By Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
Author note: This is the fifth in a series about the child sexual abuse scandal at The Pennsylvania State University that helped bring down iconic football coach Joe Paterno and three top officials at the premier public college in Pennsylvania.
The Magician
Penn State’s ousted president and amateur magician, Graham Spanier, enjoyed a well-deserved reputation for secrecy while leading the state’s flagship public university. In one instance, Spanier became incensed when he learned that the Harrisburg Patriot-News had obtained the salaries of the top PSU officials – including Joe Paterno – from the state pension board. (Paterno had consistently made mention of the fact that he received around $500,000 per year as a coach, donating much of it back to PSU. Many prominent FBS football coaches make up to ten times that amount and it appears Paterno was fudging a bit on his salary.) Spanier embarked on a five-year fight to block publication of the salaries, taking the case through the entire appeals process and up to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Spanier lost at every level. Undaunted and against the odds, he successfully lobbied Pennsylvania state lawmakers to reject closing the loophole which exempted college employees salaries from the state’s “right-to-know” law. With that legislative prestidigitation, he just made the problem disappear.
The Last Chance to Save the Board
Secrecy and back door politicking were also the tools used by Spanier to secure his control of university operations and to insure only a timid and uninformed rubber stamping from the Board of Trustees. This proclivity did not go unnoticed by at least some Board members. In 2004, seven of them drafted good governance proposals calling for more scrutiny of the President and his decision-making. They were presented to the PSU Board of Trustees but a full vote was deferred. The changes to the by-laws would have greatly enhanced the Board’s oversight of Spanier and clarified its role as the final arbiter in matters of both policy and day-to day operations like removing senior administrative officers. You can read the proposed changes here.
Long-time board member, Joel Myers, has said the changes would have prevented situations like the Sandusky scandal 
from escaping the Board’s notice since the by-law changes required the president to present periodic reports on university operations and also empowered the Board to obtain follow-up reports. Spanier sensed the threat and fought the proposals deftly and, with the aid of then chairwoman and current general counsel, Cynthia Baldwin, the matter was tabled before a vote could be taken. (Spanier’s cohort, Cynthia Baldwin, has been criticized in the Freeh report for opposing an independent investigation of the Board’s actions or inactions during the Sandusky scandal while serving as PSU’s General Counsel thus completing the circle of secrecy). The failed attempt to rein in Spanier’s presidency was the last chance for the Board to fulfill its obligation to oversee university operations.
Graham Spanier: The Man
Graham Spanier
Spanier’s background would not suggest a callous and secretive approach to matters involving child abuse. In fact, just the opposite as he was a victim of abuse himself. Born in Cape Town, South Africa, to parents who had fled the Nazis, he was raised in Chicago where his family settled after becoming disgusted with the apartheid system that reminded Spanier’s father of Nazi Germany. Sadly, Fritz Spanier was not quite so principled or sensitive in The Big Onion. Spanier’s prominent “prize-fighters nose” came from his dad’s raucous temperament according to long-time friend, Michael Oriard, an associate dean at Oregon State. Of his father, Spanier said in 1988:
His marriage was dismal, his family life was decidedly unhappy, and his abusive behavior toward his wife and children, tolerated in the 1950s, would have resulted in legal intervention today.
Years later, in what might be a telling comment on his approach to managing the Sandusky crisis, Spanier asked the audience of the the 4,400-member National Council on Family Relations over which he served as President, “Why do so many children experience abuse, disruption, poverty, or hunger, yet somehow, against great odds, reach adulthood with the notion that family life can be rewarding?” The answer, he theorized, may be that a powerful commitment to marriage and family is being transmitted even in families that could be described as unhappy, broken, pathological or nonexistent. Some might argue it is a misguided commitment by a victim to the source of their abuse that elevates psuedo-security over the human yearning for justice and vindication — sort of a kiddie Stockholm Syndrome. But, of course, Spanier’s the expert here in so many ways.
Bright and curious, Spanier overcame his upbringing to thrive in academic settings. The Iowa State and Northwestern graduate made his bones as a sociologist and family therapist with a specialty in researching family relationships. Author of over 10 books and scads of papers, some of his areas of interest were marital relations and the dynamics of child abuse situations. His range was varied however, as he wrote extensively on sex education and social taboos involving families. In one paper in 1975 for the “Archives of Sexual Behavior,”, he commented on the virtues of wife swapping;
This article attempts to illuminate the understanding of swinging, or mate swapping, an increasingly common form of extramarital sexual activity. A theoretical formulation argues that swinging is a form of extramarital sexual activity which serves to define as good and acceptable a behavior that in other forms and in the past has been considered deviant and immoral.
