What the hell is it with men and their dicks?

[Kitchen Princess]

Fuck going to the police! Why didn't he take a fucking baseball bat to Sandusky's head and get him away from the kid? That's what pisses ME off the most!

[Deleted12]

All of this, plus how the hell did McQueary show up to work with this pedo every day for years?

Like, the first time I went back to school and saw Sandusky there I would be like "Oh HELL no."

(Oh, and to clarify: I didn't mean for the OP to sound like all men everywhere will cover for rapists and creeps, I just meant to say that TOO MANY men will cover for rapists and creeps.)

[Letgo]

I think the big difference is that in the second case, Cash was not acting in any official capacity. He could have argued that he was afraid or whatever, which makes it difficul to prosecute.

The guys at Penn State are mandated reporters who for years knew about the problems and did nothing, letting more and more people be victimized. It was not a one-time thing where they felt helpless and scared and made the wrong decision.

Thank you, emmiedahl. I didn't know college coaches/administrators would be mandatory reporters. I knew those working with children are, but not those around college age kids. It should not take being a mandatory reporter to call the police when you see a child being raped by an adult. This situation just makes me more outraged every day.

[StarrieEyedKat]

Fuck going to the police! Why didn't he take a fucking baseball bat to Sandusky's head and get him away from the kid? That's what pisses ME off the most!

This times a million.

[dawbs]

Thank you, emmiedahl. I didn't know college coaches/administrators would be mandatory reporters. I knew those working with children are, but not those around college age kids. It should not take being a mandatory reporter to call the police when you see a child being raped by an adult. This situation just makes me more outraged every day.

They all aren't.

I work for a college and I specifically was employed to do our k-12 outreach things...so specifically hired and vetted to work with kids at a college.

I'm not a mandated reporter.

Now, if I ever saw something, I'd pretend I thought I *was* one (and if I reported it to my boss, boss would make sure it was dealt with appropriately--I trust my immediate supervisor, even if I don't trust all the way up the chain), but, officially, I'm not a mandated reporter.

[margiebargie]

What I don't understand about the PSU situation-

Ok, there's a chain of command. Fabulous. But HOW, in YEARS of this happening, did no one decide to follow up on stuff? I still place a ton of blame on the grad assistant-he saw it with his OWN eyes. Was he afraid that he'd lose his position for going to the police? Sue the school if that happens.

How 8-10 kids' parents/siblings/teachers/doctors/friends, etc didn't notice anything. Yeah, teenagers have behavior issues sometimes. My dad wasn't the greatest, but he noticed when something was wrong. I can't believe that only 1 parent admitted they noticed "something", but did nothing about it.

The story I saw today (http://t.co/UfWhmK92) about the Pittsburgh dad protesting outside the game-that broke my heart. Verbally and physically assaulted by drunk students and fans because he wants to make them *think*. According to the man, only one person came up to him to say he agreed with his signs. Hundreds, if not thousands, probably watched a few dozen bad people attack this man...did nothing about it.

My heart hurts with what this society has become.

That is terrible. My dh and I are both huge college football fans. We loved JoePa until this. He's someone we really admired. It's very disappointing, and its not something we want to believe. But there's just too much credible evidence not to believe it. A true fan would push their school to be better, not attack people who expose wrong-doing. Gawd, our society is messed up, isn't it?

Apparently, there is a similar situation at the Citadel. I hope this isn't wide-spread like the Catholic church scandal.

[Hane]

My dh and I are both huge college football fans. We loved JoePa until this. He's someone we really admired. It's very disappointing, and its not something we want to believe. But there's just too much credible evidence not to believe it. A true fan would push their school to be better, not attack people who expose wrong-doing. Gawd, our society is messed up, isn't it?

Apparently, there is a similar situation at the Citadel. I hope this isn't wide-spread like the Catholic church scandal.

The Joe Paterno situation reminds me of the way higher-ups in the Catholic church handled reports of sexual abuse during the John Paul II papacy. One said he didn't bring the situations to the Pope's attention because "it would break his heart." Yeah--the man is the spiritual head of one of the largest denominations on earth, but he's too delicate a little flower to man up and take action against a vast and grievous wrong against the most powerless?

[margiebargie]

The Joe Paterno situation reminds me of the way higher-ups in the Catholic church handled reports of sexual abuse during the John Paul II papacy. One said he didn't bring the situations to the Pope's attention because "it would break his heart." Yeah--the man is the spiritual head of one of the largest denominations on earth, but he's too delicate a little flower to man up and take action against a vast and grievous wrong against the most powerless?

Yeah. That's ass-backwards. We have to protect the pope's/head coach's dainty little heart now?

Penn State is making official moves to show solidarity with the victims. They had a moment of silence for the victims at the game, and wore blue ribbons as a show of support. Hopefully, they'll keep going forward with that attitude and eventually change the culture at the school.

[TheSassyOne]

I was reading on another forum regarding the Penn State allegations where many posters voiced this opinion: "Yes, of course this is an outrage. But what about the employee about to retire who reports this type of incident and then it "doesn't get prosecuted" and somehow that person ends up being "laid off" all of the sudden. It would be so difficult for him to procure another job, etc. So maybe it would be best to just report it to a higher up on the food chain and walk away." Some even post about how "mature" children are today....yeah, I'm not even going to finish that one.

I just don't understand this type of thought. If it meant I would get railroaded out of my job, I would still step up and do the right thing. Especially when we're speaking of children, I just cannot understand not wanting to do everything within one's power to protect a child from harm.

Did anyone see Franco Harris this morning on the news? He was defending his longtime Coach and friend Joe Paterno. Here are some excerpts:

Harris criticized state police commissioner Frank Noonan for saying Paterno had a "moral obligation" to contact police when told of the incident.

