Viewpoint: NCAA Keeps Bungling Penn State Investigation

By Kavitha Davidson | November 17, 2014

  • November 17, 2014 at 4:35 pm
    RayBlehar says:
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    Biggest losers in PSU case: Pennsylvania’s children, who continue to be abused and killed because the Freeh Report failed miserably to identify the root of the problem.

    Sandusky’s abuse was enabled by his access to children, not access to PSU’s football facilities (where no crimes were committed after 2001 — according to the trial verdicts).

    The PA Department of Human Services (formerly DPW) and The Second Mile charity, who each had received reports of Sandusky showering with children, did nothing to stop his access.

    In 1998, PA DPW had enough evidence to pull his ChildLine clearance…they didn’t.

    In 2001, PSU told the The Second Mile about the incident that occurred on campus. Bruce Heim, a director at the charity, called the shower incident a “non-starter” and that he was aware of Sandusky showering with children.

    But for some reason, you believe Paterno and PSU were at fault for a retired football coach abusing children in his basement, in hotels, and other places AFTER they reported him to licensed child care professionals in 1998 and 2001?

    This failure to recognize the real problem in this case (i.e., poor investigations) continues to endanger children. Reforms enacted to improve child abuse reporting are simply window dressing.

    The recent Tutko case in Harrisburg proved that. Dauphin County CYS was called to investigate potential abuse in 2013. No finding of abuse. In 2014, Jarrod Tutko Jr. was found dead. The nine year old’s body weighed 16.9 pounds. Must have been one heck of an investigation in 2013.

  • November 17, 2014 at 5:57 pm
    Concerned Alum says:
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    This author is factual challenged. It has been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that Joe Paterno did the right thing given what he knew at the time. This is a fact. It is not open for debate. Furthermore, there is currently a complete lack of evidence of wrong doing by the three administrators. In fact, pretty much all evidence strongly, if not conclusively suggests they too did the right thing. Deal with it. Correct your factual mistake.

    • November 19, 2014 at 1:50 pm
      KY jw says:
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      Concerned Alum says: “It is not open for debate.”

      Everything is open to debate. Just because YOU believe something that makes you happy, doesn’t mean it’s the truth.

  • November 18, 2014 at 11:13 am
    PennState1992 says:
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    In 1998, the District Attorney declined to indict Sandusky in a cast that had no connection to Penn State other than it was Sandusky’s employer. In the 2001 allegation, Mr. Paterno reported the second hand allegation to his superiors as required by the law and by University guidelines. The witness, Mike McQueary, has changed his version of events several times, ranging from “horseplay” at the time to 11 years later calling it “rape.” His initial version was not severe enough to prompt his physician father – and mandated reporter of abuse – to report it. McQueary has been shown to be a cheat, stalker, sexter, and gambler; it isn’t a stretch to envision the Attorney General threatening to “out” his behaviors if McQueary didn’t “remember things differently.”

  • November 18, 2014 at 11:21 am
    Celtica says:
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    Concerned Alum: It has not been proven beyond a shadow of any doubt that Paterno did the right thing. It is very much open to debate that Paterno only acted when faced with the inevitable. No one can hid this much abuse for so long without key leaders turning their heads the other way.

    • November 18, 2014 at 12:00 pm
      ramone azteca says:
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      So, Joe was the only individual in the 16801 who had a telephone?

      • November 19, 2014 at 2:33 pm
        Celtica says:
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        Dear Ramone Azteca.

        Lots of people had phones.
        However, they were not the face of Penn Football.
        Joe Paterno was. He had an inherent obligation to continue to act on what he knew — and not turn away.

        • November 29, 2014 at 2:21 pm
          Tim Berton says:
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          Mike McQueary had a phone in his hand moments after he left the boy alone with Sandusky in shower, and he called his father rather than the police.

          Paterno didn’t know anything in 2001. His testimony and McQueary’s was that he was not told what Sandusky and the boy were doing, just that it was in appropriate.

    • November 18, 2014 at 1:31 pm
      PennState1992 says:
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      Please enlighten me as to what Paterno should have done? In 1998 it was an off campus incident, investigated, and no charges were filed. Sandusky retired in 1999 from PSU. When Joe had hearsay knowledge that something may have happened, he told his bosses AS REQUIRED BY LAW AND UNIVERSITY GUIDELINES. Was he supposed to earn a law license and prosecute Jerry himself? Was he supposed to grab a gun and arrest Sandusky?

      Also, as far as hiding the abuse, molesters tend to be “experts” at what they do and often get away with it unfortunately for many years before they are caught. They many times are “pillar of the community” types – clergy, coaches, teachers, volunteers – who choose victims who are unlikely to report the abuse. A local school district had reports about Sandusky and refused to believe them or report them to the policy. He fooled many people.

      • November 19, 2014 at 2:32 pm
        Celtica says:
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        Dear Penn State:

        Paterno did report it.
        As an employee, he fulfilled his obligation.
        As a leader, he had an obligation to continue to act on the status and not wash his hands of it.
        In that he failed miserably and his legacy will reflect that.

      • November 19, 2014 at 3:58 pm
        c sveik says:
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        Paterno founded and funded the classics program at Penn State, made valuable contributions to the library. He should have retired earlier. This behavior was beyond his comprehension, as he said it was.

        • November 20, 2014 at 10:42 am
          PennState1992 says:
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          Celtica, what exactly was his “obligation to continue to act on the status.” Once he reported that an assistant witnessed something, it became a criminal matter. Did I miss where he was running the police department?

