Joe Paterno is NOT a Fall Guy

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you’ve undoubtedly heard about the Penn State sex abuse scandal.  I read the whole Grand Jury report on Tuesday and I’ve been disgusted and outraged since then.  If you haven’t read it, here’s the link.  Let me warn you, this is the most disturbing thing I’ve ever read. I’ve actually told people who ask me if they should read it not to.  Normally I tell people to be as informed as possible but honestly, the details of the child rape in the report is enough to bring you to tears.  If you are a parent, have small nieces and nephews or just have a hard time reading about grown adults failing abused and molested kids….then you don’t want to read this.  I’m serious, it’s a heartbreaker.

Now to get into why I’m writing this.  I ranted about this on the last podcast, but things have taken a turn since then.  Last night Penn State’s board of trustees informed the public that the President of Penn State Graham Spanier resigned and that legendary football coach Joe Paterno was fired.  Most people who know about what happened, and particularly those that read the Grand Jury report think that was the right thing to do.  However some people seem to be under the impression that Joe Paterno is wrongly taking the blame for the whole scandal. Last night Penn State students rallied (rioted) in support of Paterno. Paterno himself, along with his son, seem to be pretty defiant in saying that Joe Paterno did nothing wrong in this case.  Honestly, I can’t believe Paterno and his family are that out of touch.  I can’t explain to you just how stupid and lost these students and anyone else who thinks Paterno is getting a raw deal here are.

Let’s get one thing straight from the beginning:

Joe Paterno is NOT a fall guy.

A fall guy takes the complete blame for a situation when there are others involved.  Sandusky, the sick pedophile has been arrested and charged.  Paterno’s direct superior Tim Curley the Director of Athletics at Penn State has been charged as well as the Senior Vice President for Finance and Business, Gary Schultz.   Three of the main culprits have been arrested and charged…that does not mean Paterno was a scape goat.  He’s not taking all the blame and he’s not coming close to even getting the toughest penalty.  No, Paterno was fired because while he legally met all of his obligations in this matter, morally, there was no way he could be allowed to keep his job.  Paterno was informed in person by a graduate assistant that he had witnessed Sandusky raping a child.  Joe Paterno’s only action in the matter was to inform his immediate “superior”, Tim Curley about the incident.  While that is legally all Paterno had to do, for a man of Paterno’s status and position to do the bare minimum when it came being informed that a child was raped in his locker-room by his former assistant coach, his actions (or lack of action) is completely morally reprehensible.  I played Football and Basketball in High School.  Coaches aren’t just the guy on the sideline with the headphones and clipboard.  For many, they are the father figure of the entire team.  In the case of Joe Paterno, a college coach, parents trust this man to take care of their young men who are going off to college, many away from home for the first time.  When it came out, that this father figure and role model was told about a child being raped by his former assistant coach and he did the bare minimum about it, that compromised his role as a leader, father figure and mentor.  There is no way to reconcile that and for that reason he could not be allowed to keep his job.  It’s clear as day. While what he did was legal, his role on campus was undoubtedly compromised by him doing so little.  And when a person is no longer effective at their job, they are fired.  Because we expect more of people in positions of educator, social worker, coach, etc., what Joe Paterno did (or didn’t do) compromised his effectiveness at Penn State.  Period.

Now, Paterno is getting a lot of the focus (and rightly so) because he is the biggest name associated with Penn State.  He had knowledge of a crime that took place and did only enough to cover his own ass legally.  But don’t mistake people talking about Paterno as if he’s the only one here who is on the hook.  There was a surprising lack of commitment to protecting these young boys from a predator by grown ass men.  There’s Joe Miller, the High School wrestling coach who saw one of the victims and Sandusky “laying on their sides, in physical contact, face to face on a mat.”  Even though he thought it was “odd” that Sandusky would claim to be showing the child “wrestling” moves when he wasn’t a wrestling coach, he still apparently didn’t report it. There was Jim Calhoun, Ronald Petrosky and the rest of the janitorial staff who failed to report Sandusky for having oral sex with a boy in the Penn State showers.  Calhoun actually witnessed the event, told the rest of the staff and collectively decided that if they talked, they might lose their jobs so they said nothing.  Jay Witherite was Calhoun’s immediate supervisor and was told about the situation, told Calhoun who he could report it to but didn’t call the cops.  Not one of them said a word.  Hell, Witherite didn’t even want to report the incident himself and he was Calhoun’s supervisor.  He told Calhoun to report it himself.  What kind of cowardly act is that? Speaking of cowardly….

Mike McQueary

Mike McQueary is the 28 year old football graduate assistant who actually caught Sandusky having anal sex with a young boy in the Penn State locker-room showers.  Instead of stopping the rape or at the very least immediately calling the cops, McQueary called his father.  Yes, a 28 year old grown man saw another grown man raping a child and instead of acting to stop the rape or immediately contacting the cops, he called his dad.  A grown ass man.  McQueary’s father then told him to report what he saw to Paterno.  So now that’s 2 grown ass men, not calling the cops.  After McQueary met with Paterno in person, Paterno then called Tim Curley.  So now that’s 3 grown men who either witnessed or were informed about child rape who didn’t immediately call the cops.  After informing Curley, Paterno apparently never followed up (another reason he’s getting so much heat).  McQueary did meet with both Curley and Schultz and told them what he had witnessed and they told him they would look into it.  So now that’s 5 grown men who didn’t call the cops immediately.  McQueary was later told by Curley that Sandusky’s keys to the locker room were taken away.  McQueary witnessed a rape and the only action taken was to take away Sandusky’s locker-room access as if the biggest problem was that Sandusky was using the Penn State locker-room improperly and not that he had raped a child. It was at this point that McQueary could have redeemed his previous unmanly acts of not calling the cops by going directly to the cops himself.  But he didn’t.  Now, he’s working as a coach at Penn State and will probably be on the field this coming Saturday which is truly absurd.  How he lives with himself, I do not understand.

All in all I feel that everyone involved, from obviously Sandusky/Curley/Schultz to Paterno and McQueary, all the way down to the Janitors who were more worried about their jobs than the safety of a child, should be fired and or prosecuted.  From what we know, Paterno did enough to protect himself from being legally responsible.  But this investigation is still fresh and the fact that it went on so long means there could be more cowardly acts brought to light.  There are no winners in this and the only real victims are the poor children who were raped.  Joe Paterno isn’t a victim here.   At best, due to his old age he was just too incompetent to really know what he needed to do morally to make sure this situation stopped immediately.  At worst, he’s a coward…too concerned with his own reputation and record to take time away from focusing only on football to follow through on his obligation as a mentor and a father figure to young men who look up to him.  Students at Penn State who want to thank Paterno for giving them great years as a football coach are welcome to do that.  But to ignore the fact that his inaction really makes him look like a horrendous individual with a questionable moral compass really sheds light on how a predator like Sandusky can get away with such a horrific crime.  Mediocrity is never really acceptable and mediocrity when it comes to the safety of kids is reprehensible. The fact that some people don’t get that really tells me the future of our kids is really in jeopardy.