Penn State Sex Abuse/Child Molestation Scandal

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Penn State sex abuse scandal made federal case; U.S. Department of Education announces it will investigate university - NY Daily News

To sum up to where we are at now, former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky was accused of having sexual intercourse with several minors inside of the Penn State's facilitates.In 2002, assistant Mike McQueary witnessed one of the incidents to coach Joe Paterno, which reported it to his superiors. Nothing happened after that, which made the situation seem like a cover up. Coach Paterno was fired yesterday, ending his legendary 46 year tenure as coach at Penn State.

More details in the article.
 
Oh, Christ.
My grandparents and cousin live in Pennsylvania. I wonder how this one's affecting them, especially with all the rioters.
I still can't believe that the protesters are defending him. For the love of the Giant Heart in the Sky, he's accessory to child molestation!
 
Awww... and Coach Paterno had been literally the mascot of Penn State... Anyways, I really hate it when there are people who are sexually abusing children. AND FOR GOD'S SAKE WHY DID THEY NOT SOLVE THE PROBLEM SOONER?
 
Here. Read this. It's the grand jury report on the incident. I'm warning you, though; it could make a Throbbing Gristle fan cringe.
(Not for the kiddies--it deals in-depth with a lot of things to which no child should be exposed.)
 
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Joe Paterno says he has Penn State's best interests at heart but sadly his actions say otherwise (such is a subtitle [?] derived from the link):
[...]

Paterno, 84, said he’d retire after this season — a decision that added another damaging mistake in judgment to a chain of failure that dates from 2002, and perhaps earlier. He said Penn State’s Board of Trustees “should not spend a single minute discussing my status. They have far more important matters to address.”

That sounds right, for a split second, until you see that it is all wrong.

Penn State, with the child sexual-abuse case surrounding former Paterno assistant Jerry Sandusky in the courts, had few bigger issues than deciding whether Paterno coaches its last three regular season games, then a possible conference championship and a bowl game, too. The circus around those games, starting with Nebraska on Saturday, boggles the mind.

“I will spend the rest of my life doing everything I can to help this university,” Paterno said in his statement on Wednesday.

But what if the biggest help you can be is to get out of the way? Right now.

That decision, when for Paterno to leave, how to leave, was no longer in his control. Those days ended when Sandusky was arrested. Wednesday night, less than 12 hours after Paterno announced he would finish the season, the school’s trustees said that he would not. They fired him.

Paterno has been a man above authority at Penn State for decades. He’s been allowed to be selectively deaf or dumb or blind when it suits him. Those days are over.

Even now, as he leaves the public spotlight of coaching, Paterno will still be questioned — and will have to decide how much he will choose to answer — about what happened in 2002 and, maybe as important, 1998. [See rest of article.]

[...]​
^Paterno attempted, and failed, to preemptively give himself his own sentence, and a light one at that, perhaps trying to handle the narrative as to how he went out. (The Board of Trustees instead fired him and Graham Spanier, President of Penn State.) Other articles I've read have focused more on this. (That article and others regard Joe Paterno's failures as a dramatic tragedy. Both articles should be read.)^

This article (Jail time could be Joe Paterno's Legacy) establishes the narrative, and the longstanding nature of this scandal:
[...]

Start with the theory that this was a roughly 15-year cover-up, which also qualifies him for enabler status, concerning his friend and longtime assistant coach, Jerry Sandusky, who is now under indictment as a child sexual predator of the lowest denomination.

[...]

For now, it's a case of the proof vs. common sense. But at least two other Penn State officials, one being the just-fired athletic director, do face criminal charges involving a cover-up on Sandusky, and once their trials begin, and once the saving-of-their-butts testimony begins, it will be interesting to see where it goes.

Michael McCann, a sports law professor and NBA TV's on-air legal analyst, wrote for SI.com this week that Paterno's statement to a grand jury will come under close scrutiny as these other cases go to trial.

Plus, when the lawsuits start to roll in from the young victims' families -- and those will be for a staggering amount of money -- Paterno could still be found negligent in a civil trial.

What did Joe know, and when did he know it?

See if this makes sense:

In 1998, with Sandusky serving as Paterno's defensive coordinator and also considered heir apparent as head coach, a story surfaced that over the previous four years Sandusky had inappropriate conduct with three young boys, including shared showers.

