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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Penn State and Joe Pa
Does anyone else have a Facebook newsfeed full of people upset that he was fired? Some of my friends are trashing the Board for firing him via phone, and most are upset that he should have been allowed to finish out the season. Quite a few think that he didn't deserve to be fired, since he wasn't the molester.
Did I miss something here? The articles that I'm reading say that he downplayed the report of sexual abuse to his boss, lied under oath, and basically all around hindered the justice process, while children suffered.
Enlighten me, I'm baffled as to why anyone thinks he should have been left in his position...
Re: Penn State and Joe Pa
I don't think I could remain friends with someone who is upset about JoePa being fired. W.T.F??!! There is no excuse for his actions (or lack there of).
It's f*cking football...people need to get some perspective. Good lord.
The whole situation is sickening. I think there are a lot of questions about what Joe Paterno did or didn't do. He was told about one alleged incident. He reported the allegations to university officials, and it's pretty clearly documented that those officials did nothing. The police also got involved at one point, but they didn't pursue their investigation. Sandusky was told by police not to take any more showers with young boys, but he wasn't arrested or anything. WTF?
I'm not sure what to think. If someone I barely knew came to me today and told me that a good friend of mine, who I'd known for years and years, was abusing children, I probably wouldn't believe them. I'd think they were making sh!t up for some twisted reason. I'd report it, but I'm sure I would give all sorts of disclaimers about how I was reporting it out of an obligation to do so, but I had no reason to believe the allegations were true, etc. Then I'd let other people, who are far more qualified than me, investigate the allegations. I think there are a lot more people who did far worse things in this situation than JoPa. That doesn't mean he shouldn't be held accountable, but he's like number #50 on the list of people who were wrong. He's just the most visible name.
By the way, I don't care at all about Penn State or college football in general, so that has no bearing on my opinion.
St. John, USVI
I want them all fired.
I read the indictment and I wish that I could erase those words from my mind. I am so disgusted by McQueary - a grown man who WITNESSED another man anally raping a 10 year old and walked away. Every time I think of that poor little boy seeing another adult and probably thinking that someone was going to help him, and then nothing happened, it makes me want to cry.
If I ever walked into a room and saw an adult raping a child, police would be called - not only to arrest the rapist, but probably to pull me off of him and keep me from beating him to death. What kind of monster do you have to be to have your first instinct when you see a child being brutalized be to call your father? Especially when you are a young, strong man.
I am glad the trustees did what they did, but there are many more firings that have to happen.
And the students who are rioting are disgusting.
ETA - here is a link that shows a picture of McQueary. You can't tell me he couldn't have stopped Sandusky from raping that little boy. http://content.usatoday.com/communities/campusrivalry/post/2011/11/mike-mcqueary-joe-paterno-penn-state-practice/1
THIS. I couldn't believe some of the stories I was reading this morning about students supporting Joe Pa and rioting over his firing. REALLY? You're right. Football is MUCH more important.
This.
It's all such a shitty situation that should have been handled better.
I feel horrible for the kids, the students, and Joe Pa.
Joe Pa was an amazing coach and did so much for Penn State, it sucks to see him go down like this.
We make the rockin' world go 'round.
I think Paterno, the graduate assistant, the athletic director, the president, etc... should all have the book thrown at them. Lock them all away. None of them went to the police- the guy was having sex with a 10 year old in the shower- and they all allowed more children to get abused. They were looking out for themselves and the school and no once were they looking out for the kids who Sandusky had access to because of his charity!
it is disgusting.
This is sort of how I feel. Did he make a morally ambiguous decision about not following up on the allegations and going to the authorities. Probably, but he did follow the letter of the law unless there is new info that I've missed.
Sexual abuse is so easy to allege. When my brother taught high school, a girl threatened to make up allegations that he abused them if he didn't change her grades. He reported the girl to the principal and counselor, but he also had to go through an internal investigation to ensure there was no abuse.
And while Sandusky is clearly guilty, what my brother encountered is really common. So if your long standing friend who you have only observed as an upright pillar of society is accused would you pursue it outside of the legal and ethical obligation which Paterno had to report to his superior. I don't know.
