Though the Penn State abuse scandal
involves and surrounds members of the football
team, this is not a sports story. This is a
human interest story.
That being said, individuals are reacting
strongly to the developments over the past couple
of weeks, especially to the removal of Head
Coach Joe Paterno, 84, one of the most revered
college football coaches of all time.
Paterno was unjustly fired by Penn State’s
Board of Trustees on Nov. 9, but why?
It was a regrettable attempt to save face.
Before he was fired, Paterno issued a statement,
saying that he would retire at the end of
the football season (there was one regular-season
game remaining).
“With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had
done more,” he said about the information he
received from a teaching assistant concerning
former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky’s
alleged sexual abuse of a young boy in Penn
State’s football facilities.
But university officials couldn’t wait. They
announced later that Paterno, along with college
President Graham Spanier, were to be fired
effective immediately.
But just because Paterno wishes he could’ve
done more, doesn’t mean that he should’ve
been fired.
This particular incident (there have been as
many as eight from 1994 to 2009, according to
Bloomberg Businessweek) has been under
investigation since 2002 and Spanier knew of it
at that time.
So then why, if Paterno had really done anything
legally wrong, didn’t Penn State fire him
at that point?
Instead, officials waited until news of the
investigation went public early this month.
The college claimed that “they lost confidence
in their ability to lead,” according to the
Bloomberg article, so it makes no sense to let
him lead a nationally recognized football team
for nine years before finally taking action.
With the controversy under wraps at the
time, Penn State kept Paterno because the
administration recognized that he was the face
of the college and helped bring in millions of
dollars in revenue for the football program.
If his actions were so condemnable, why did
the Board of Trustees wait?
If that argument isn’t enough for you, consider
this: According to Pennsylvania’s Child
Protective Services law, Paterno did what he
was legally required to do.
The law states that required reporters must
immediately notify the person in charge of the
institution (Spanier) and the person in charge is
responsible and obligated to report the suspected
abuse to ChildLine (an organizational unit
of the department that handles reports of child
abuse) immediately.
For that reason, Spanier, who was notified
about the alleged abuse, definitely deserved to
be fired, because he did not fulfill his legal duty.
The same law also says that the reporter has
the option to report it to ChildLine as well, but
the text does not require him to do so.
The phrase “moral obligation,” has been
thrown around a lot during this media frenzy,
and rightfully so.
But for a coach who before November was
the highly regarded face of the Nittany Lions
for 45 years, who recognized that he should
have fulfilled his moral obligation and offered
to retire, Penn State made the situation worse,
tarnishing its own name even more, and that of
the great JoePa.
- EDITORIAL: Apologize about the real problem - April 23, 2014
- STATEMENT: District apologizes to Oscar winning alum - April 21, 2014
- EDITORIAL: The Forgotten Students - March 26, 2014