Ridiculous... this was a modern day witch hunt fueled by careless media making a lot of assumptions and suppositions with no real basis on factual evidence - that the BoT fired Paterno is not surprising given the rumors they've been trying to oust him for years, but fervor for which "we" were clamoring for his firing to "punish" him is repugnant.
The whole "he should have morally done more" argument is the result of hindsight and a lot of Monday morning quarterbacking. It's always much easier to see how a someone screwed up after the fact and what they should've/could've done to change things - it's much, much harder to perform at that kind of level of self-realization during a situation. As for the "I would've done this or kicked this person's ***&^^*, " well, we're all real tough on the internet, but the majority of us would have done no more than he did - reported it to his superiors - and of those who actually may have done more (which is very few) even fewer could actually back it up. Honestly, disgusted at what was done to those boys, disgusted it was covered up and disgusted with the pitchfork and torches mob mentality that we've allowed ourselves to be stirred up into by the media.
Thank goodness our legal system gives zero weight to judgement of the court of public opinion, else we'd all hang. I only hope that the rioting is quelled before anyone gets seriously hurt as there's no need to had further injury, hurt and pain to this mess of a situation.
Sorry but no. He got fired because he was part of the chain of command that this went through and got shoved under the rug by. That much is documented and admitted. It is not a witch hunt. I don't understand how people can divorce themselves from reality enough to think that this was just a convenient opportunity to get rid of the guy. He tied their hands the day he found out about what went on in 2002 and didn't go directly to the authorities and continued to have Sandusky around the program... and that's assuming he was ignorant of the situation that went on before Sandusky was removed as DC in the 90s. Which isn't very plausible.
Funny, but I have yet to read of or see any evidence where this was "shoved under the rug" by Paterno. That's media supposition at it's finest, as is the posting by the media and general public on boards and blogs all over the internet about how he must have been thinking about his reputation/wins/legacy versus the safety of those kids. Sandusky had never been arrested for, nor charged with nor found guilty of any sort of crime (and still hasn't), so how exactly do you justify cutting off all ties with the person based on second hand accounts and hearsay? It's not as if Paterno actually witnessed anything that would have made what you are purporting he do - completely block access to all campus facilitys/programs etc,- actionable without putting the university and himself at risk (and even had he done so, there is zero evidence that it would have prevented Sandusky from continuing to molest children).
Did JoePa know about what happened in the shower involving his former staff member? yes, he himself admitted that to a grand jury. Did he report it directly to the police? No.
There you go.
He's not being charged with a crime because he did not lie about that. That doesn't mean the workplace where this was swept under the rug, by the people that this was known by, needs him to be charged with a crime to see that it was a huge problem. By not being immediately turned over to police it was a problem and that was compounded by having the man accused still around the program. His inaction and those of his direct superiors (which is laughable at penn state) enabled a child rapist. Get that through your head. Everyone involved needs to be and will be canned whether they are facing indictments or not. They taint the entire institution if you allow them to remain.
He's not being charged with a crime because he did nothing wrong - he reported it to the "authorities" in charge of his institution (which is how the law/statute is worded... although I imagine that the statute may be amended to rid itself of such ambiguity in the future), not because he didn't lie about it to the grand jury - if the Grand Jury thought he was lying they would have charged him with perjury as they did with Schultz and Curely.. but they didn't, which seems to point to and support the fact that Paterno's testimony that he was unaware of the specifics of what took place in the shower is the truth. I've read the Grand Jury's report and honestly, based upon what's in there, Paterno is, at this time and until any evidence is produced to refute it.... innocent of wrong doing.
If you want to talk about inaction, how about the detectives who dropped an investigation at the bequest of Penn State Campus Police, an AG/Head of Police that decided not to file charges, a mother who worked with the police to tape phone conversations but didn't pursue it when the police dropped it, the executives of Second Mile who were apparently informed several times about possible issues but did nothing, Shultz and Curely who did nothing... there was a whole lot of failure going on here by not only Penn State officials but by local and county law enforcement, school coaches and officials and other various authorities.
The victims were let down at every single level by every person who should have protected them but to pin the majority of the blame on Paterno and say that it was Paterno who enabled and apparently by way of inaction, condoned, Sandusky's actions is a ridiculous. Could he have done more? Given the information we have now, it appears to be obvious he could have. But he didn't have all of this information, he had an apparently vague report of some sort of sexual misconduct between a former employee and a child, which he had already reported a required by law and "morality".
Paterno is the "big name" goat being sacrificed to overshadow the rest of the stuff in the background.. it will be interesting to see where this case goes with regard to the public's interest in the case now that the "blood" we've all been calling for has been shed.
