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Paterno getting the boot at PennState

TurtleDude

TurtleDude

warrior of the wetlands
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Just heard on local news (home with a sinus mess) Channel 9, WCPO Cincinnati, that Paterno will not be back next season due to the sex scandal
 
That is a shame. While I may not be a fan of his or his team, according to the news articles I have seen, he did what he was supposed to do. It was supposedly brought to his attention and he passed the information on to those on the athletics board who were the ones who didn't take action. Should he have taken more actions himself? Where there even avenues and means for him to take other actions? These I don't know. I guess he could of also reported it to law enforcement.
 
The man was an institution at that institution, so with the amount of times things happened in the locker room as its alledged its hard for me to think he didn't have at least a feeling that something was off. And for him to know of it happening and taking the absolute bare minimum that was required to him...and then thinking nothing more of it after no action was seemingly taken...just to me speaks to character a bit. But then again, NOTHING involving college football and character EVER surprises me. This is the institution who shrugged off a coaches irresponsable obsession for an edge leading to a kid dying. Its an institution that comes down hard on kids for selling things they own, while at the same time delaying punishment to make sure the bowl game they're making a ton of money off of is still appealing.

It stinks that a legend like Paterno is going to end his legacy on something like this, but he had the chance to make that not be the case...he could've gone to the authorities when it became obvious those above him weren't taking action with regards to Sandusky.
 
Not be back next season? That's not good enough, IMHO. He should be out of there before this weekend's game against Nebraska.
 
StillBallin75 said:
Not be back next season? That's not good enough, IMHO. He should be out of there before this weekend's game against Nebraska.
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i heard the incident was brought to the attention of the local prosecutor, who declined to bring charges.....if so, what more could joepa do?
 
randel said:
i heard the incident was brought to the attention of the local prosecutor, who declined to bring charges.....if so, what more could joepa do?
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I heard that JoePa reported it to the athletic director, but not law enforcement.
 
StillBallin75 said:
I heard that JoePa reported it to the athletic director, but not law enforcement.
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correct, what he reported to the athletic director was 'hearsay', nothing that paterno had seen or witnessed personally, is my understanding. the AD reported it to law enforcement, and the prosecutor declined to bring charges...at least that is how i have heard it.
 
Wow, what a shame. But, really, a lot of people kept their mouths shut about this for a long time. Predators do not change. Paterno should have fired the guy long ago, then reported him to the authorities (since he also participated in non-college youth programs). Ignoring the elephant in the room didn't turn out well.
 
randel said:
correct, what he reported to the athletic director was 'hearsay', nothing that paterno had seen or witnessed personally, is my understanding.
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Correct. He reported an eye witness account from a coaching assistant.

the AD reported it to law enforcement, and the prosecutor declined to bring charges...at least that is how i have heard it.
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Odd that it'd go to a prosecutor, not the police, isn't it?
 
Zyphlin said:
Correct. He reported an eye witness account from a coaching assistant.



Odd that it'd go to a prosecutor, not the police, isn't it?
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something definitely isnt right with the situation, just sad that paterno will probably pay the price, have a such a storied career tarnished right at the end by this. ....if he had personal knowledge of any incidents, and didnt do anything, than he most definitely should resign.
 
DVSentinel said:
That is a shame. While I may not be a fan of his or his team, according to the news articles I have seen, he did what he was supposed to do. It was supposedly brought to his attention and he passed the information on to those on the athletics board who were the ones who didn't take action. Should he have taken more actions himself? Where there even avenues and means for him to take other actions? These I don't know. I guess he could of also reported it to law enforcement.
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If some one tells me that they saw first hand a young child being molested, I am calling the police, not his boss at work.
 
Zyphlin said:
Correct. He reported an eye witness account from a coaching assistant.



Odd that it'd go to a prosecutor, not the police, isn't it?
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It's odd that JoePa would report to it to the athletic director when he's pretty much the most powerful guy on campus. Nominally the coach reports to the athletic director, but JoePa's not just any coach.
 
