Penn State scandal, JoePa and the football/college town complex

A 23 year old guy coached a U14 girls team, he used to drive one girl on the team to her home after practice. Just him and her. And to my eyes, she was the prettiest girl on the team, and shall we say old looking for her age.

He was apparently a family friend (a conflict of a different sort) but still. Man.

 

still, the U in U14 stand for under - as in under 14! I don't care how old she looks for a 14 year old, it's not like she's "almost" legal.

 

She looked almost legal.

I don't think there was anything going on but I would not have permitted it as the girl's parent, as the coach's parent, or as the club DOC.

 

yeah, there's definitely perception issues there. it doesn't pass the "raise your eyebrow" test.

 

I'm just lucky the last youth baseball coach I had hated my guts and never invited me over to his house for sleepovers. Nephew on the team lived with him so it wasn't all "obviously creepy".

My cousin about 10 years later wasn't so lucky. My aunt goes to his parole hearing every couple of years and plainly states that she'll have him killed if he's released and moves back into the neighborhood.

 

I'm constantly awed by the badassness of your family members.

 

All these conference changes and tv deals for green dough make me think America has a domestic FIFA. Seriously.

 

I went on one camping trip as a boy scout. I quit after that. In fact, I recall that I left the trip early. Nothing happened to me but other new scouts said they had found out first hand that the older scouts had a peculiar hazing ritual.

 

The Powell girls take shit from no one.

 

well that's kinda freaky.

 

The most hazing we ever did was sending kids on snipe hunts or searches for dehydrated water at other campsites. I had a very good experience as a whole and got to do some really neat things like work at Philmont. But, as I've gotten older, I have come to understand why many others did not.

 

Welcome to Chicago youth soccer. None of the parents but me had a problem. Same when our U11 coach F bombed every sentence. OK I didn't have a problem either. Chicago youth soccer is not where to go for morality, if you want to raise you child properly you don't have him play soccer.

 

The points minerva and Mr. Warmth made on pages one and two fascinate me. Why do some people (men) become pedophiles? When the Catholic priest scandal broke it was easy to blame it on celibacy and an all-male environment. But every month my newspaper has some report about a pedophile or collector of child pornography who is in their 20s. They hadn't reached puberty when all the publicity about pedophilia started.

Can we really blame every case on the abuser getting abused when they were a kid, like a communicable social disease?

 

So I'm a Penn State alum...

First, there is absolutely no denying that Penn State is responsible for 9 years worth of victims caused by covering up Sanduskey's rape. I'm sick to death and for the first time in my life I'm ashamed to call my self a Penn Stater. We've always believed that Penn State Proud actually meant something, that integrity was a part of who we are...we're obviously wrong. All of us Penn Staters are simply horrified about what our school did in protecting a child molester and rapist.

With regard to Jerry Sandusky, in 1998 the University Park PD investigated allegations that he had fondled a young boy, turned everything they had over to the DA, and the DA did not prosecute. The investigation was sealed, and Joe Paterno and other administrators had no idea what happened, other than that he was investigated for some issue. Even with that little information, Joe Paterno told Sandusky that he would not become the coach at Penn State, and there are rumors he stopped him from getting the job at UVa. What transpired is that Sanduskey negotiated a retirement with Penn State brass that included Coach Emeritus status, that gave him free reign of Campus.

In 1998, Mike McQuery walked into the locker room, heard noises in the locker room, and saw Sanduskey behind a boy in the showed, both naked - for an instant and then ran. Next morning he talked Joe Paterno and relayed to him he thought he saw something strange, possibly of a sexual nature, happen in the locker room between Sandusky and a boy. Paterno immediately told Curley, and Curley and Schultz - who administers the Campus Police Department - came and interviewed Paterno to ask what happened. Joe relayed what he was told "fondling or something of a sexual nature" to them. From Joe Paterno's point of view, he not only told his superior, he also told the head of a police department. He had reasonable expectations the police would invesitgate the matter fully.

A week later Curley and Schultz interviewed Mcquery on what he saw. He told them he saw what he believed to be anal rape. They said they'd investigate. Again, from McQuery's point of view, he has reasonable belief that by telling Schultz, he's telling the police. A while later they call him (McQuery) back, telling him they reported to the Second mile and took away Sandusky's locker room keys. That's where the GJ stops.

So this is my speculation. The second mile - the charity Sandusky started - released a statement that said that Curley told them they investigated the matter and they found no wrong doing. My guess is that Curley told both McQuery and Paterno the same thing. McQuery is quoted as "what he believed to be"...so there must have been a ton of doubt in his mind in what he actually saw. After all he told Paterno one thing, and the other two something quite different. He must have been convinced that what he saw wasn't he thought he saw. I have no idea how that could have been good enough for him, but I guess the mind plays tricks on you. I've met the man before around the fall of 2001 and he's one of the nicest, well meaning guys I've ever met. It's hard for me to believe that he would simply let a child rapist go.

