Chiming in from happy valley, AND I work with kiddos
I loved JoePa as much as the next person, but he seriously let us down here, and it's depressing. I hate the thought of his ending his career like this, but at the same time he failed us all, as a human being, in a big way.
As part of the school, I believe that makes him what we call a "mandated reporter" - regardless of how he felt about Sandusky or if he even BELIEVED McQuearly, it was his job to report the incident (probably to childline or just straight up the police). Even if he isn't a mandated reporter (which how he would escape that is beyond me), it's just his duty as a person... especially one we've expected moral greatness of for so long.
And no, if you're not part of the Penn State community, you'll never "get it"
but here's the best thing I've read so far:
We need to talk about sexual abuse.
Like most of you, I’ve spent the last three days obsessed with Penn State. I’ve read all the news articles and Facebook posts and Tweeted my heart out. There’s been debate about who stays, who goes, who knew what when, who was at fault. There’s been a lot of talk about how to restore Penn State pride.
But no one is talking about sexual abuse.
Paterno is gone. Spanier is gone. Even still, I bet that there is at least one pedophile currently in the Penn State system. I can guarantee that within the next weeks, more children will be sexually abused in State College.
Because listen: if Joe Paterno can’t be counted on to be a totem of moral clarity and decisive action, how many other people do you think fall short?
The conclusion to draw from these horrific crimes is not that Penn State is less good than we once thought it was. The conclusion should be that if a sexual abuse case of this magnitude can happen at Penn State, we have a serious, serious problem on our hands.
I’ve read numerous variations on the idea that the men involved in this scandal don’t represent the school or its ideals. That’s ridiculous. They were out there every day, building the Grand Experiment, promoting Penn State as a place where values matter. They believed it, with every fiber of their being.
It’s also wrong to say they did everything they were expected to. One sick man did horrible things, and a lot of good men let it happen.
The shorthand for this scandal is that Paterno, Curley, Spanier and Shultz said, “Well, Sandusky is a child molester, but we’ll keep it under wraps because we don’t want to embarrass the team.†To write that script makes easy villains and allows us to play the moral hero.
But time and time again, studies show that people confronted with sexual abuse are unable to do the right thing, unable to process the scope of the crime. They take the information they have and rationalize it. They compartmentalize. They try to put it out of their head.
To think that way is weak. It’s cowardly and selfish.
It’s also not unique to Penn State.
We as a society just cannot comprehend child sexual abuse. It’s awful. It’s barbaric. It’s unspeakable - so much so that we just don’t speak about it. We cannot believe it goes on in our neighborhoods; we cannot comprehend that it could happen under our noses. It takes 12 years of abuse and a major criminal investigation to get us to pay attention.
When we do pay attention, we address the individual actors: cast them as aberrations from the rest of society, proudly declare that we would do differently in their shoes.
But child sex abuse keeps happening. Good people keep turning a blind eye. Institutions keep finding themselves without a framework to handle a crime of this magnitude.
That the narrative of the Penn State Scandal thus far has focused on the past, on the big-deal firings without any emphasis on how to prevent sexual abuse in the future, is a travesty – but it’s not unexpected.
Which is why I can’t get on board with the scapegoaters, who say that firing everyone and bulldozing Beaver Stadium is the only way to make this right. That answer lets us block off the part of our hearts where Penn State – abuse and all – once lived, and therefore feel like we've addressed the issue. (We haven't.)
I also can’t support the cheerleaders, who insist that a little major crimes and the ‘mistakes’ of a few men shouldn’t get in the way of bleeding blue and white as usual. That answer allows us to cut the abusers and enablers out of our Penn State experience. It allows us to continue adoring our school as if things haven’t changed. (They have.)
This is a big, scary, problem, and I understand the impulse to pick a side, to decide immediately that you are with Penn State or against it. But there is grace in the inbetween: in fear and anger mixed in with pride and love. In wallowing in how awful and confused you feel, in letting yourself be depressed and distraught, in thinking that JoePa failed in a big way but still wishing he could coach that last home game.
Our school is in a tremendous position to take the lead on a problem that is severely under-discussed in this country; to move beyond the clichés and damage control and start making a big difference in how we as a society deal with sexual abuse. Of all the schools in the nation, I think Penn State is uniquely equipped with the courage, honesty, and generosity required to go forth and make change.
This is going to be a long process. It’s going to require leadership and kindness and the ability to hear some hard truths and ask some awful questions.
There’s no comfort in knowing that the exact same pattern that played out at Penn State has played out over and over again in similar cases, but there is redemption in trying to break that cycle.
(by Kate Dailey)