Fair Warning: I will be delving into controversy in this post, and my position is more than likely not yours. I'm not asking that you, as the reader, agree with my position, only that you respect it.
I have been following the Penn State/Joe Paterno situation since it broke last week.
I have read the Grand Jury's Findings of Fact with regard to Victim #2. I have read articles and I have read tweets and I have reactions by the general public. I have read people who insist that Joe Paterno could have done more. I am in no way sanctioning or condoning child abuse of any kind. What I do not understand is the public's eagerness to declare Joe Paterno guilty of condoning child abuse.
The facts, as reported by the Grand Jury, are that the graduate student saw what he considered a disturbing sexual act between former defensive coordiantor Jerry Sandusky and a child. He immediately left the area and called his father, who told his son to report the incident to Joe Paterno. The graduate student did so, by going to Paterno's house the next day. Paterno listened to the graduate student's report and, in turn, passed on the suspicions to University officials. This is the story as reported in the Grand Jury's Findings of Fact. No one is disputing the facts as they are laid out.
Joe Paterno has not been indicted (to date) and is under no investigation. He did what he could do at the time. It's lovely to say, now, with the privilege of hindsight, that he should have done more, that he should have followed up with the University officials, or even gone to the police himself. Of course, at the time, he had the report of an upset, but not upset enough to call the police, graduate student. It is impossible to use knowledge held today to shape decisions made nine years ago. If we all had nine year's future knowledge when we made decisions, what a better world it would be. Under the law, Joe Paterno has done nothing wrong. He was not in a position of mandatory reporting and he turned the matter over to the proper officials at the time. The fact that the officials took it no further is not Joe Paterno's fault.
Think about it:
Say you saw a former co-worker driving erratically down the highway, enough to disturb you, but not enough to cause you to call the police yourself. Instead, you tell you boss the next day, after which your boss told the building security and building management. They take the report of erratic driving to no higher authorities, and do nothing other than ban the driver from the building parking lot. Now, nine years later, because that former co-worker has a history of driving erratically and has caused 8 accidents, someone complains that your boss should have done more. Your boss should have manoeuvred his car to prevent the erratic driver from going further, even though he was never on the road with him. They say your boss should have called the police for them to stop the erratic driving. What more could your boss have done with the knowledge he had nine years ago?
What more does the public want Joe Paterno to have done? Not what he could have done today, knowing what we know as a result of the Grand Jury's Findings of Fact, but what he could have done nine years ago, knowing what he knew then; remembering that by the time he found out about the alleged abuse, it was two days later.
Joe Paterno has done nothing wrong.
I have no connection to Penn State. I neither cheer nor despise the Nittany Lions. No one in my family is a graduate of Penn State. I know no one who has ever attended the university. The only times I have been anywhere near State College, Pennsylvania, I was on a layover flying through Pittsburgh.
My issue with this situation is that an innocent man is being tried in the Court of Public Opinion, not with facts, but with half-truths and outright lies. It is an emotional situation, but at the same time, people are letting their emotions cloud the issue. I am as guilty as anyone of getting emotional and incensed by the situation. But the facts are that Joe Paterno has done nothing wrong.
Let's stop giving into the hysteria and step back a minute to determine the facts. Child molestation is wrong. We can all agree on that. Joe Paterno is not accused of child molestation. He is not accused of anything! Working with a person who turns out, nine years after his working relationship with you ends, to be a child molester is not a crime. Neither is not knowing he was a child molester at the time he worked with you.