And with that, my guess is Paterno dropped the matter from his mind.

Note that I am in the minority of Penn Staters who believe the above. Most believe that Joe should have done more, should have called the State police himself. My belief is that he thought he told the police when he talked to Schultz - who again was the Director of Campus PD.

Make of it what you will, but my firm belief is that the treatment of Paterno by the media, when there's so many facts we don't know, so many holes we don't know is practically criminal. It seems to me that they're trying to destroy him simply because they can destroy him. They also always fail to mention that Schultz was the administrator of the campus PD.

But the administration of Penn State is beyond horrifying. At least 20 children have stepped forward, and all their pain and suffering is at the feet of my alma mater because of their cover up.

 

I've been to Happy Valley. Buggery doesn't surprise me - but it's almost school-sanctioned in this case. Ick

 

I think of the Book Selfish Gene 1. In describing genes as being "selfish", the author does not intend (as he states unequivocally in the work) to imply that they are driven by any motives or will—merely that their effects can be accurately described as if they were. The contention is that the genes that get passed on are the ones whose consequences serve their own implicit interests (to continue being replicated), not necessarily those of the organism, much less any larger level.
This view explains altruism at the individual level in nature, especially in kin relationships: when an individual sacrifices its own life to protect the lives of kin, it is acting in the interest of its own genes. Some people find this metaphor entirely clear, while others find it confusing, misleading or simply redundant to ascribe mental attributes to something that is mindless. For example, Andrew Brown has written:
"Selfish", when applied to genes, doesn't mean "selfish" at all. It means, instead, an extremely important quality for which there is no good word in the English language: "the quality of being copied by a Darwinian selection process." This is a complicated mouthful. There ought to be a better, shorter word—but "selfish" isn't it.

If that helps to run with it..

 

Not almost. It essentially was when Curley and Schultz refused to initiate a real investigation.

 

i'm a PSU alum too. Campus police? When I was there, a campus cop ran over a student who was crossing the street ... in the crosswalk ... and the campus cop cited the pedestrian for jaywalking!

 

They're idiots sometimes, but they're still a real police department. They were the ones who investigated the initial Sandusky allegation in 1998.

 

No way can I let that slide.

Jo Pa was told of a possible sexual encounter, in the football locker room, between a member of the staff and a child, and he thought it was all taken care of?

I call bullshit. He deserves what he gets because the kids that were molested after he knew what was going on are on him.

His legacy is gone. His good name is gone. He deserves what he gets from the media.

 

Sigh. He didn't see it, he didn't know what happened. He is not omniscient, and he's not God. He's a human being.

 

And although he legally did what he needed to do, he is morally bankrupt along with McQuery.

 

And he didn't take the necessary steps to find out. I'm sorry, but if my ex-assistant coach of 30 years is accused of doing something unsavory with a child in my locker room shower, i am damned sure going to get to the bottom of it. I don't just pass the buck to someone else than turn my attention back to game films. I'm sorry, but his entire career is based upon nothing but a game. A game which has absolutely no meaning compared to the possible abuse that was going on.

EDIT: And Penn State's response as just reported: "we're appointing a committee"

 

Cross posted from the thread in the football forum

This is bizarre

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/09/s...usky-wrapped-in-2005-gricar-mystery.html?_r=1

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/sandusky-investigator-center-mystery/story?id=14905668#.TrnzJUMr2nB

From the second link

The prosecutor who decided to not pursue sex abuse charges against former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky more than a decade ago, despite an alleged confession, is at the center of a missing persons mystery that has enraptured middle Pennsylvania for years.

Ray Gricar served as the district attorney for Pennsylvania's Centre County in 1998 when Sandusky was accused of sexually abusing several boys. After an extensive investigation, which included testimony by two law enforcement officers that they had overheard Sandusky admitting to showering with multiple young boys, Gricar decided no criminal charges would be filed, according to recent court documents. Sandusky retired the next year.​

So why the hell didn't the DA pursue charges in '98? And where is he?

 

Problem is that we simply don't know if he did or did not follow up. The Grand Jury Report completely ignores anything after Curley telling MM that it was reported to the second mile and that his keys to the locker room were taken away.

We don't know exactly what Curley told Joe or Red even. For all we know Joe DID follow up with Curley and Schultz, and was told that it was investigated and nothing came up.

Joe has earned the benefit of the doubt for what he's done over the last 50 years - but failing that, at worst we should await the facts that would incriminating him morally.