I'm only going to make one post about the allegations that are being brought about this week in the news regarding Penn State. This is a very controversial issue and most people already have sided one way or another, but I would just like to make a few comments on it in a place that I can say whatever I please.
Concerning the firing of Jo Paterno:
Why is Joe Paterno the only man who got fired from these allegations? When Mike McQueary informed Paterno of what he had seen the night before, Paterno told the athletic director. McQueary still has his job, there isn't nearly the backlash or bad press against him and he's the one that actually saw what happened! The athletic director isn't in the news as much or all over twitter with the outrage that people are showing towards Paterno's actions (or lack thereof). How does McQueary still have a job when it's been pretty clear that he is the one that saw what was happening, did nothing to stop it when he walked in on it, waited until the next day to tell Paterno, and made no efforts to take this issue to the police?
If Paterno had gone to the police when he had heard these accusations, it would have only been hearsay and would not have been enough to cause an investigation to occur. Paterno could not take the information to the police. He had no evidence. Why did his superiors not take this issue to the police? If you were in his position, would you not have trusted the higher-ups to look into this issue and notify the proper authorities?
Let me just give you an example, this is a huge over simplification, but hopefully it will help me convey my point: You hear about a coworker stealing office supplies one day at work. What do you do? You tell your direct supervisor. After talking to your supervisor, you feel like you handled the situation well and you expect them to handle it, don't you? You don't call the owner of the company to inform him of your coworker's theft, that would be perceived as going above your supervisor and you would feel severe repercussions of this action. And what if this wasn't actually happening? You make not only yourself look bad, but also your coworker and your supervisor because it shows you don't trust them to handle the situation.
Sexual abuse is a very serious issue, I am not trying to liken it to the same type of offence as something as trivial as stealing office supplies. I'm hoping that you all can see my point, Paterno took the action that he thought was necessary. He told the people that he thought would handle it. He didn't have any knowledge about what happened until McQueary brought it to his attention. Paterno did not just sit on this information, he did notify the athletic director, Tim Curley, and expected Curley to look into this issue and handle it properly. Curley notified the university's senior vice president, Gary Schultz, who did nothing. Why did neither of these men do nothing? And where is the outrage for their inaction? They either returned back to retirement or just "stepped down". No criminal charges, no firings, no public out cry. And McQueary? He still has his job.
This entire situation is absolutely horrendous. Because of the inaction of several men, a sexual predator was allowed to continue harming innocent children for years. But the fact that a good man was targeted by the media and public and made into a scapegoat for the entire university is wrong.
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