Yeah... I couldn't leave this at just one post. Remember point 2 from the previous entry? Yep, stewing all night.
There are a lot of Nittany Lions feeling very betrayed out there today -- betrayed by the University, betrayed by the Board of Regents, betrayed by a beloved coach.
But you know what? Our bruised feelings are nothing compared to the betrayal experienced by all of Jerry Sandusky's victims. They win this contest, hands down.
The two men who apparently witnessed these assaults had a choice. Neither of them seemed to consider it a viable option to even shout, "What are you DOING???" to interrupt a rape.
The people to whom these men reported the incident had a choice. They chose to pass on diluted information to higher-ups.
The higher-ups had a choice. They chose to turn a blind eye and merely shove a deviant monster of a so-called-man out the door.
Who didn't have a choice?
Victim 1
Victim 2
Victim 3
Victim 4
Victim 5
Victim 6
Victim 7
Victim 8
And the other victims still coming forward
What should Penn State have done? The instant any allegation popped up they should have dealt with it faster than a defensive player sacking a weak quarterback. You place the perpetrator on administrative leave, investigate thoroughly and in the public eye, file criminal charges, get the victims into treatment, and clean up the mess instead of sweeping it under a rug. You say to yourself, "This situation is abominable. Yes, taking care of it immediately is painful, but dealing with it fifteen years and a complicated cover-up later is far, far worse for the University and all involved."
JoePa held his players to a standard. He put the value of the team ahead of the individual. If he cared enough to bench a first-string player for failing a test, why didn't he care enough about these children? If he's insisting his players live up to a strict honor code, where is his honor? Would he have let his own grandchildren spend the night at Sandusky's house? If he wouldn't have, then he saw the monster and let him prey on innocent children.
Doing nothing, saying nothing is reprehensible. Too many people failed these boys.
So go ahead and feel betrayed that the Board of Regents fired your man. Go ahead and feel betrayed that the actions of a pervert tarnished the record of the best coach in college football.
You are lucky to have that choice.
7 comments:
I had so much of this swirling around in my head, and I was going to write a post about this very same subject.
Yours was perfect. Exactly what I wanted to say.
Wow. Fantastic post! Powerful.
You are exactly right: those boys didn't have a choice, but the adult members of the Good Ole Boys Club did. The rioters do. They are choosing to side with the perpetrators rather than the children who were abused.
Thanks for posting this.
Courtenay again you focus the outrage for us. Thank you for the truthful and ideally healing words that challenge each of us to stand up and ACT when we see something horrifying we would prefer our mind not have to believe and would be EASIER and in some instances personally beneficial to ignore.
I think - I hope - that at least some of the outrage is directed at McQueary still having a job after witnessing an assault and not reporting it to the authorities. Besides the actual assaults, that is what angers me the most. It's a horrible situation.
Amy
This is perfect Courtenay!! I shared this on cafemom.. as there are several people crying about the injustice that was done to Paterno.. pathetic.
Thank you all. As much as I appreciate the comments, I surely wish that I didn't have to write about this because I wish that it hadn't happened.
Amy, I find it beyond comprehensible that McQueary still has a job. Elementary and high school teachers are trained to be mandatory first responders, but there isn't any training mandated for college staff, at least my husband didn't have any when he was a graduate assistant/interim faculty member at Penn State. After hearing of this, I can't understand why. College students rely on faculty and staff for a degree of counseling as most of them are away from home for the first time. If McQueary were a high school coach, he'd have been fired for not fulfilling his duty as a mandatory reporter...
I'm sure the reasoning is that at the time of the witnessed assault, McQueary was subordinate to Sandusky, therefore he wasn't in the chain of command to make a personnel decision. Unfortunately, it appears that he also wasn't in the chain of command to make a personal decision to stop a rape in progress.
While I agree that what happened was a travesty, I just wanted to point out that Sandusky retired in 1999, 3 years before the McQuery incident. So, there was no placing him on administrative leave and Sandusky wasn't in the chain of command above McQ at that time. Also, the grand jury report is a summary and does not include direct quotes of what was said. Paterno did not nec. know that it was child rape, he claims that he did not know the explicit details of what McQ told the grand jury. And, he reported what he did know to the head of campus police.
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