I knew the son of a bitch had a hand in covering up that shit. Fuck Penn State and all the assholes that had a hand in this evil. I hope the victims sue them for everything all the way to the copper in the plumbing of the university's buildings.

http://openchannel.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/07/12/12699159-report-finds-penn-state-president-paterno-concealed-facts-about-sandusky-sex-abuse?lite 

http://www.thefreehreportonpsu.com/REPORT_FINAL_071212.pdf 

And they should kick Penn State's asses out of the Big Ten too.

Paterno got off easy with death - he should be locked up with Sandusky.

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That old fart could have been caught on national tv personally taggin' boys in the ass and this whole state would have said it wasn't him.


It's damn near goofy how the protectionism is here.

We don't have crust in our pot-pie, so we are whack in that arena also.

Could be worse. In Britain they call it a "pudding". Or "pud" for short. Ahem.

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Re: Paterno, other PSU "leaders":

Acton is shown correct, again.

Power corrupts.

Every time.

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While I agree with Wade in part with the Power corrupts statement in this case.. I don't think it covers most of the cause for the cover up.

Fear, IMO, is the primary driver of this cover up.

Fear of bad press.
Fear of loss of revenues.
Fear of affecting the football program.

But most of all fear to address a crime that far to often we as a society have an issue with confronting.

I heard it once on the radio this week.. a person may witness a child being hit with a club and would have no issue with stopping it.. but that same person will cower from putting a stop to sexual abuse of the same child. Is it really that different of a form of abuse? Is there some shame is stopping it?

UW-Madison tried as well to distance themselves for a bit this past year from an incident of the same nature with a much older victim. Finally they told the story of the dismissal of a high ranking member of the athletic department.

They would not have been so delicate with a physical abuse story.. but sexual abuse is somehow even more of a taboo topic.

Why try to hide it or show any compassion towards the aggressor in these cases.. report it, let an independent party investigate it and most of all do everything in your power to stop it.

Or in the end.. is it really a fear about a lawsuit?

If I am Penn State, instead of trying to whitewash the issue into the past.. buck up and use this as a mechanism to actually incite positive change for not only the university but for society as well.

Something in this nature.

We, via those put in charge, committed a number of errors; errors that more than likely destroyed year if not complete lives of the victims. But we vow to never have it happen here again.. and do our best as a university to drive change well past our campus.

Screw worrying about band aid fixes like pulling down a statue... like that is going to invoke change.. instead own up to the mistakes (and yes the pending lawsuits to follow, they are coming one way or another) and truly become an advocate for change.

After all... you are a facility that is suppose to teach and develop. What better way to address this situation than to become a true advocate for change.

They won't more than likely.. they will follow along an let their fears drive them.

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Part of the unique fear when it comes to child sexual assault is because it is such a severe, damaging crime that is about as socially reviled as murder. However, unlike with something as brazen as murder, there's the ability and temptation to cover up sexual assaults.

The victim may feel as though they are at fault, or be afraid of reprisal, or worry that people will judge them, or in a case like this with such a high profile perpetrator, that nobody would believe them and they'd live their life labeled as a liar.

The witnesses and those that had the ability to speak out but didn't are indeed afraid of what will happen if things get out, but since this is such an easy crime to cover up given the effect of the victim, the fear likely took over and they figured they were better off saying nothing, maybe giving Sandusky a private scolding so it didn't happen again.

The sad part is the guy that did it still thinks he did nothing wrong.
The coverup just made it possible for the creep to go on doing what he wanted with no consequence.....till now, that is.
As far as Paterno, it just goes to show you that putting ANY human on a pedestal will sooner or later let you down. It happened in Packer land with Favre, although he didn't do quite as disgusting of things like Sandirtbag did.

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I get the vitriol towards JoePa. I really do. But I can't believe people's reactions towards him are just as harsh OR WORSE than their reactions to Sandusky. McQueary was the fellow that caught Sandusky in the act, and not a single word is said about him. But JoePa? He MUST BURN!

The axe should fall on every single leader at PSU. But I don't think giving the football program the 'Death Penalty' is the best repercussion.

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Yes, I'm sure you're right Formo. [palm]

Let's examine what St. Joe did here. He knew years ago what Sandusky was doing, and chose to protect the program. In doing so, many other little boys had their innocence descicrated by an animal, as Joe had his own statue erected.

If you can't see the horror in that, than I truly feel sorry for you. Fuck Penn State and their football program, and Joe will be judged in the court of public opinion.

I'm not really a big believer in defining moments because people make mistakes and should be given second chances. Joe Paterno did not make a mistake - he made a calculated decision to protect his reputation and that is appalling to most people.

He died too early because he should be indicted himself.

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I think Formo's point is that while the person responsible for the crimes themselves and the people enabling and allowing it are pretty close in terms of their deserved punishment in hell, people seem to be spending a lot more of their time ranting about Paterno than they are Sandusky at this point. Yes, part of that is that the lie has recently been torn off of the Paterno legacy. But let's not lose focus on the perp either.