Topic: Penn State Scandal (Read 11460 times)

Thad · « **Reply #120 on:** July 19, 2012, 10:14:21 AM »

CNN has a profile on Vicky Triponey, former head of Student Affairs at Penn State. She worked there years after Sandusky's retirement and wasn't aware of the allegations against him at the time, but she butted heads with Paterno over how to discipline football players and was ultimately harrassed, fired, and shunned for it.

Again, not directly related to the Sandusky case, but pretty clearly relevant to the culture at Penn State and the primacy of the football program over basic decency and common sense.

Miss Cat Ears · « **Reply #121 on:** July 19, 2012, 10:35:36 AM »

Unfortunately this is the culture of most big football schools.

Bal · « **Reply #122 on:** July 19, 2012, 10:45:57 AM »

I hope someone goes all Jebadiah Springfield on that statue.

Shinra · « **Reply #123 on:** July 19, 2012, 11:34:42 AM »

Quote from: Bal on July 19, 2012, 10:45:57 AM

I hope someone goes all Jebadiah Springfield on that statue.

If they don't take it down I imagine a sufficient enough mob to avoid prosecution will probably show up to take care of it. There's a lot of shitkicker rednecks who would gladly give up their children to a monster for the sake of maintaining a football dynasty, but by and large I think the average person would rather Joe Paterno never be remembered for anything but helping Sandusky rape children.

Bal · « **Reply #124 on:** July 19, 2012, 01:49:34 PM »

I'd actually like them to decapitate the statue, and then leave it there as sort of an object lesson in effigy. We don't put heads on pikes at the gates of the city to warn potential traitors anymore, because that's downright uncivilized, but I think a decapitated statue would do just as well and satisfy modern sensibility.

Brentai · « **Reply #125 on:** July 19, 2012, 01:54:48 PM »

The institution needs to make the decision what to do with the statue, not the unaffected citizenry. It's up to PSU to make clear exactly where its priorities lie.

Ocksi · « **Reply #126 on:** July 19, 2012, 06:11:28 PM »

http://achewood.com/index.php?date=09112006

Shinra · « **Reply #127 on:** July 22, 2012, 09:48:02 AM »

Penn State takes down the Joe Paterno statue.

I guess PSU didn't want to be the university that enshrined a man who enabled and supported a child rapist.

The NCAA finally responding to the allegations that PSU staff covered up the initial allegations that allowed these crimes to happen for a decade;

Quote

NCAA President Mark Emmert hasn’t ruled out the possibility of shutting down the Penn State football program in the wake of the scandal, adding that he had “never seen anything as egregious.”

And the Paterno family manages to join their deceased relative in being Horrible People:

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The Paterno family issued a statement only hours later saying the statue’s removal “does not serve the victims of Jerry Sandusky’s horrible crimes or help heal the Penn State community."

More terrible people:

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“I think it was an act of cowardice on the part of the university,” Mary Trometter of Williamsport, who wore a shirt bearing Joe Paterno’s image. She said she felt betrayed by university officials, saying they promised openness but said nothing about the decision until just before the removal work began.

I expect they didn't tell you fuckers because they didn't want a bunch of rabid football fans chaining themselves to the statue of the guy who thought the solution to allegations of child rape was to throw more kids at the child rapist. What was JoePa's goal, to tire out Sandusky until he just didn't have the energy to do it anymore?

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Richard Hill, 67, West Chester, a Penn State alumnus, said, “If you punish the football program or Joe Paterno — they’re tied together — this town is going to suffer. The revenue does an awful lot to keep this town viable and lively.”

Maybe PSU management and Joe Paterno should have thought about that before they covered up allegations of child molestation.

Quote

Colby Walk, 40, who grew up in the Penn State area, wondered why an NCAA punishment was necessary, given the criminal charges, officials fired or forced out, Paterno’s death and now the statue’s removal.

“It’s kind like we already have the death penalty,” he said, referring to the worry that the NCAA would shut down the Penn State football program.

FOOTBALL

Can we get a Madden emoticon please?

edit: updated with maddens. imgur will do for now.