Love him or not...he deserved to get the boot...the abuse had been reported to him...
 
I'm trying to wrap my mind around what it is the man did wrong? He got wind of a problem. He reported the problem to his superiors. The superiors took it to local law enforcement (i.e. prosecutor) and the prosecutor is the one that denied any action. How is that Paterno's fault? He did exactly what he was supposed to do.
 
ksu_aviator said:
I'm trying to wrap my mind around what it is the man did wrong? He got wind of a problem. He reported the problem to his superiors. The superiors took it to local law enforcement (i.e. prosecutor) and the prosecutor is the one that denied any action. How is that Paterno's fault? He did exactly what he was supposed to do.
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He's not guilty of any criminal wrongdoing - there's no "mandatory reporting" law in Pennsylvania - but everyone involved, starting with assistant coach McQueary, the original witness, should have gone straight to the police first instead of waiting around for superiors to act. Also prosecutors =/= law enforcement.
 
StillBallin75 said:
He's not guilty of any criminal wrongdoing - there's no "mandatory reporting" law in Pennsylvania - but everyone involved, starting with assistant coach McQueary, the original witness, should have gone straight to the police first instead of waiting around for superiors to act. Also prosecutors =/= law enforcement.
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What did they do wrong? The police knew. You don't just walk into a prosecutor's office and say "hey, we got this guy...". The prosecutor got involved because there was a police report. There had to be.

What do you think a prosecutor does?
 
ksu_aviator said:
What did they do wrong? The police knew. You don't just walk into a prosecutor's office and say "hey, we got this guy...". The prosecutor got involved because there was a police report. There had to be.

What do you think a prosecutor does?
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There had to be? Then what exactly is the reason the AD and VP are being charged as well for attempting to seemingly cover this up? Is it unheard of that possibly a local prosecutor possibly went along with burying this thing because god forbid you cause problems in Happy Valley?

No one is saying that Paterno did anything illegal. But "wrong"...yes, I think if you have one of your coaching assistants DIRECTLY seeing him ****ing a kid in the ass you don't just go to your superior, you go to the cops. And even if a prosecutor decides it'll be too hard to prosecute, you surely don't leave the person ON YOUR STAFF for another year.

Somehow Jim Tressel knowing his players got some free tatoos is worthy of 5 games and his eventual termination, but doing the bare minimum under the law when you find out your D-Cordinator is ass-raping a 10 year old in your teams lockerroom is something that college football should shrug off. Then again, as I said earlier, I don't claim to understand what these schools, the conferences, or the NCAA are going to do or think when one coaches negligent actions even got a kid KILLED and that resulted in absolutely nothing.

College Footballs just a beast and this is just one more tentacle of it, and 3 months from now it'll be ignored just as all the others are.
 
Zyphlin said:
There had to be? Then what exactly is the reason the AD and VP are being charged as well for attempting to seemingly cover this up? Is it unheard of that possibly a local prosecutor possibly went along with burying this thing because god forbid you cause problems in Happy Valley?

No one is saying that Paterno did anything illegal. But "wrong"...yes, I think if you have one of your coaching assistants DIRECTLY seeing him ****ing a kid in the ass you don't just go to your superior, you go to the cops. And even if a prosecutor decides it'll be too hard to prosecute, you surely don't leave the person ON YOUR STAFF for another year.

Somehow Jim Tressel knowing his players got some free tatoos is worthy of 5 games and his eventual termination, but doing the bare minimum under the law when you find out your D-Cordinator is ass-raping a 10 year old in your teams lockerroom is something that college football should shrug off. Then again, as I said earlier, I don't claim to understand what these schools, the conferences, or the NCAA are going to do or think when one coaches negligent actions even got a kid KILLED and that resulted in absolutely nothing.

College Footballs just a beast and this is just one more tentacle of it, and 3 months from now it'll be ignored just as all the others are.
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No body is shrugging it off. You just misassigned the blame. Paterno did what was right. He cannot help that the system didn't do its job. What more could he have done? Shot the guy himself?
 