By temperament he was easy going and affable. Friends have said the only time they remember him being visibly angry was when he observed one child striking another for no reason.
Backdropped by striking irony, the Freeh report made specific criticisms of Spanier’s handling of the McCleary child abuse complaint saying Spanier and other upper echelon management at PSU, exhibited “total disregard for the safety and welfare of Sandusky’s child victims [and] failed to take any steps for 14 years to protect the children who Sandusky victimized.” A searing public indictment against someone who had overcome abuse himself and then committed himself to studying family dynamics of the problem. Spanier had come full circle from his National Council on Family Relations speech only to find himself pilloried in the press for too much loyalty to his sometimes abusive academic family.
The Seeds of Corruption
What could then cause this breach of faith among the best and brightest in American academe? Historian Theodore White observed that “All endeavors which are directed to a purely worldly end, contain within themselves the seeds of their own corruption.” Here, the seeds of corruption corroding the Penn State football program and the university itself, may have been planted just one year before the infamous Sandusky assault by another allegation of sexual abuse against a PSU educator.
In 2001, a private investigator living in Phoenix, telephoned Penn State officials and eventually spoke to Spanier about troubling allegations of sexual abuse by a PSU employee in the late 1970s. In chilling detail, he described the abuse that he said occurred at the State College campus and elsewhere. Paul McLaughlin, 45, claimed that he had been sexually abused by a prominent PSU professor and two of the prof’s friends. In the call, he pointedly told Spanier that he had a taped confession from the professor. The PSU president wouldn’t hear it – didn’t even want to acknowledge it. “He told me whatever I wanted to get from the school, I wasn’t going to get it, and this was a guy with an impeccable reputation, and unless he was convicted of a crime, they weren’t interested,” McLaughlin said. Spanier told McLaughlin not to bother sending the tape. McLaughlin sent him the tape anyway.
Paul McLaughlin
McLaughlin told Spanier that from ages 11 to 15 he was sexually abused by three men, one of whom he claimed was prominent professor of education, John T. Neisworth. The alleged victim claimed that he repressed the memory but when it finally reemerged he was shocked to learn that Neisworth continued to work for the university. Neisworth, who has done pioneering work with autistic children, has consistently denied the allegations and has refused to talk to the press. However in 2001, McLaughlin called the professor and engaged in conversation pretending he enjoyed their encounters and had groomed an underage male lover of his own. According to McLaughlin, Neisworth incriminated himself on an audio tape in which the professor allegedly admitted to serving the youth alcohol and engaging in sexual activities. Cecil County, Maryland authorities transcribed the tape and brought charges against Neisworth. Those criminal charges were ultimately dismissed after the tape was deemed inadmissible, but McLaughlin claims he sued Neisworth in civil court and was offered a “six-figure” confidential settlement to resolve the matter. He accepted the offer.
Dr. John “Jack” T. Neisworth
As for reaction from Penn State and Spanier, what would become an all too familiar pattern emerged: McLaughlin’s tape was returned unopened, telephone calls were forgotten, and the university did nothing to discipline Neisworth. Since the police already had the matter, it could not be argued that Penn State had neglected a duty to report the allegations. One Penn State official, David Monk, Dean of the College of Education, did acknowledge receiving the complaint, if not the tape, saying, “I did take the charges seriously and immediately determined that Mr. Neisworth’s Penn State duties did not involve direct contact with children.” Curious circumstance for an internationally known educator who wrote “The Autism Encyclopedia,” and 12 other treatises about autistic children. Neisworth retired the following year as Spanier oversaw yet another disappearing act by an accused PSU employee, much as he did when Sandusky retired in 1999 after allegations of child abuse surfaced against him publicly in 1998. (Freeh has found no evidence linking the two events but the coincidence remains and Sandusky for once isn’t talking.)
In a 2005 article, Monk said that he thought that Neisworth had done no clinical work with children on the campus and that “Penn State is not investigating Neisworth’s activities at the university.” And like Sandusky, not all ties to PSU were cut. Neisworth remained in an emeritus status that he still enjoys today, participated in university seminars and workshops, and taught remote classes and generally enjoyed the role of a distinguished retired scholar.
The disregard for the veracity of McLaughlin’s complaint is bad enough, and the refusal to even hear the alleged taped confession is mind-boggling, but perhaps most incredible is Monk’s analysis of the university’s moral responsibility. Neisworth’s “duties did not involve direct contact with children,” intones the polymath, thus it follows that, in Penn State’s view, no concern need be shown by the university for his contact with children away from the campus. That’s quite an incredible take on a complaint of child sexual abuse. The total disregard for the safety of children who might come into contact with the alleged employee-pedophile is likewise shocking on a professional and human level. It’s also the same approach taken by Spanier, Shultz, Paterno, and Curley, just a year later when they decided that the best option in the face of a credible report of child rape was to tell Sandusky that his youthful “guests” would no longer be welcome in the Lasch Building’s shower stalls.
