn State carries a higher ranking with NAMBLA than the NCAA...I'm not getting raped, I should just move on...

[footballguy51]

People that have more of an intimate connection to such occurrences obviously are more up in arms than what I am, just as many more people were angrier with Mike Vick about the dog thing than I was.

You raise a good point- if ten year olds being raped and dogs being electrocuted because they can't fight don't have a direct connection with me why should it bother me? Guess I'll take a chill pill and kick back- I'm sure the good folks at Penn State will do the right thing and if not-so what?

Don't get me wrong, I obviously see this as wrong. However, I only see Sandusky and those at the very top of the administration as the villain, not everybody else that they are trying to fire or already have fired. The problem is, there was some type of cover-up because the people at the top didn't do anything. But, the people at the bottom are becoming the scapegoats because nobody wants to attack the people at the top.

[TG1996]

If these incidents happened on a Monday and the "higher ups" in the administration hadn't done anything by Friday before they started firing people, I could possibly see the argument that they are scapegoats. But after two, four, seven years of not saying "Remember that time I told you Sandusky was raping a kid in the shower? Why the hell is he still bumming around campus and dealing with kids through Second Mile?" it's EVERYONE'S fault. Even if McQueary freaked out when he saw a man who was basically one of his keys to his chosen profession raping a kid in the shower and didn't run in and stop it then, he's absolutely at fault for letting it go on for seven years of the higher ups apparently not giving a damn.

[Warthog]

Just for what it is worth, the story in The Blade today states the PA Attorney General has determined that Paterno was in compliance with the reporting requirements of the law as it is written. I would therefore have to think that McQ also met the reporting requirements then.

[h2oville rocket]

Just for what it is worth, the story in The Blade today states the PA Attorney General has determined that Paterno was in compliance with the reporting requirements of the law as it is written. I would therefore have to think that McQ also met the reporting requirements then.

I've read their reporting law. Interesting interpretation.

[1987alum]

Gov. Corbett confirmed that. Both are within the letter of the law.

[h2oville rocket]

OK, I am wrong. I initially read a summary of the law which included the direct language about causing a report to be made but did not include this section:

(c) Staff members of institutions, etc.--Whenever a person is required to report under subsection (b) in the capacity as a member of the staff of a medical or other public or private institution, school, facility or agency, that person shall immediately notify the person in charge of the institution, school, facility or agency or the designated agent of the person in charge. Upon notification, the person in charge or the designated agent, if any, shall assume the responsibility and have the legal obligation to report or cause a report to be made in accordance with section 6313. This chapter does not require more than one report from any such institution, school, facility or agency.


Ohio's law requires that a mandated reporter must make a report or cause a report to be made-in other words if you just tell somebody it isn't enough-you have to assure that that person makes a report. No provision for weaseling out by saying "I told somebody". Having read this I believe both PAterno and McQ lived up to their legal obligation.

[TG1996]

And here I thought PA's beer laws were effed up. That's just crazy.

[h2oville rocket]

And here I thought PA's beer laws were effed up. That's just crazy.

Yes, it is.