TRAVIS’ COLLEGE TOUR
Paterno was wrong, but don’t be so quick to judge
Travis Marmon
The atrocities that have allegedly been committed by Jerry Sandusky at Penn State University are inexcusable, as is the lack of action taken by university employees at several different levels, from graduate assistants all the way to the president. Sandusky’s denial of his actions and predatory sexual nature is so absurd that it would be comical if it wasn’t so sickening.
We can all agree that, in what was surely one of the most embarrassing moments in school history, the students who rioted in the wake of head football coach Joe Paterno’s firing completely lost perspective of the situation for the sake of a football program. The decision by the Board of Trustees to oust Paterno and president Graham Spanier was absolutely the right choice.
However, there is one point that I want to make clear: Paterno should not be seen as a villain here — or at the very least, not a malicious central figure in one of the most shameful cover-ups America has ever seen. I am in no way condoning Paterno’s decision to go to university officials instead of actual authorities, but I do take issue with the number of times I’ve seen or heard him referred to as some sort of aid to Sandusky’s perverted attacks in the past week by people who act as if they would have saved the day for every victim.
Put yourself in the position that Paterno and assistant coach Mike McQueary found themselves in when Sandusky’s assaults were allegedly discovered. It’s easy to say that if you walked in on the raping of a child being committed, you would heroically beat down Sandusky and save the child before reporting it to the police. But I highly doubt that most people would be able to do that. Walking in on something like that would be so profoundly shocking to me that I truly have no idea what my first action would be. McQueary did stop the assault and made a reasonable decision in telling Paterno, but it would have been wiser to call the police. Yet while Paterno got fired for making a similar decision, most likely from a combination of shock and naïveté, McQueary has found himself on paid administrative leave. This is an inconsistency that I find unacceptable.
Neither Paterno nor McQueary did enough to stop the situation, but at least they told somebody. The real villains in the failure to report Sandusky’s crimes are athletic director Tim Curley and vice president Gary Schultz. The two of them are the ones who Paterno went to with information, and they did next to nothing. They are the ones who are accused of lying to a grand jury about the situation and now face perjury charges and extended jail time.
What I’m trying to say is that it’s easy to take a moral high ground on a story of this magnitude. McQueary’s and Paterno’s failure to report such a heinous act to authority figures is unacceptable, but it’s also unfair to act as if their situation could have been avoided so simply, or that any of us would have done more to help.
Paterno has made a fool of himself by trying to finish out this season and by stating obvious and unhelpful things like “with the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had done more.” However, acting like he is the scum of the Earth because of his poorly thought out sin of omission just takes away from the rage that should be aimed at Schultz, Curley and most of all Jerry Sandusky.