Posts made in November 8th, 2011

The Game’s Over at Penn State

Posted by Cynthia Howerter on Nov 8, 2011 in Penn State | 2 comments

There are questions that must be answered.  No more passing the buck.  Surely no one is going to look the other way now.  Right?

The questions take a natural progression.  You don’t have to be a professional investigator to follow the facts and interpret them.  All it takes is something as elementary as common sense.

But, for some people, things have a way of complicating the most simple of situations.  Say reputations.  Or money.  Do the math.  Add reputation and money together and the sum is Penn State’s reknowned multi-million dollar football program.  A program and reputation worth defending unconditionally.  At least in the minds of some people.

After graduate assistant Mike McQueary personally observed retired defensive coach Jerry Sandusky having sex with a young boy in the shower at the Penn State locker room, he reported the incident to Coach Joe Paterno.  Paterno has stated that McQueary was very upset by what he observed.

Paterno found McQueary’s story credible enough to speak with Penn State’s Athletic Director Tim Curley and Senior Vice-President Gary Schultz.  But apparently all that came from McQueary’s eyewitness account was that Curley and Schultz told Sandusky that he was no longer permitted to bring young boys to Penn State’s campus.

Did Paterno, Curley or Schultz try to find out the name of the little boy who was raped?  Did they try to get him help?  Did it occur to Paterno, Curley or Schultz to report the rape – a crime - to the police?  If a female Penn State student is raped, the police are called.  Does the rape of a 10-year old on campus not count?

How does this situation mesh with Coach Paterno’s well-known intolerance for his football players’ bad behaviors?  I wonder if Paterno would have handled things differently had Sandusky raped one of his football players or one of Paterno’s sons in the shower room?

The AP press reported that Penn State President Graham Spanier was called to testify before the Grand Jury investigation.  Spanier said that he was aware that Sandusky had been naked in the PSU shower room with a young boy, but they were “just horsing around.”

And that’s all there is to it, folks.  Nothing to be upset over.  Just a little boy’s life forever marred.

Mr. Spanier!  Seriously.  Who do you think you are fooling?

President Spanier commented that he “unconditionally supports Curley and Schultz.”  Mr. Spanier!  Listen to me carefully.  It is not normal for adult men to take little boys into the shower, get naked and horse around.  Morally upright and educated people would know to call the police and report this type of crime.  Do you realize, Mr. Spanier, that as the President of The Pennsylvania State University, you set the example for the rest of Penn State?  I say, “Penn State deserves far better.  Don’t let the door hit you, Graham.”

I smell a skunk in the woodpile.  The very institution that taught and honed my critical thinking skills, apparently did not use them when faced with a crime.

Curley and Schultz were informed of the rape in the PSU locker room.  Their response?  Well, Mr. Sandusky can’t bring boys on campus anymore.  For real?  A 10-year old boy was raped.  Anal sex.  Pushed and held against the shower room wall by a very large man.  This is horrific stuff.  And all it warranted from Curley and Schultz was to tell Sandusky to keep the little boys off their turf.

Joe Paterno did the minimum – reported the incident to staff and then looked the other way.  How many more young lives were permanently scarred because Jerry Sandusky wasn’t held accountable by Paterno, Curley, Schultz and Spanier when this occured?

Graham Spanier thinks there’s nothing unusual about naked adult men being in the Penn State locker room shower with naked little boys during off-hours.  And he staunchly supports the two men who chose to protect their school and its football program rather than a young life.

Will someone bring the vomit bag to me because I’m getting sicker by the minute.

Men - if that’s what you are - it’s time to go.  Actually, it’s past time.  The game’s over.

But one last question remains:  is anyone other than myself wondering how it is that McQueary got to be PSU’s wide receivers coach?  I don’t know.  For some weird reason, the word “pay-off” keeps coming to mind.

Source:  The Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report on Jerry Sandusky.  This entire report can be found at:  www.washingtonpost.com/ as well as at:  www.nytimes.com/

“It is bad for those who are wise in their own eyes, and who think they know a lot!”    Isaiah 5: 21.

Cynthia Howerter © 2011