What happens away from Penn State stays away from Penn State, or so it was tragically claimed.
The Shanghai Gone Awry
Spanier’s undue concern for secrecy and his desire to control university operations outside of Board scrutiny may have created a situation that even he can’t make disappear. By keeping a blind-fold over the Board, he may have given an opening to victim’s lawyers by allowing them to argue the Board negligently failed to discharge their oversight duties. Freeh explicitly stated in his report that, ”The board’s over-confidence in Spanier’s abilities, and its failure to conduct oversight and responsible inquiry of Spanier and senior university officials, hindered the board’s ability to deal with the most profound crisis ever confronted by the University.” That comment hits like blood in the water for lawyers seeking to prove that the Board shirked its legal obligation to oversee the university and its officials thus permitting the abuse to occur through its collective negligence. “This could increase our liability,” a current trustee said, “possibly by millions.”
Calls for the resignation of the Board of Trustees had fallen on deaf ears until this Thursday when ex-chairman, Steve Garban, resigned. Garban was harshly criticized by the Freeh report for his stewardship of the Board during the Sandusky scandal. Judge Freeh singled out Garban and suggested that he was twice told of the Sandusky matter but secreted it away from the entire Board thus depriving it of the opportunity to prepare for the looming crisis. In a letter to Board chairwoman Karen Peetz, Garban said: “It is clear to me that my presence on the board has become a distraction and an impediment to your efforts to move forward.” Many have suggested Garban was pressured to resign by fellow board members as a sign that the board was changing course, and in order to avoid the NCAA’s death penalty reserved for especially egregious lapses in institutional control over the football program. The NCAA’s hard-nosed President Mark Emmert has pointedly refused to rule out the death penalty for the program saying, “I’ve never seen anything as egregious as this in terms of just overall conduct and behavior inside a university and hope never to see it again.” A shutdown of the program could cost Penn State about $70 million according to experts.
Recently, Spanier’s lawyers have countered the allegations of the Freeh report claiming it was unfair and full of errors. They also claim Spanier was never advised of the allegations of child sexual abuse at the university and that a federal investigation into his security clearance exonerated him. At this point, however, those protestations of innocence seem like the railings of King Canute against a rising tide of recrimination.
The Duty of the Strong
The most disheartening feature of this sad case of pedophilia is the utter unexpectedness of its enablers. Child abusers come from every walk of life and their corrupt brain wiring is not understood. Sandusky is an enigma of our species. However, privileged academics earning hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars from an adoring public and supporters of the university are understood. We expect a level of fidelity, trust, and responsibility in the discharge of their duties that transcends the base motives of greed, lust, and silence when good men would speak. We demand that they be held to account to us for transgressions against us, and we need not tolerate the coy equivocations of a child when offered by the privileged in their own defense. Finally, these men owed a duty — both as public men and simply as men themselves — to save helpless children from the abominations that were perpetrated on them by one whom these men both knew and knew too well.
It was French playwright Victor Hugo who, with the imprint of the bloody French Revolution still seared in the collective mind of his countrymen, declaimed:
The little people must be sacred to the big ones, and it is from the rights of the weak that the duty of the strong is comprised.
Some in the palaces of leadership at Penn State — like the Bourbon kings of old — ignored this irremeable law of duty as they had so many other things. They should not be surprised by the magnitude of the reckoning.
Source: ESPN and New York Times; and examiner.com
~Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
I like women only. You can from this whatever you want. I find it reprehensible.
The whole board and administration needs to go..now. The whole upper mgmt. are dirty.
Great article Mark.
This story just keeps getting worse and worse. The casual depravity of this group of educators is downright creepy and, quite frankly, makes me sick to my stomach.
Does this board actually think they deserve to have a football program? If so then the depravity is still so deeply embedded that the only answer is the NCAA’s death penalty.
The purpose of university education is……… education. That does not include beating Ohio State in football. We need to compete with the Chinese in Math and Science. Voters of Pennsylvania must get behind politicians who will change things. State Penn or Pedophile Penn will be the moniker until they end football and other sports. Your tax dollar is being wasted. 18 Up and Out.
Mark,
This series has been great in providing the in depth information on this ongoing travesty of higher education. That people would throw away a career of good works in service to protecting their schools reputation is a sad commentary on self interest and hubris.
