Penn State happenings

UGAChemDawg wrote: Sandusky deserves to rot in prison for this.

However, to say Joe Paterno, a man who literally gave his life to the university, is a pedophile enabler is just wrong. An error in judgement does not negate all the good he has done and he does not deserve to go out like this. He should have been allowed to finish out the season.

If he actually believed that what Sandusky was accused of was true, he would have suspended him and gone to the authorities.

A graduate student came up to him and told him that someone he had known and trusted for a long time was doing something evil and perverted. Of course he isn't going to believe the graduate student! He reported the incident to his superiors as required, but the fact that the graduate student didn't react more strongly at the time he saw the incident taking place would naturally lead one to conclude that he is lying.

Hindsight is always 20/20 but Paterno certainly was not intentionally trying to cover up a crime or protect someone he knew was molesting children, which is what he is being accused of.

Hear what you're saying, but let's look at it this way. Suppose you and I had coached together for many years and had built a mutually-trusting friendship. If someone came to me and said, "hey...I just thought you should know that ChemDawg was doing inappropriate things with a child in the locker room" the FIRST thing I would do is hunt you down to either a) let you know that someone was spreading vicious lies about you, or b) kick your @$$, boot you to the curb and then call the cops to come pick you up if it was true. Instead, whether it was to protect himself, his program, or his "friend" Sandusky, he made a HUGE error in judgement that indirectly allowed these disgusting things to continue to happen. I'll agree that standing by and doing nothing, which it appears is what Paterno did, doesn't make you a pedophile but it sure as hell makes you just as much of an enabler as anyone else involved.

UgaChemDawg - my mom cheating on my dad is one thing, or someone embezzling money is one thing, but raping a 10 year old boy in a shower is WILDLY another thing! Here is some good advice . . . if ANYONE tells you someone is raping 10 year old boys, CALL 911. Do not EVER shrug THAT off.

Honcho and wlayton are 110% correct!

UGAChemDawg wrote: Sandusky deserves to rot in prison for this.

However, to say Joe Paterno, a man who literally gave his life to the university, is a pedophile enabler is just wrong. An error in judgement does not negate all the good he has done and he does not deserve to go out like this. He should have been allowed to finish out the season.

If he actually believed that what Sandusky was accused of was true, he would have suspended him and gone to the authorities.

A graduate student came up to him and told him that someone he had known and trusted for a long time was doing something evil and perverted. Of course he isn't going to believe the graduate student! He reported the incident to his superiors as required, but the fact that the graduate student didn't react more strongly at the time he saw the incident taking place would naturally lead one to conclude that he is lying.

Hindsight is always 20/20 but Paterno certainly was not intentionally trying to cover up a crime or protect someone he knew was molesting children, which is what he is being accused of.

No one is accusing Paterno of intentionally doing anything other than intentionally not doing
enough. I don't buy your reasoning he automatically wouldn't believe the assistant. What pray-tell
would be the motivation behind the assistant making something like that up, and then going straight
to one of his closest colleagues with it? There is ZERO motivation in that, and that is what
would make no sense at all. With the way Paterno ran that place, that would be career suicide.

Tell me this... if he didn't believe the assistant, why would he continue to employ someone who
had brought up such obviously false allegations against his trusted friend and fellow coach?
No... he didn't fire the assistant at all. Would you continue to employ someone who you thought
brought obviously fake accusations of this magnitude against a trusted friend?

This crap started in 1998 when the first allegations occurred. 1999, Sandusky abruptly retires
despite being at the top of his coaching career. Many people report that between point A and
point B, that for some unknown reason, Sandusky is told by Paterno he will not be taking over
whenever he decided to retire.

Then in 2002, a graduate assistant comes with more allegations, and absolutely no logical
reason to just make it up. He isn't fired or reprimanded in any way. If what you surmise about
Paterno is true.. if he thought the graduate assistant was lying about a trusted friend and program
benefactor... he would have fired HIM on the spot.

Oh and just for the record... this graduate seeing him naked in the shower with a 10 year old
boy occurred in 2002. Sandusky retired in 1999. What exactly was Paterno going to suspend him from if he believed the accusations were true and why the hell wasn't the graduate who made up false allegations reprimanded in any way?

If Paterno concluded that the graduate assistant was lying, then he is guilty of having his
head stuck in the sand for a long time, and JoePa didn't stick his head in the sand regarding
anything involving Penn St. Plus that implies that Good ole JoePa sure has a funny way of
dealing with graduate assistants who bring baseless charges of child molestation against
a trusted friend and coach.

Paterno did a lot of wonderful things for Penn St university. Unfortunately that has no
relevance here.

Wartdawg, apparently quite a few young people and Penn State die-hards believe Joe Paterno didn't deserve to be fired because he needn't have done more than he did. Thank goodness the President of United States Steel agrees with you and me and many others on this forum . . . Joe Pa had to go.

wlayton wrote: First of all, when it comes to TEN YEAR OLD CHILDREN, it certainly DOES negate what Paterno has done for the school if he had knowledge of what happened....don't be so naive that he didn't know what happened.

Secondly....how do you know how the graduate assistant acted when telling Paterno?? Nobody witnessed their meeting, just Paterno's take on it to the AD. I certainly don't buy it that Paterno told the AD that he didn't know any details on the incident.....the first thing out of ANYBODY'S mouth would have been...."what did you see"? Paterno had a moral and ethical obligation to make sure the info had reached the authorities, either by the administration or if they dropped the ball, by himself.

Yes sir, you are absolutely right Brother. Much more to come out of this. The group that released the President and the Head Coach know much more. This thing did not start one or two days ago.

UGAChemDawg wrote: Sandusky deserves to rot in prison for this.

However, to say Joe Paterno, a man who literally gave his life to the university, is a pedophile enabler is just wrong. An error in judgement does not negate all the good he has done and he does not deserve to go out like this. He should have been allowed to finish out the season.

If he actually believed that what Sandusky was accused of was true, he would have suspended him and gone to the authorities.

A graduate student came up to him and told him that someone he had known and trusted for a long time was doing something evil and perverted. Of course he isn't going to believe the graduate student! He reported the incident to his superiors as required, but the fact that the graduate student didn't react more strongly at the time he saw the incident taking place would naturally lead one to conclude that he is lying.

Hindsight is always 20/20 but Paterno certainly was not intentionally trying to cover up a crime or protect someone he knew was molesting children, which is what he is being accused of.

Amazing.