Topic: Penn State Scandal (Read 10950 times)

Büge · « **on:** November 08, 2011, 08:19:53 PM »

Turns out there's a big sex abuse scandal going on at Penn State University. Jerry Sandusky, the assistant coach for the football team, has apparently been raping boys for the last couple decades (in some cases, through a camp he'd helped establish for troubled youth) and the administration has been turning a blind eye to the matter.

He's been arrested, but the fact that this has gone on for so long, is sickening.

Büge · « **Reply #1 on:** November 08, 2011, 08:32:47 PM »

Oh yeah, and the head coach, Joe Paterno, pretty much tries to backpedal out of responsibility.

Ocksi · « **Reply #2 on:** November 08, 2011, 08:40:05 PM »

It's actually kind of an insane story. Deadspin has been all over it, of course; their most interesting feature was a full length article about the absolute power Penn State athletics have in State College, PA, and the entire state. This has apparently all been reported before, but no one fucks with the Nittany Lions, I guess? The head coach of Penn State's football team (Joe Paterno) is one of the most beloved figures in the history of college football. He was told in the late '90s, apparently told administration, and left it all as it was. Very strange, awful stuff going on in this case.

Bal · « **Reply #3 on:** November 09, 2011, 09:55:10 AM »

And then there was the ever present football coaching rapist.

Ziiro · « **Reply #4 on:** November 09, 2011, 10:40:39 AM »

Re: Power of Penn State Athletics:

Daria - "It is my privilege today to once again send the message that learning is no substitute for winning."

Jane - "And that it's not how hard you study, it's how hard you play football."

Zach · « **Reply #5 on:** November 09, 2011, 01:25:56 PM »

The most surprising part about college athletics to me was discovering the people who're paid to stand outside classrooms and make sure the student-athletes attended. It's not the most aggravating or disturbing (cf. several posts ago) element, but certainly the most surprising.

Pacobird · « **Reply #6 on:** November 09, 2011, 01:51:31 PM »

I'm actually surprised at how little talk there's been about it; to say Joe Paterno is an icon in collegiate athletics is about as big an understatement as you could make.

Then again, it doesn't really look like anyone's avoiding the issue. I guess I should find it relieving that all anyone's got is to shrug and say, "yes, this is Joe Paterno we're talking about, but there's absolutely no way anyone could or should be able to walk away from this."

EDIT: Oh, nevermind.

Quote

It is not the something that Paterno did that brought him to this fate. It is the something that he did not do to stop Sandusky.

Fuck that. He had notice and took deliberate steps to deflect the issue. You might as well say Nixon didn't do anything to get forced out.

Kayma · « **Reply #7 on:** November 09, 2011, 10:56:15 PM »

Penn State President Graham Spanier announced his resignation effective immediately, whereas Joe Paterno will retire at the end of the season. Needless to say, there was some rioting this evening; to say that Paterno is something of a deity in that place is an understatement. Being an alum, I'd like to believe that Paterno did all he he was supposed to, and that the higher ups covered it up... but I have a very hard time believing that.

I'm looking for athletic director Tim Curley to get shitcanned and summarily subjected to a heavy dose of book throwing, to say nothing of Sandusky, who is a giant fuck.

François · « **Reply #8 on:** November 09, 2011, 11:11:05 PM »

All the guy had to do was call the cops. Someone's raping kids? You don't report through the chain of command; you ring up Johnny Law.

Joxam · « **Reply #9 on:** November 09, 2011, 11:12:09 PM »

Actually, they fired him. Which is probably the only thing the school can do to save face at this point.

Büge · « **Reply #10 on:** November 10, 2011, 05:42:25 AM »

I wonder what's going to happen to his statue.

Royal☭ · « **Reply #11 on:** November 10, 2011, 06:30:00 AM »

Ashton Kutcher, everybody.

Thad · « **Reply #12 on:** November 10, 2011, 06:51:03 AM »

Rioting in the streets; news van flipped over. (No arrests -- hear that, Oakland?)

Can't begin to understand it. Yes, long and distinguished career, okay, but dude heard his subordinate was molesting kids and let it go.

I suspect it's a jock thing, but then, it's the same kind of nonsense as when people defend Roman Polanski.

As I noted last night, I use ReiserFS. Doesn't mean I think people should cut him some slack on the whole wife-murdering thing. Dude's good at his job, but I wholeheartedly support removing him from it.

