Assuming all of the allegations and reported tidbits are true, I think I would probably have to agree with firing everyone involved who didn't contact the police. If you see or hear about someone molesting children and don't go to the police, it's both a moral and legal issue. It doesn't sound to me like the coaches tried to cover it up (they reported it to their superiors), but they definitely failed to uphold their moral (and probably legal) duty to report it to the police.
If this was a case of something that isn't extremely morally and legally objectionable, such as an athlete smoking dope or getting his girlfriend pregnant, I can understand the desire to handle it in house and keep it out of the media. When children are being harmed and you have information about it and don't report it to the authorities, even if you would lose your job over it, you are not a good person. This is more than a "I need to keep this quiet" CYA event. This is one of the most reprehensible acts in society and should have been reported by every person in the chain that learned about it. That is wasn't speaks volumes about the character of each person involved and would cause me to immediately fire them as well.
I also don't know how you walk in on that and then just shut the door and walk away. It is your responsibility to defend those who can't defend themselves.
While I agree that more SHOULD have been done, Paterno only had a legal obligation to report this "up the line," not to go to the police. Apparently, Pennsylvania is one of a handful of states that doesn't legally require someone to go to the police...but merely to report it to his superiors. I read that the state legislature has been talking about correcting that.
I'm in the camp that wonders, if there was so much evidence against Sandusky, why wasn't he prosecuted?
SHOULD Paterno have also reported the heresay story to the police? Yes, in retrospect, he probably should have, but he had NO PROOF, merely a report.
here are the facts. deal with it.
A graduate assistant in the Penn State football program. testified before the grand jury, and the grand jury found him to be "extremely credible". This grad assistant testified that he literally walked in on Sandusky anally raping a ten year old boy in the Penn State football locker room showers. Right in the middle of the act itself. He even testified that both Sandusky and the child turned and looked at him - in the middle of the rape act.
What did this grad assistant do? He ran away. He ran away from a child in the midst of being raped. The next day he went to Joe Paterno's house and told Joe Paterno what he saw. In this we have the proof that Joe Paterno KNEW what Sandusky was, and he basically let it slide. For this, Joe Paterno deserves not only to lose his job, but he also deserves to spend some time in prison. Aw, but he's a kind old man. That may be. But that "kind old man" let a man whom he KNEW to be a child rapist have the run of his football facility until JUST LAST WEEK.
What crime would you charge Paterno with? He followed the letter of the law in reporting what he had been told to his superiors/campus police.
Again, I don't see that Paterno KNEW Sandusky was a child rapist...merely that he had heard ONE account that was never prosecuted.
Yes, if Sandusky is convicted, he should be summarily executed. I have a strong dislike for child molesters...but I'm not one to round up a lynch mob merely on accusations and rumors.
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