Brentai · « **Reply #128 on:** July 22, 2012, 09:54:11 AM »

I dunno about Horrible People, but it does put into sharp perspective exactly how much the Paternos know about what is actually good for Penn State and what is not. I hope the board there is paying attention.

Shinra · « **Reply #129 on:** July 22, 2012, 10:03:57 AM »

edit:
The statue's sculptor

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“When things quiet down, if they do quiet down, I hope they don’t remove it permanently or destroy it,” Di Maria said. “His legacy should not be completely obliterated and thrown out. ... He was a good man. It wasn’t that he was an evil person. He made a mistake.”

Letting a child rapist continue to rape children for ten years after you knew about it is, and I quote, "a mistake".

Bal · « **Reply #130 on:** July 22, 2012, 10:34:32 AM »

Whoopsie!

Shinra · « **Reply #131 on:** July 22, 2012, 12:28:33 PM »

From reddit:

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[–]Zomodok 344 points 2 hours ago
That statue was 12 years old. Good thing they got it out of there, or Jerry Sandusky would've tried to fuck it.

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[–]slowbiex 32 points 53 minutes ago
to everyone having a problem with the removal of the statue: just look away and pretend it didn't happen.

There's always room for dark comedy.

Quote

[–]dinnertainment 20 points 1 hour ago
I was under the impression that they wouldn't report its removal for awhile

Zaratustra · « **Reply #132 on:** July 22, 2012, 03:11:15 PM »

The best one I heard was a suggestion to keep the statue, just turn it so it's looking the other way.

A² · « **Reply #133 on:** July 23, 2012, 02:29:50 AM »

Flown over Penn State before the decision to take the statue down was made.

Shinra · « **Reply #134 on:** July 23, 2012, 02:43:14 AM »

I posted that on the 18th! But it's still poignant.

A² · « **Reply #135 on:** July 23, 2012, 02:49:45 AM »

So you did. I'm not sure how I missed it, but I am very pleased there's people up there who aren't FOOTBALL FOOTBALL JOHN MADDEN 24/7.

Rumors - and only rumors - are swirling of the sanctions and fines Penn State is going to be slapped with. $30-60m in fines, bans on scholarships, bowl games, and TV profits.

Someone more versed in this explain what a "ban on scholarship" is to penn state, because taken as it's written it sounds like banning students who go there who may or may not be even tangently related to this mess not getting schoalrships from penn state or

I should probably leanr this shit before I go off to real college.

FAKE EDIT: You know, removing the statue completely has set up for the ultimate college prank: Find the statue, and then destroy/deface it. Maybe decapitate it, melt the body down for scrap (donate the money to child abuse fighting foundations), and then put the head on a fashioned pike, plant it in the campus.

Shinra · « **Reply #136 on:** July 23, 2012, 03:01:19 AM »

The fines will serve to offset any fundraising the school has done in the wake of the Paterno scandal, effectively nulling their immediate profit off the suffering of children. The scholarship bans would prevent Penn State from offering athletic scholarships to prospective students, which would basically block them from seeking talent for their team until the sanction is lifted. This is a death sentence to the school's football program - definitely worse than the so-called death penalty because they're still required to spend money to maintain the program, but don't have any means of creating an effective team that can make the school any money from filling seats or fundraisers. The bowl games ban makes it so the serious athletes who COULD afford to pay their own tuition will have no reason to attend school at Penn State, because even if the school did manage to have a good season they couldn't win any bowl games or championships. Lastly, the tv profits ban is obvious - no way for the school to make money off TV airings of the games, effectively making it so that all the school can do is throw money into a black hole with no chance of profit.

If the NCAA really takes all these steps, it's like the equivelant of spraying weed killer on a farmer's crops and salting the earth for good measure. I personally think a better plan would be to simply bar PSU from ever participating in the sport again, but that won't happen. The truth is, the school built a football dynasty and a name on a legacy of child rape and no amount of penance will ever make up for that. If I could shutter the door of the school and put everyone who was ever involved in it's administration in jail, I would in a heartbeat.

