The Tragedy at Penn State
I'm sure I'm not the only one in America who is stunned by the recent events at a once proud University - Penn State. You expect to hear things about boosters giving players money or players getting free cars and tattoos but this? Outside of the abuse that Mr. Sandusky dished out to young boys there is the obvious complicity of their venerated coach Joe Paterno. Known as "JoPa" in Happy Valley he is nothing short of a living legend around the school.
But as the story begins to come out it has become clearer and clearer that Mr. Paterno knew that something had gone on and that something was probably still going on and he did nothing about it. Any attempt on his part to feign ignorance will sound false and unbelievable at this point.
You simply cannot work that long with another person without picking up on certain clues. Sandusky took some of these kids on road games with him - no concerns here? So now you have all these clues laying around and then a graduate assistant and his father come into your office and tell you that he personally witnessed Sandusky having anal sex with a ten year old boy in the locker room showers. So even if Paterno had been obtuse enough to have missed the clues up until then, what's his excuse after this?
Reporting it to his boss? From everything I've heard Joe Paterno for all practical purposes IS the boss at Penn State. So it's probably more likely that he had a conference with "his boss" and the two of them decided to keep it all in the Penn State family. That is flat-out criminal negligence.
Too bad that instead of being sent to jail for a few days he will probably be given honorary retirement. I hope he realizes that outside of his very tight football family he's not likely to be welcomed anywhere else. No more trips to the White House JoPa!
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