It seems as though anyone with both a computer and a television is being required to write something about the events at Penn State, so allow me to fulfill my obligation. The few days since the news first broke have been nothing other than unbelievably depressing. Every new piece of information released shines light on someone else who dropped the ball. By all appearances, dozens of people were given information which should have set off alarms and I'm yet to see a story of one of those people doing the right thing.
I've never had anything against Joe Paterno. In fact, I've always had great respect and admiration for the way he appeared to do things. I also do not think Paterno is a monster now. I don't know exactly what he knew, but I think it's clear that he found out something that should have concerned him more than it apparently did. The university isn't obligated to keep him as the face of its biggest program just because he didn't break a law. Paterno's main role at this late point in his career was as a symbol of the right way to do things. In this most important of cases, his actions were nothing to be exemplified. The fact that his inaction likely led to the suffering of so many children is enough to justify his termination.
Questions still linger about what Paterno and others in the program really knew. You and I don't know what information people had, so it's not wrong to hesitate instead of rushing to judgement. Reading the grand jury report (a stomach-churning 23 pages, by the way), it is clear that plenty of red flags were raised. Enough was found out for administrators to ban alleged rapist Jerry Sandusky from the Penn State campus. That might be the worst thing for me. How the hell could those in charge see there was enough of a problem that they needed to cover themselves legally but not speak to AND FOLLOW UP WITH police? From the looks of the report, plenty of people heard of multiple instances where Sandusky was at the center of suspicious behavior and never put it all together. Each incident reported looks like something that could have been part of sexual abuse or something that just looked inappropriate coincidentally. The problem here is that once it's happened more than a few times, it's not a coincidence, and deep down those adults knew it.
There is nothing wrong with Penn State cleaning house here. Just because someone covered a legal obligation doesn't mean they acted in a way that the university should applaud. The graduate assistant who walked in on and essentially ignored an in-progress molestation should be gone (especially if Paterno is out). Again, just because you covered your ass legally doesn't mean you represented your program well enough to remain in it. The severity of Sandusky's crimes and the platform he used to enact them (it's a lot tougher for a young football player to walk away from a Penn State football coach making promises/threats than to walk away from another adult) are more than enough for Penn State to knock everything down and start from scratch. The football program is going to suffer regardless (would you want your kid going to PSU youth football camps and would you want to play there now if you were a recruit?) and if a few wins have to be sacrificed to save the university at large and send a message that child abuse will not be tolerated then so be it.
There's a message here that may is already being lost in the arguments about the pathetic way Paterno was fired and the sickeningly misguided student riots. Lessons can be learned right now to protect millions of other kids and I'm not sure how many people are paying attention. Parents should not be leaving their children alone with adults they aren't extremely familiar with. If you do leave a kid with an adult for a while, talk to them thoroughly about what they did. Keep an eye out for abrupt changes in behavior and question what the cause of that could be. Be in contact with your child's teachers and coaches and ask to be alerted when someone other than a parent picks a kid up from school or practice. As devastating as this story is, attention can be paid to the details that can help protect future victims.
It's wrong that Paterno and others didn't follow up after initially reporting such serious allegations. It's also wrong that Paterno was fired via a phone call. It's wrong that a few students chose such a poor way to show their coach how much they loved him. It's wrong that a kidnapped baseball player is being kept out of the news because some pervert is plastered on the front pages. It's wrong that Sandusky is too old to spend as many years in jail as he should and it's wrong that he'll probably be put in protective custody instead of getting what he really deserves from the general population. It's wrong that so many kids will never be the same.
What will be more wrong than any of that, though, is if we don't improve as a society because of this tragedy.
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