Let’s get this out of the way immediately: Sandusky is the focus of the investigation. The main story is about the children and the heinous actions that they were subjected to. Sandusky will have his day in court but the stories about Penn State and Joe Paterno have an immediacy factor to them and that’s why they are being talked about and reported on. Trying to figure out and understand why nothing more was done to protect these kids and others when they knew. That’s why this is a major story, it’s not about football or athletics, it’s about why these adults didn’t do more when they had knowledge. Sundusky will see his day in court down the road. However, as a sport management graduate and an avid sports enthusiast I’ll focus on Paterno and Penn State in this “blog” post.
Below I have linked to a couple of things I think everyone should check out about this story, but let’s start with the testimony of McQueary and Paterno. What will follow in quoted text is disturbing and disgusting, just fair warning:
On March 1, 2002, a Penn State graduate assistant (“graduate assistant”) who was then 28 years old, entered the locker room at the Lasch Football Building on the University Park Campus on a Friday night before the beginning of Spring Break. The graduate assistant, who was familiar with Sandusky, was going to put some newly purchased sneakers in his locker and get some recruiting tapes to watch. It was about 9:30 p.m. As the graduate assistant entered the locker room doors, he was surprised to find the lights and showers on. He then heard slapping sounds. He believed the sounds to be those of sexual activity. As the graduate assistant put the sneakers in his locker, he looked into the shower. He saw a naked boy, Victim 2, whose age he estimated to be ten years old, with his hands up against the wall, being subjected to anal intercourse by a naked Sandusky. The graduate assistant was shocked but noticed that both Victim 2 and Sandusky saw him. The graduate assistant left immediately, distraught. The graduate assistant went to his office and called his father, reporting to him what he had seen. His father told the graduate assistant to leave the building and come to his home. The graduate assistant and his father decided that the graduate assistant had to report what he had seen to Coach Joe Paterno (“Paterno”), head football coach of Pemi State. The next morning, a Saturday, the graduate assistant telephoned Paterno and went to Paterno’s home, where he reported what he had seen.
Let’s pause here. HE JUST LEFT!? This isn’t a teenager who witnessed this, it was a TWENTY-EIGHT year old man and he did NOTHING to stop a young boy from being raped in the shower. Disturbing, disgusting, cowardly and many, many more words to describe this. I’m a skinny man who has never been in a fight before but I don’t care how big and strong anyone else is because if I saw this happening I would immediately try to stop it with all that I have in me. But this “man” turned and went to his daddy and NOT UNTIL THE NEXT DAY reported it to someone in power. I would like to think you would immediately call the police that a young boy is being raped. This is so mind-boggling and depressing.
Joseph V. Paterno testified to receiving the graduate assistant’s report at his home on a Saturday morning. Paterno testified that the graduate assistant was very upset. Paterno called Tim Curley (“Curley”), Penn State Athletic Director and Paterno’s immediate superior, to his home the very next day, a Sunday, and reported to him that the graduate assistant had seen Jerry Sandusky in the Lasch Building showers fondling or doing something of a sexual nature to a young boy.
This immediately stinks of of cover-up. I doubt he said “something of a sexual nature” when he saw what he saw. This just smells that he didn’t want to say what he was told. And that’s just my personal opinion.
Approximately one and a half weeks later, the graduate assistant was called to a meeting with Penn State Athletic Director Curley and Senior Vice President for Finance and Business Gary Schultz (“Schultz”). The graduate assistant reported to Curley and Schultz that he had witnessed what he believed to be Sandusky having anal sex with a boy in the Lasch Building showers. Curley and Schultz assured the graduate assistant that they would look into it and determine what further action they would take. Paterno was not present for this meeting.
“We’ll look into it”. Of course you will.
The graduate assistant heard back from Curley a couple of weeks later. He was told that Sandusky’s keys to the locker room were taken away and that the incident had been reported to The Second Mile. The graduate assistant was never questioned by University Police and no other entity conducted an investigation until he testified in Grand Jury in December, 2010. The Grand Jury finds the graduate assistant’s testimony to be extremely credible.
Felt that needed to be bolded. Oh, and they made him give his keys back. Oh, thank you so much “men” in power for doing the absolute bare minimum in protecting the innocence of these children… taking his keys away, you’ve got to be kidding me.
Curley testified that the graduate assistant reported to them that “inappropriate conduct” or activity that made him “uncomfortable” occurred in the Lasch Building shower in March 2002. Curley specifically denied that the graduate assistant reported anal sex or anything of a sexual nature whatsoever and termed the conduct as merely “horsing around”_ When asked whether the graduate assistant had reported “sexual conduct” “of any kind” by Sandusky, Curley answered, “No” twice. When asked if the graduate assistant had reported “anal sex between Jerry Sandusky and this child,” Curley testified, “Absolutely not.”
Shameful. Downright pathetic.