Once a mother of one of the boys learned of this, she went to the university police. In June of '98, the state welfare department and the university police interviewed Sandusky, who promised them he would not shower with children again.

Oh, well, everything is all OK again in Happy Valley. The man promised he wouldn't take showers with young boys.

Right then, why was Sandusky not fired by Paterno? I've never heard of a head coach at any level, junior high on up, who would not terminate this kind of human trash immediately.

Instead, Sandusky coached the entire '98 season, then mysteriously retired before the '99 season, but stayed on at Penn State as a volunteer coach while maintaining full access to campus facilities.

Despite more "incidents" that were even reported in local newspapers, and despite the now infamous situation in 2002 when a graduate assistant coach reported to Paterno he saw Sandusky in the locker-room shower committing sex acts on a boy thought to be 10 years old, Sandusky until last weekend was listed on the school's website as "assistant professor emeritus of physical education."

[...]​
^There has been significant cause for worry for 15 - 17 years.^

Exorcist Master said:
Awww... and Coach Paterno had been literally the mascot of Penn State...
Click to expand...
I see no reason to have that sentiment. The actions of the riotous and malevolent Penn State students (who have damaged property and are [presumably] some or most of the assumed issuers of death threats against McQueary) is certainly unacceptable. Their very attitude and position is damnable as well, putting football and a personal icon ahead of everything else, including moral right and the lives of children. Paterno himself has been having his way on campus for decades (him being that iconic), and even sought to keep his job and preserve/fashion his legacy by passing his own sentence on himself.
 
Would you get a load of this:
Sandusky said:
I enjoy being around children. I enjoy their enthusiasm I just have a good time with them. Everybody needs people to care for them. Sometimes they don't want it. Sometimes they don't understand what you're trying to do, but they want to be disciplined. Kids are growing up awfully fast today.
Click to expand...
Link.
 
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Yeah, it was an amazing story heard about it all over the news. And the Penn State campus had a riot afterwards!
 
League said:
I see no reason to have that sentiment. The actions of the riotous and malevolent Penn State students (who have damaged property and are [presumably] some or most of the assumed issuers of death threats against McQueary) is certainly unacceptable. Their very attitude and position is damnable as well, putting football and a personal icon ahead of everything else, including moral right and the lives of children. Paterno himself has been having his way on campus for decades (him being that iconic), and even sought to keep his job and preserve/fashion his legacy by passing his own sentence on himself.
Click to expand...

I took EM's comment as sadness that such an icon turned out to be a terrible person, not as her defending him. But otherwise I agree with you.
And I'm sooooo glad the Penn State Board of Trustees did not let Paterno decide to retire at the end of the year while taking a victory lap of retirement banquets and tributes. It was so arrogant and telling (in terms of showing an utter lack of dignity) for him to even suggest it. I'm happy that they made him quit right away.

I wonder what some of these rioting students think of Catholic bishops covering up child abuse by priests. Clearly, some people approach football like a religion. It's reprehensible either way.
 
Sandusky admits he 'horsed around,' but insists he's innocent - CNN.com

"I could say I have done some of those things," he said. "I have horsed around with kids I have showered (with) after workouts. I have hugged them, and I have touched their legs without intent of sexual contact."

Still, Sandusky claimed he has been falsely accused of crimes. When pressed, the 67-year-old Sandusky said the only thing he did wrong was having "showered with those kids."
Click to expand...

Well, in that case...
 
Jack Tschitt said:
Yay for sexual desire, ruining yet another person's carreer...
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Sexual desire didn't kill all those people's careers.
All those people killed all those people's careers.
Why didn't any of those fuckheads do anything about it? Nobody broke it up, nobody called the police, Christ, what's the victim tally here, 15?
 
Penn State 11' alumni here.

I just want to explain the riot issue. Rioting is kind of a tradition at Penn State. One happens every couple years for one reason or another. The only one I was ever in was the Osama riot which happened in the spring when they shot Osama. It was perfectly peaceful, there were just a lot of people in the streets. I know a van got flipped in this one, but you really have to question the judgment of the people who decided to park it in the middle of Beaver Ave (where riots traditionally take place) after saying bad things about Joe Paterno all day.

Personally I absolutely think Joe Paterno (among many others) should be held to some level of accountability, but I do feel the need to defend my student body. The news probably didn't report on it, but last Friday night, 10,000 students came out for a candlelight vigil in support of the victims.
 
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