Idk the facts of the case. But I do know that sometimes people can be responsible for events even when the events are not their fault and even when they have done all that they could do. Perhaps this is one of those cases?
 
ksu_aviator said:
No body is shrugging it off. You just misassigned the blame. Paterno did what was right. He cannot help that the system didn't do its job. What more could he have done? Shot the guy himself?
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Called the cops himself?

If legal to fire in Pennsylvania without cause, fire him.

Stop associating with him, stop letting him use the facilities.

Joe Paterno was the most powerful person on that campus with regards to athletics. There's no reason all he could've, or should've, done was report it to the AD and that's that.

Paterno isn't to blame for it happening, he's not guilty of it happening, but based on the facts that have came out so far morally I think there's a big gaping hole there.
 
Paterno reported what he was told. That's good. However, when Paterno saw nothing was being done, he should have taken the allegations to the authorities. These are children we're talking about, abused children, including the report from a witness who saw a 10-yr-old boy being raped.

Paterno deserved to be fired. However, so does his boss to whom he reported the abuse, and so does every damned person at that university who was told about the allegations and did nothing. I'm betting there are a ****load of 'em, too. They're using Paterno as a fall guy to save their own asses. I hope the authorities investigate all the way to the top, find out who knew what, when they knew it, and what they did or did not do. Then start writing up arrest warrants... by the dozen if need be.
 
From what a person from Pennsylvania that's on the beat said on the radio today, apparently during a press conference or something the prosecutor in the case was asked about Paterno and if he would face any legal issues and he said no. When they asked him about the President of the university he gave no such assurance. So while I have an issue with Paterno's actions, his is low on the culpability scale compared to a lot of the others who actively seemingly tried to sweep it under the rug rather than just mostly ignored it.

Also, I knew I had a littel family connection to this but it is actually more than I realized. My uncle (through marriage) actually began his coaching career as a grad assistant under Jerry Sandusky. My cousin is also a WR for Penn State right now, with his position coach being Mike McQueary...the guy who apparently saw the act and reported it to Paterno. He gave the WR's a heads up in practice today that he may very well be gone very shortly, so things may simply be going on behind the scenes and not announced yet.

As a note though, I must retract something I said earlier. The abuse was happening prior to him retiring, but the abuse that McQueary saw happened in 2002...after Sandusky was retired. So its not like Paterno could've fired him because he already was fired. That said, Paterno could've disallowed him from continuing to use the facilities freely (and I go back to, could've called the cops direct).
 
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It looks like it is possible(though maybe unlikely) that Paterno could face criminal charges: Did Penn State's Joe Paterno break law in Jerry Sandusky case? - Michael McCann - SI.com

While Pennsylvania Attorney General Linda Kelly says that her office won't file charges against Joe Paterno for not reporting the alleged child sexual abuse by former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky, the 84-year-old coach could eventually face criminal charges for perjury, obstruction of justice and violating the state's Child Protective Services Law. Paterno could also become a defendant in civil lawsuits filed by Sandusky's alleged victims. Those lawsuits could allege that Paterno negligently failed to prevent a third party with whom he had a supervisory relationship (Sandusky) from committing abuse.
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randel said:
correct, what he reported to the athletic director was 'hearsay', nothing that paterno had seen or witnessed personally, is my understanding. the AD reported it to law enforcement, and the prosecutor declined to bring charges...at least that is how i have heard it.
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He did what was legally required. But some feel there was a moral responsibility to do more than that. I do understand that thinking, even though I respect his career and am sadden he will end with this cloud over him.
 
Paterno deserves to take a hit to his reputation on this one, but my bigger problem is with the assistant.

He witnessed a young boy being raped in the shower, went home and talked to his dad about how he should handle it, then the next day told Paterno.

that guy is not getting the negative publicity he deserves, if it was me, I would of found the closest blunt instrument available and ended the rape on the spot.
 
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