Pacobird · « **Reply #13 on:** November 10, 2011, 07:07:14 AM »

Quote from: Thad on November 10, 2011, 06:51:03 AM

Can't begin to understand it. Yes, long and distinguished career, okay, but dude heard his subordinate was molesting kids and let it go.

I grew up in blue-collar (if not necessarily rural) Pennsylvania; my sister went to undergrad at Penn State.

No, you cannot begin to understand it.

TA · « **Reply #14 on:** November 10, 2011, 07:11:11 AM »

I wonder if there are any sort of mandatory reporting laws that would be relevant. Not that they'd bring him up on 'em.

Pacobird · « **Reply #15 on:** November 10, 2011, 07:12:13 AM »

I'd be more concerned about civil liability than a criminal investigation if we're gonna talk about lawyering up.

Kashan · « **Reply #16 on:** November 10, 2011, 07:12:53 AM »

Quote from: Thad on November 10, 2011, 06:51:03 AM

Rioting in the streets; news van flipped over. (No arrests -- hear that, Oakland?)

Can't begin to understand it. Yes, long and distinguished career, okay, but dude heard his subordinate was molesting kids and let it go.

I suspect it's a jock thing, but then, it's the same kind of nonsense as when people defend Roman Polanski.

As I noted last night, I use ReiserFS. Doesn't mean I think people should cut him some slack on the whole wife-murdering thing. Dude's good at his job, but I wholeheartedly support removing him from it.

I don't really think it's fair to to compare him to Roman Polanski as Roman Polanski actually sexually assaulted a 13 year old girl, while Jo Pa didn't actually commit any crime as far as I know and at least made a token effort to report a crime. The problem is that's not enough when the crime is sexually abusing kids.

I don't think it's so much a jock thing as a tribalism thing. Sports are very tribalism but obviously it shows up everywhere.

In the words of Gregg Doyel, a sports writer who was covering the riot last night, "There are 20,000 people in the world who don't understand Joe Pa had to go. And they're on Beaver St, tipping cars."

Pacobird · « **Reply #17 on:** November 10, 2011, 07:26:07 AM »

I think the best way I could describe it is to point out the fact that the second biggest city in Pennsylvania after Philly is Pittsburgh, which iirc has about 300,000 people. After that, it's Allentown with 120,000 and then Erie (where I grew up) with about 100,000. The state as a whole, however, has just short of 13 million people. It's one of the most rural in the country, and there's simply not a lot to do other than follow football.

Joe Paterno's career should speak for itself, but it's hard to really grasp this reaction unless you understand what life in Pennsylvania is actually like. The other fly-over states in which I've lived like Michigan and Arizona are like fucking Milan compared to it.

Right in the middle of this is State College. It's a beautiful little town, 100 miles from anywhere; getting to Pittsburgh or Philly is a 3-hour drive. To call it "sleepy" and "sequestered" doesn't quite do it justice. 35,000 undergraduates from largely rural and blue collar backgrounds live in a town that is seriously cut off from any reality not immediately relevant to the culture and community of that town, and that culture is Nittany Lion Football. I am not at all surprised by the rioting.

Thad · « **Reply #18 on:** November 10, 2011, 08:24:05 AM »

Quote from: TA on November 10, 2011, 07:11:11 AM

I wonder if there are any sort of mandatory reporting laws that would be relevant. Not that they'd bring him up on 'em.

He reported it, he just never followed up. I think his ass is covered.

Quote from: Kashan on November 10, 2011, 07:12:53 AM

I don't really think it's fair to to compare him to Roman Polanski as Roman Polanski actually sexually assaulted a 13 year old girl, while Jo Pa didn't actually commit any crime as far as I know and at least made a token effort to report a crime.

Well, yes.

My point isn't so much the severity of the infraction (you'll note I also compared him to a convicted murderer who only got away with second-degree because he plea-bargained in exchange for telling the family where he hid the body), it's the instinct to defend the infraction based on the guy's skill at his job.

Quote from: Kashan on November 10, 2011, 07:12:53 AM

I don't think it's so much a jock thing as a tribalism thing.

Precisely.

Mongrel · « **Reply #19 on:** November 10, 2011, 08:28:47 AM »

I haven't really been following the details, but someone just showed me that this case got even weirder:

The DA who was originally investigating the case from 1998 onward literally disappeared in 2005 (and his computer was found in a river!). Then the new DA still took from 2006 to now to file charges

I mean, I'm sure it's far more likely that the DA disappeared for another reason, probably in relation to some other case he was looking at, but man, the conspiracy crazies are goin' to town on this one.

News:

Author Topic: Penn State Scandal (Read 10950 times)