The eyewitnesses are a different story. It's morally reprehensible that they did not step in to stop it let alone not reporting it to the authorities. It reminds me of the outrage around the world for no passerbys saving the toddler in China. I have no idea how they sleep at night.
The one article that I read made it sound like Paterno was told exactly what happened - anal rape in the shower - and told his boss that it was basically inappropriate behavior. I forget the quote, but while it COULD include anal rape, it also could include fondling or patting. I'll try to find the article. Thats why I was upset - it seems like he deliberately downplayed it.
I think many other people in this story are at fault, some more so, but since he's such a well-known figure, well, thats the way the media goes.
The other thing to keep in mind is that in 1998 the university police investigated a claim from a mother that her son was being molested by Sandusky. The case was dropped after an investigation.
How four years later this shower incident happened and no one saw a disturbing pattern emerging is beyond me. The higher-ups in the unversity had to know about the 1998 allegation and investigation when the next incident came to their attention and they basically just told Sandusky "don't bring kids here." That is unbelievable and rotten to the core.
It will take years for the university to recover from this. In my mind, the Board took the neccessary steps to take charge and start addressing this honestly and immediately.
My mom's entire family went to Penn State and are huge football fans (my grandparents met there, so did two of my aunts and uncles, my mom, all of her siblings and all of my cousins on that side went there)
I haven's seen anyone support Joe Pa. Everyone has been silent or vehemently opposed him and the handling of this situation. The whole thing makes me sick.
Want to know why are the rage focused on JoPa? Because JoPa had one chance to actually use his God-hood for something good, right, and meaningful in this world and he made the choice do the absolute minimum required by his university and hoped it would just go away.
There is rage against Sandusky, there is rage against the coward of a GA, there is rage against all the adults involved. But it's Penn State, it's Happy Valley, PA. If JoPa wanted the truth to come out and the future victims of this monster to be spared, he's the one person that could have made it happen. And instead, he did just what he had to do to cover his own ass. And continued to preach about holding himself to a higher standard.
exactly.
people are outraged at the McQueary for not doing something to stop what he witnessed. the guy was a gutless coward. but he was a lowly graduate assistant. Joe Paterno is like the king of PSU and he knew (because this wasn't the first allegation) that Sandusky was up to something awful and he did nothing to make sure that these horrors weren't continuing. he did nothing in order to cover his own ass and to protect the reputation of PSU football. apparently the legacy of an effing football team was more important to him than protecting young, vulnerable children. it's sick and there is no excuse whatsoever for his apathy.
I couldn't disagree more. I don't care if he invented football. he willfully turned a blind eye to the horrible abuse of young children. he deserves zero sympathy.
i love you.
seriously, people who are upset about JoePa leaving football have only one person to blame, and it's JoePa himself. the whole situation is just sick.
I agree 100%. However, the graduate student who witnessed it should be in big trouble too. He did nothing to stop it and did not call the police. I don't know how he sleeps at night. I guess back to my original point- everyone who knew about it and did nothing should be going to jail for crimes against children.
Like, I don't know how the 2 apple store employees who heard the woman from lululemon screaming and did nothing can sleep at night.
What is wrong with people???????????????????????????
I don't have sympathy for him. It sucks that he's 84 and has a shitstorm to deal with (albeit, one that could have been avoided). That's it.
I do agree that there was more he could have done, theres a lot of a bunch of other people should have done too. It's not just him.
And like victoria1212 said - it's like the people at the apple store during the Lululemon murder. They could have done something - but they didn't.
We make the rockin' world go 'round.
I'm late to this but I just wanted to chime in on this point. Sure, if someone came to you and told you that someone you have known for years and was very close to was abusing children you might be tempted to call B.S. But that isn't what happened. It was reported REPEATEDLY over a NUMBER of years that Sandusky was being inappropriate (to say the least) with young boys and JoePa repeatedly chose to do nothing. Shame on him. If anyone was in a position to do something, it was him.
I'm disgusted with the whole situation, not just JoePa, but everyone involved. I don't know what is wrong with our society in that mutliple people walked in on Sandusky being inappropriate with young boys and NOT ONCE did any of them do something in the moment.