But, after passing it onto his superior at what point did it become his responsibility again. I understand what you’re saying, but I guess my question is why did the “buck” stop at Paternal only and not, also, his superior?

That’s a good point, and well taken. I guess the problem I’m having is that in the court of public opinion the buck has stopped at Joe Paternal. The assistant that allegedly (I say allegedly because the allegations have not yet been proven in a court of law – not that I don’t believe it happened) witnessed the abuse did no more than Paternal did, fulfilling his “legal” obligation, and yet he remains employed at Penn State as a coach. Did he not have the same “moral” obligation to do more that Paternal did? After all he supposedly witnessed the act.

I agree that the local authorities, not just campus police, should have been notified and this should not have been swept under the carpet by Paternal’s superior who handled it “internally” in an attempt to keep it all hush, hush. I am of the mindset that ALL involved should have done more.

I think both of you have been misinformed by the media. here are the facts as per grand jury testimony.

Joe Paterno only found out about sandusky via Mike Mccreary the day after Mccreary witnessed the shower incident. Mccreary, a big strappin lad of 27 did not call the campus police, nor did he try and stop the creep, he called his father who advised him to get the heck out of there. the next day he went to see paterno at his home at the end of the day. He told Paterno that he witnessed coach sandusky doing something “inappropriate” with a young boy in the showers. Paterno told him it needed to be reported and set up a meeting for him with curley and schultz who was in charge of the campus police. the campus police force is considerably larger than the State College police force and would have been more than capable of being a first responder. They then reported to spanier university president. Paterno was not present at these meetings. It is generaly assumed that this information was passed on to the board of trustees but not proven. this was in 2002.

lets see, Mcreary, his father, schultz, curley, spanier all had detailed info of the perv.s act but not only did nothing, said nothing but actually tried to cover it up. Yet somehow Paterno is the villain and gets fired by the same board that was informed in May of last year about the grand jury investigation of sandusky and yet still allowed sandusky access and did nothing.

it is not only probable but likely that in Paterno would have asked curley how the sandusky thing was going and was told it was taken care of. it is not in Paternos nature to throw anyone under the bus and even to his last day never lashed out at the university or the board members that fired him.

in hine sight could he have done more?, should he have done more? yes, but at the time he did report it to his superiors and the head of the campus police which is exactly what was expected of him.

this is a guy who reached out to mothers of the columbine masacre to offer anything he could to help. he donated money anomously thru a church to help a former player who had trouble paying his childs medical bills. he was one of the lowest paid coaches of any major college football program at 500,000/year yet has donated over 4 million $ back to PSU and not for the football program including a fellowship, library, money for sanduskys victims etc. he pushed a player who blew out his knee so bad his football career as a freshman was finished. Paterno pushed him to keep his grades up, recomended him into law school and now is in our defense dept. he called a player into his office a year after he finished his eligibilty to yell at him for taking fluff courses just to graduate. this is a rare breed of coach, one who truly cares about the student more than the player, and won’t forget them long after they have graduated and moved on. this is not the guy the media has portrayed just to get ratings. that firing litteraly killed him. i only hope that the alumni continue on their mission to oust everyone of the board, including the governor of PA. everyone of those rat ####### who covered this up and blamed Paterno.

Paterno had no authority to suspend someone who no longer worked for the university. you realy don’t put any blame on all those others who had the ability to stop this dead in its tracks????????? let’s just blame Paterno the guy who had the least amount of information about what was going on.

hows about we use an example, lets say someone who works under you comes and tells you they saw an employee [one whom you new for 20 years and belived to be very honest] doing something dishonest but would not give specifics. as per your company presidents policy you direct him to go directly to the director of operations and the head of security and report him. you even make the appointment for him. afterwards you were told it was being taken care of. years later you find out after that employee was arrested he had been embezling for 20 years. you are shocked and fingers are pointed your way for not stopping it. then the president of your company fires you for not doing enough even though he himself was told years ago what was going on. now everyone in your business field is talking about how bad you screwed up and that you should have gone directly to the police and maybe you should even pay the company back for what the guy embezled after you were told he was doing something dishonest.

now i know there is no real comparrison to the dispicable perverted acts of sandusky here, i am only trying to make a point that Paterno did not deserve all the crap heaped upon him while seemingly ignoring those who are truly responsible for not stopping it sooner.

Here is the deal….

If I had been in Paterno’s position in this matter, I would have considered myself to be guilty.

I would make all the excuses I could, and argued them out with myself, and come to the obvious conclusion…..

He knew about it, and did not do what he should have done.

Infroming his superiors is the right move. But, when they fail to finish it up, while finding enough evidence to restrict him from being around children at work, he needed to force the next step.

Is he legally guilty of anything? Probably not.

But he is guilty.

Is the blowback fair? I think it is.

There are no winners in this case, just tragedy for everyone involved.

you are kinda proving my point. i too am a cubmaster and if it is at a scout sanctioned event you are directed to immediately inform those in charge of the event, if not a sanctioned event you are to inform the local authorities aT ONCE. if you are told anything by a child you are NOT to question him but to go directly and report it.

if i were at our local scout camp and i was told someone saw something “inappropriate”, i would go right to the scout office in camp and report it. according to the media i should be tarred and feathered for such an action based on their attacks on Paterno.