Even though I am not a huge PSU fan (I don't bleed blue and white), I have grown up in the shadow of Beaver Stadium. Joe Paterno has been the football coach at Penn State for my entire life. Some of my fondest childhood memories are of going to Penn State Football games with my Dad. He is an alumni and he loved to park on campus and walk to the stadium with a thermos of hot chocolate to share while we walked. Penn State has always been a university with high standards. To see this type of scandal drag it down is heartbreaking.
When the first allegations were made against Jerry Sandusky in 1998, the district attorney at the time ruled there was not enough evidence to bring charges against him. Did authorities at PSU or within the Second Mile organization know of these allegations? Would there be a moral obligation on the part of the police or the district attorney to inform these institutions of a potential problem so they could remove a possible pedofile from any contact with children or was this a legal no-no? Here is where the village failed the children the first time.
In 2002, a grad assistant witnesses another incident which is disturbing to him and he takes it first to his father and the next morning, to his head coach, Joe Paterno. Joe follows the reporting procedure and takes it to his athletic direcctor and campus police, all PSU employees. The athletic director does not report the incident outside the universtiy. The village fails the children a second time.
In 2008, a temporary custodian witnesses another incident which is emotionally upsetting to him. He discusses it with his co-workers and takes it to his supervisor who instructs him to take it to higher authorities. He doesn't. The village fails the children again. This failure ranges from 1998 to 2010. We are only just beginning to see the damage this man has done over the span of years that the village was continuing to fail.
Last week I attended a very timely in-service where a representative of Children and Youth talked about reporting these types of incidents. She explained that you are required by law to report an incident of abuse to your superior, BUT at the same time you can elect to simultaniously report to Children and Youth and law enforcement on your own. To protect yourself, you should also document the reporting of the incident in writing and time stamp it. Maybe if some of the witnesses to these crimes would have known this and or followed it, the village would not have failed so miserably. Anyone who works with or around children and is part of the village should open their eyes, keep watch and do whatever they can to protect the most vulnerable of us all, because they can't protect themselves and it is up to ALL OF US.
Nice piece by another person who grew up "in the shadow of Beaver Stadium". I also went to games for years with my father starting at the beginning of the Paterno era; being at those games with my father were some of my favorite memories of my childhood. JoePa set a high standard and we, as members of the community, were proud of that standard and of our community and university. To now see the public mocking of JoePa's standard and PSU in the mass media and by people who are so eager to judge is truly heartbreaking.
ReplyDeleteYes, it makes me sad to know that this is what our area will be remembered for when others in the country hear the name Penn State. So much good has been erased so quickly.
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