"When I heard that, it blew my mind," Harris said. "Why would they bring the moral into the legal? Now, everyone gets to interpret in their own way. That's what really bothers me: Joe did what was right for him to do. He forwarded the information to his superiors. That's the legal procedure at Penn State.

Oh and this gem from the paper on Friday:

I feel that the board made a bad decision in letting Joe Paterno go," Harris told the Tribune-Review's Kevin Gorman. "I'm very disappointed in their decision. I thought they showed no courage, not to back someone who really needed it at the time. They were saying the football program under Joe was at fault.

"They really wouldn't give a reason. They're linking the football program to the scandal and, possibly, the cover-up. That's very disturbing to me. I think there should be no more connection to the football program, only in the case that it happened at the football building with an ex-coach

I truly worry that this type of abuse of children is so pervasive within most aspects of our culture [let's be honest, it's not limited to certain religious {or non religious}, ethnic or economic groups] that more and more people just turn the other way. It used to be a family's dirty little secret that some in the community were aware of, but nowadays it seems society has decided that kids are the ones at fault or at least are inviting this behavior upon themselves. I can at least remember outrage at people who didn't do their jobs in cases like this, not sympathy - if not outright anger at that audacity of actually holding that person accountable for their inaction!

[Austin]

I was reading on another forum regarding the Penn State allegations where many posters voiced this opinion: "Yes, of course this is an outrage. But what about the employee about to retire who reports this type of incident and then it "doesn't get prosecuted" and somehow that person ends up being "laid off" all of the sudden. It would be so difficult for him to procure another job, etc. So maybe it would be best to just report it to a higher up on the food chain and walk away." Some even post about how "mature" children are today....yeah, I'm not even going to finish that one.

I just don't understand this type of thought. If it meant I would get railroaded out of my job, I would still step up and do the right thing. Especially when we're speaking of children, I just cannot understand not wanting to do everything within one's power to protect a child from harm.

Did anyone see Franco Harris this morning on the news? He was defending his longtime Coach and friend Joe Paterno. Here are some excerpts:

Harris criticized state police commissioner Frank Noonan for saying Paterno had a "moral obligation" to contact police when told of the incident.

"When I heard that, it blew my mind," Harris said. "Why would they bring the moral into the legal? Now, everyone gets to interpret in their own way. That's what really bothers me: Joe did what was right for him to do. He forwarded the information to his superiors. That's the legal procedure at Penn State.

Oh and this gem from the paper on Friday:

I feel that the board made a bad decision in letting Joe Paterno go," Harris told the Tribune-Review's Kevin Gorman. "I'm very disappointed in their decision. I thought they showed no courage, not to back someone who really needed it at the time. They were saying the football program under Joe was at fault.

"They really wouldn't give a reason. They're linking the football program to the scandal and, possibly, the cover-up. That's very disturbing to me. I think there should be no more connection to the football program, only in the case that it happened at the football building with an ex-coach

I truly worry that this type of abuse of children is so pervasive within most aspects of our culture [let's be honest, it's not limited to certain religious {or non religious}, ethnic or economic groups] that more and more people just turn the other way. It used to be a family's dirty little secret that some in the community were aware of, but nowadays it seems society has decided that kids are the ones at fault or at least are inviting this behavior upon themselves. I can at least remember outrage at people who didn't do their jobs in cases like this, not sympathy - if not outright anger at that audacity of actually holding that person accountable for their inaction!

That's just depressing. All of it.

What is wrong with people? I just don't get it.

[Crackedeggs]

They were all a bunch of good old boy cronies. Paterno was looking the other way. The loyalty that the students ( and alumni ) have towards that school and this program is disgusting.. I may have put a definite chill on a family relationship over my focal facebooking to fire Paterno. It's amazing to me how people back the molesters.

[starfish]

I completely agree that anyone and everyone should have notified the police when they witnessed Sandusky molesting children. From the beginning of this story I have wondered why no one did. I understand reporting the crime to the head coach, athletic director, etc. That makes sense because the powers that be should know. I would have done so immediately, after I had reported it to the police. But after all of this uproar with no one stepping up to contact the police when he witnessed a crime against a child, what, exactly, are the legal responsibilities required by a witness? Not the moral responsibilities, everyone failed miserably there, but legal ones. And in my opinion, moral responsibility takes precedence over legal, especially because this involved children.

I ask because this case reminded me of one from 1997. Seven year old Sherrice Iverson was raped and murdered in a casino bathroom in Nevada while her father gambled. The rapist and killer, Jeremy Strohmeyer, was with a friend, David Cash, who did nothing except leave the bathroom. I think I read somewhere that Cash might have told Strohmeyer not to do it, but he made no effort to stop the rape and murder and did not turn in the guy. Cash walked away. He even told a couple of friends that he watched Strohmeyer assault the little girl although he later denied that he witnessed the rape and murder. Cash was not prosecuted. In fact, he continued as a student at Cal, where his fellow students, to their credit, shunned him. Apparently, it is not illegal to not stop a crime or to not report it. So why are the men involved in the Penn State case being investigated and charged? Is it because they were mandatory reporters? Is that the difference? I think they should all be charged, but why is keeping quiet legally permissible when Cash did it but not in the Penn State situation? Can any legal people explain this to me?

They could all be prosecuted for the federal offense of misprision, which is not exactly failure to report but more like concealment of a known felony. Assuming the appropriate US attorney's office felt like charging them with it. It's not too difficult to find a federal nexus, and "concealment" is not complicated to prove. The local federal officials could give it a try, at least.