          • November 20, 2014 at 12:08 pm
            Celtica says:
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            Penn State 1992:

            You yourself said that: “…In 1998 it was an off campus incident, investigated, and no charges were filed. Sandusky retired in 1999 from PSU. …”

            So it did not become a criminal matter. It should have — and that is the issue. Paterno didn’t question why it didn’t — Paterno washed his hands of this very dark side of his organization. There were no Saturday afternoon glory in this.

  • November 18, 2014 at 1:23 pm
    Louie says:
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    I graduated from PSU in 1999 and remember vividly when Sandusky suddenly retired. There were rumors of something weird, but nobody believed it and the rumors died.

    To us, Joe could walk on water. I remember walking past him once on campus and being unable to speak: it was JOE PATERNO! The man who embodied “success with honor” and “may no act of ours bring shame”! The man not afraid to bench his star players before a big game if they didn’t meet minimum academic requirements like actually going to class. The man who donated $7mil of his own money to build an incredible wing of the library. He gave EVERYTHING HE HAD to Penn State, and maybe that’s why it’s so hard to accept the fact that he was, after all, human.

    I don’t know what McQueary saw when he walked in on Sandusky, or exactly what he told Joe. He obviously saw SOMETHING inappropriate. What grown man showers with children? Why the hell didn’t McQueary stop it? I don’t know, but he told Paterno that he witnessed something disturbing, and Paterno told his superiors. At the very least, Joe should have been on top of the situation, following up regularly and personally making sure Sandusky didn’t set foot anywhere near Penn State.

    I will never believe that Joe Paterno conspired to cover this up; I honestly don’t think he understood the true reality of what was going on. That being said, I think he could have used his power and influence to stop it had he taken it more seriously. Sometimes doing the minimum of your legal requirement isn’t enough, especially when it involves kids.

    • November 19, 2014 at 1:54 pm
      KY jw says:
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      Louie says: “Sometimes doing the minimum of your legal requirement isn’t enough, especially when it involves kids.”

      Excellent point.

  • November 19, 2014 at 2:32 pm
    PennState1992 says:
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    Louie, one problem with “Joe should have been on top of the situation, following up regularly.” Had he done that, he would have been accused of interfering with the investigation and shouldn’t have been told anything as it was a criminal matter.

    • November 19, 2014 at 2:39 pm
      Celtica says:
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      Penn State 1992:

      Except that he wasn’t accused of interferring with the investigation. If he had been accused, he would have salvaged his own reputation to have been above reproach.

      Getting the glory of being the face of Penn State Football is a lot more glamorous than dogging the Admin. for suspected child abuse.

      He took the glory and evaded the less enviable part. It was that less enviable part that will now dog him after his death.

    • November 19, 2014 at 4:34 pm
      Louie says:
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      wouldn’t it have been worth the risk to him, though? Joe was nothing if not tenacious.

      Joe was in his mid-70’s when McQueary first came to him, and by all accounts, he was definitely from the “Old School” where this kind of thing simply didn’t happen. I will never believe that he understood the true magnitude of what was happening, nor that he conspired to cover it up. It will be interesting to find out what Spanier, Curley and Schultz all knew (if anything).

      • November 20, 2014 at 10:44 am
        PennState1992 says:
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        Louie, McQueary has changed his story so many times he is no longer a credible witness. http://framingpaterno.com/definitive-case-mike-mcquearys-story-not-be-believed

        • November 20, 2014 at 11:04 am
          Louie says:
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          OK, let’s go out on a limb and say that what McQueary saw wasn’t actual RAPE, but Sandusky horsing around with a boy in a shower. Is that a normal thing? What grown man showers with a boy? Whatever McQueary saw was enough to disturb him. You can discredit his character all you want (heck, when I went there he was generally considered an a–hole who was still hanging on to his glory days), but it doesn’t change the fact that he saw SOMETHING INAPPROPRIATE. It led to at least 40 kids coming out and saying that Sandusky molested them. There’s no way those kids were lying about what happened. McQueary’s definitely no hero; any real hero would have stopped what he allegedly saw.
          I don’t think Paterno should have been fired, nor does vacating his wins do anything for the victims. However, Joe is NOT the victim here! I realize that as a Penn Stater, I’m required to believe that he was completely infallible, but as a parent, I can’t help but believe that he could have done a lot more to follow up to make sure Sandusky was being monitored and at least BANNED COMPLETELY FROM CAMPUS AND ALL FOOTBALL ACTIVITIES until the investigation was complete. I know, I know, it wasn’t his job, but the Paterno that I believed in and who gave so much to our school would have done at least this much.

          • November 21, 2014 at 11:41 am
            KY jw says:
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            Well said, Louie.

            I think if he wanted, Joe could have pushed his school administrators and the law to investigate and find the truth. No, it wasn’t required legally, but really, any parent should be anxious to find the truth.

            I also think, if he had pushed for the truth, more than just reputations could have been saved.

          • November 29, 2014 at 2:29 pm
            Tim Berton says:
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            According to CYS, DPW and Second Mile, Sandusky showering with boys and bear hugging boys in the showers was nothing to be upset about. DPW expert Jerry Lauro diagnosed Sandusky with “boundary issues’ in 1998 but took no precautions to protect the poor, fatherless boys Sandusky “mentored.”

            It’s not possible to ban someone from a state university campus and football activities unless they were convicted of some crime. The Attorney General investigated Sandusky for almost 3 years, and did nothing to restrict Sandusky’s access to campus until after his arrest.

            The facts are that most of Sandusky’s victims were abused off the PSU campus in his home, car, various hotels and at Central Mountain high school

          • November 29, 2014 at 2:31 pm
            Tim Berton says:
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            Paterno did write on Sandusky’s retirement proposal that Sandusky should not be allowed to bring kids into PSU training and workout facilities because of insurance liability issues but he was overruled. It’s a myth that Paterno was all powerful.



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