Shinra · « **Reply #137 on:** July 23, 2012, 05:24:29 AM »

So the NCAA handed down it's sentence:

* 60 million dollars in fines
* No postseason games for the next 4 years
* Cap of 25 athletic scholarships reduced to 15
* All wins from 1998 onward stripped
* Joe Paterno's Winningest Coach title stripped

The 'death penalty' would have just suspended them from playing for a year. This really is way worse. A minimum of four years of irrelevance.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/23/us/pennsylvania-penn-state-ncaa/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

Good on the NCAA for understanding some things are more important than

FOOTBALL

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/07/23/source-penn-state-to-be-hit-with-fines-in-excess-of-30-million/?hpt=hp_t1

The big 10 is getting ready to file their own sanctions against Penn State. The 60 million in fines from the NCAA is going to an endowment to prevent and detect child abuse. The postseason ban even extends to championship games. Penn State has to give all their existing athletes the option to transfer to another school. This really is the end of their football program.

WHY COULDN'T JOE PATERNO HAVE LIVED TO SEE THIS HAPPEN?

Bal · « **Reply #138 on:** July 23, 2012, 09:31:13 AM »

Wow, they are going to be a fucking shell of a sports school after this. Every kid with a future in sports, and many others besides, are getting the fuck out of there. It's too bad we already have a thread for this, because this is the most cheerful news I've read all week.

Mongrel · « **Reply #139 on:** July 23, 2012, 09:42:02 AM »

They're fighting it.

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According to ESPN and other media organizations, NCAA president Mark Emmert has elected to issue sanctions on Monday (July 23, 2012) against Pennsylvania State University, including a loss of scholarships and a multiple-year bowl ban. If the media reports are true, then the NCAA has charted an unprecedented, and perhaps unconstitutional, course of action. Federal and state courts have consistently held that membership organizations, including athletics associations like the NCAA, are required to provide procedures that protect their members against arbitrary and irrational action. Thus, an NCAA rule or decision cannot be applied unreasonably so that it creates different classes of schools. Accordingly, any NCAA sanction against Penn State at this stage may potentially violate federal and state notions of due and fair process for several reasons, including, but not limited to:

The conduct of Penn State and its employees, no matter how egregious, is not a violation of an existing NCAA rule. In fact, according to available information, the NCAA has never interpreted, or issued sanctions under, existing rules to address only criminal violations (or the cover-up of criminal violations). Further, the NCAA has chosen to make criminal activity an NCAA rules-violation in limited circumstances (i.e., Bylaw 10.2 (Knowledge of Use of Banned Drugs) and Bylaw 31.2.3.4 (Banned Drugs))—and the activities described in the report by former FBI director Louis J. Freeh are not addressed in the NCAA Division I Manual.
The NCAA did not establish and publish a process and procedure to address the issues relevant in Penn State’s case. Instead, the NCAA is utilizing an ad-hoc process that has not been explained fully to the membership or the public.
The NCAA is not adhering to its existing enforcement processes and procedures.
The NCAA is treating Penn State differently than other schools that were involved in sexual assault scandals or other serious criminal misconduct.
The NCAA failed to provide Penn State: (a) a written notice of allegations; (b) an opportunity to respond to the notice of allegations; (c) a hearing before an NCAA infractions committee to address the allegations; and (d) a process for an appeal of NCAA findings and sanctions.

As legal counsel for colleges and universities before NCAA committees, we are extremely concerned about the possible NCAA actions and urge the organization to comply with its existing processes and procedures to address the Penn State sexual abuse scandal. In addition, based on our review of the Freeh report, the issues facing Penn State are best left in the expert hands of the criminal and civil courts, the federal Departments of Justice and Education, the Pennsylvania General Assembly and the relevant accrediting agencies.

The Michael L. Buckner Law Firm will issue a comprehensive statement on its blog (http://michaelbucknerlaw.wordpress.com/) after the NCAA announces the Penn State penalties.

I think there's some validity to the question of "At what point is the harm to people who had zero involvement in this greater than the need for restorative/retributive justice against the people who were responsible and the institution that enabled such people?", but this ain't the way of addressing that question.

News:

Author Topic: Penn State Scandal (Read 11460 times)