Schultz testified that he was called to a meeting with Joe Paterno and Tim Curley, in which Paterno reported “disturbing” and “inappropriate” conduct in the shower by Sandusky upon a young boy, as reported to him by a student or graduate student. Schultz was present in a subsequent meeting with Curley when the graduate assistant reported the incident in the shower involving Sandusky and a boy. Schultz was very unsure about what he remembered the graduate assistant telling him and Curley about the shower incident. He testified that he had the impression that Sandusky might have inappropriately grabbed the young boy’s genitals while wrestling and agreed that such was inappropriate sexual conduct between a man and a boy. While equivocating on the definition of “sexual” in the context of Sandusky wrestling with and grabbing the genitals of the boy, Schultz conceded that the report the graduate assistant made was of inappropriate sexual conduct by Sandusky. However, Schultz testified that the allegations were “not that serious” and that he and Curley “had no indication that a crime had occurred.” Schultz agreed that sodomy between Sandusky and a child would clearly be inappropriate sexual conduct. He denied having such conduct reported to him either by Paterno or the graduate assistant.
“not that serious”. That’s a quote. The allegations were “not that serious”. I get more angry every single time I read this. Speechless. And this is just from ONE of the victims. This doesn’t count the others dating back to when he was a coach before he “resigned” and so forth.
Although Schultz oversaw the University Police as part of his position, he never reported the 2002 incident to the University Police or other police agency, never sought or reviewed a police report on the 1998 incident and never attempted to learn the identity of the child in the shower in 2002. No one from the University did so. Schultz did not ask the graduate assistant for specifics. No one ever did.
I can’t begin to fathom what goes through the minds of these people. Beyond ridiculous. Just from these testimonies alone you would think the Board of Trustees and more would come forth and IMMEDIATELY fire everyone involved. EVERYONE.
Spanier testified that even in April, 2011, he did not know the identity of the staff member who had reported the behavior. Spanier denied that it was reported to him as an incident that was sexual in nature and acknowledged that Curley and Schultz had not indicated any plan to report the matter to any law enforcement authority, the Commonwealth of Pemisylvania Department of Public Welfare or any appropriate county child protective services agency. Spanier also denied being aware of a 1998 University Police investigation of Sandusky for incidents with children in football building showers.
Spanier is a joke. The entire “power” at Penn State is a joke. This is a man who released a statement this weekend saying the AD and VP had his full support.
Sandusky holds emeritus status with Penn State. ln addition to the regular privileges of a professor emeritus, he had an office and a telephone in the Lasch Building. The status allowed him access to all recreational facilities, a parking pass for a vehicle, access to a Penn State account for the internet, listing in the faculty directory, faculty discounts at the bookstore and educational privileges for himself and eligible dependents. These and other privileges were negotiated when Sandusky retired in 1999. Sandusky continued to use University facilities as per his retirement agreement. As a retired coach, Sandusky had unlimited access to the football facilities, including the locker rooms. Schultz testified that Sandusky retired when Paterno felt it was time to make a coaching change and also to take advantage of an enhanced retirement benefit under Sandusky’s state pension. Both the graduate assistant and Curley testified that Sandusky himself was not banned from any Perm State buildings and Curley admitted that the ban on bringing children to the campus was unenforceable.
I, again, bolded some disturbing things.
The Grand Jury finds that portions of the testimony of Tim Curley and Gary Schultz are
not credible.
You think!?
This whole sham at Penn State is pathetic. How students and the community organized any sort of rally in support of Paterno or anyone else is extremely saddening and only reflects how disillusioned they are at State College. Allegations spanned over 15 years but he was a part of Penn State in a capacity of power for over 30 years and remained on campus as soon as LAST WEEK. How many children, who are now men, were effected by this monster? How many more people came forward but were hushed by these people in power? I can’t fathom that this just happened to start one day, I suspect this has been happening for a LONG time and nothing had been done. It’s a frightening thought and sickening.
Don’t cry for Joe Paterno. Don’t talk about his legacy. His legacy is this. His legacy is not protecting these innocent children from a monster he helped to enable over the years. I have no respect for him. I have no respect for his staff. I have no respect for Penn State. They should do the right thing and clean house AT THIS MOMENT. Not next week. Not letting Joe Paterno end the season with his team, but to FIRE him immediately. Spainer, Paterno, McQueary and everyone else needs to be shown the door unceremoniously today.
Links/Stories to check out:
– The sickening, full, grand jury report
http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7205085/growing-penn-state
– Grantland.com story by Michael Weinreb
http://t.co/hD8Vvbky
– Matt Millen on Sportscenter. I don’t see eye-to-eye with him at the beginning or end but I gained respect for him around the five minute mark. Worth a watch.
http://t.co/dmfuijcb
– Jay Bilas on Mike and Mike in the Morning. I hope you all go and listen to their entire broadcast with Bilas, Chris Fowler, Todd Blackledge, Cory Giger, Kirk Herbstreit and others discuss this. It was eye opening, it was engaging and it was done well.
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