Mike S.,
People throw away their careers for greed and the love of power. Maybe it is time for Penn State to no longer have a football program.
Blouise:
“This story just keeps getting worse and worse.”
***************************
You’re right. I think it will get a lot worse once the investigation into Second Mile begins.
i just can’t wrap my head around how so many people could know about something like this and do nothing.
aw, jerry’s okay, just don’t let him near the kids table at thanksgiving.
hey, as long as it’s someone elses kid.
it’s not like he does drugs or something.
not being able to field a football team should be the least of their worries.
damm good article, Mark
mespo, Do you really think there will be a full investigation of Second Mile? Considering where it can go, I think there are a lot of powerful people who have reason to stop it. Penn State is the throw away. Second Mile will probably shut down. “Investigation” over. Hope I’m wrong.
Beware of public figures who eschew transparency.
When public figures declare “you know all you need to know”, it is a declaration from those who want to oppress.
First, if you think PSU is the problem you are thinking too small. This could have happened (be happening) at any of dozens of football factories across the country. The problem is much deeper than just one school and a handful of amoral a**holes running it.
I also thing PSU should be allowed – no actually required – to play a full schedule of games. They should be required to donate every dime of revenue, ticket sales, licensing fees, broadcast revenue, stadium advertising – the works, to programs around the country that shelter, protect and help heal the victims of sexual abuse. This should last at least as long as the abuse was allowed to happen, a decade minimum.
That might not only scare some sense into other programs straight maybe it would catch the Vatican’s attention. Imagine if they had to sell a few of the Pope’s tiaras because their collection plate hall went to help their victims for a millennium.
sorry for the word that got me into moderation – also goofed when I changed my mind midway through P3S1, was originally going to say “scared straight” as a wink to the silly young offender program but then thought the double entendre of “straight” was a poor choice. Finally if is “haul” not “hall”.
bettykath:
“mespo, Do you really think there will be a full investigation of Second Mile? ”
********************************
I think there will be. Calls are starting to be heard for it:
http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/13/opinion/jones-penn-state/index.html
Also, the US Postal Service Inspection Service, who investigates child exploitation across state lines, have commenced an investigation:
http://www.actionnewsjax.com/content/topstories/story/U-S-Postal-inspectors-investigating-The-Second-Mi/m97TmChIE0eIjEGN8ZmtTg.cspx
Frankly:
With hopefully your permission, I approved your comment and only slightly modified it to match JT’s civility policy. If this is not acceptable, please let me know. It’s a wonderful idea.
Mark
Power begets corruption…… Or vice versa…..
“Child abusers come from every walk of life and their corrupt brain wiring is not understood. Sandusky is an enigma of our species.”
The bully religion is well understood, it is just that we have institutionalized the myth that “good people” do not partake of mass bullying of the official group type, typified by Penn State’s institutionalization of abuse in this case.
This case is one of millions which belie the myth, a myth perpetuated most likely because our society is the bully of current civilization, and like the Penn State officials, our notions of exceptionalism allow us to sprinkle holy water on our denial mechanisms.
That reality, like the Penn State reality, is too much for people to process because it challenges our fundamental world view.
The reason this denial behavior is like a child being told “your mommy has another boyfriend besides your dad” (who then goes into automatic denial), is because we subconsciously consider officialdom to be a surrogate parent.
This sequence of events is well known in academic circles that peruse the dynamics of the psyche.
Like the officials at Penn State, even the notion of such a thing from a whistleblower brings up a rejection impulse toward openly questioning the sanctity of official behavior.
This has become so firmly institutionalized in our society that it creates a lot of unseemly behavior, and will continue to do so so long as we hold it close to our chest as an “enigma of our species.”
The fundamental essence of this behavior is: the more powerful entity oppressing a weaker entity.
It is called “abuse” because we focus on the aftermath when we should be looking into the enigma, where we will find our society itself.
We can’t fix it until we find it.
AY:
“Power begets corruption…… Or vice versa…..”
***************************
As you say, when one person or a small group of them have it the two terms are interchangeable.
“What did we narrow it down to Daniel?”
Oh, we got Daniel from M.I.T. who is third in his class.”
And, then there is JoeBob, First in Class, from State Penn. Mike from Ohio State. Larry the cable guy from University of Phoenix.”
Ok, Daniel, we gotta a Daniel and there are no other prospects in this group. Either we go with another Daniel or we keep scouring through the applications. Just dont give me anymore from State Penn to consider. I will take a Jo Pa pass on that place.
BarkinDog,
I don’t think that’s a realistic scenario. The football program and the highest levels of the administration have been outed. I’ve seen nothing that attacks their education programs. If the person applying also played NCAA football, I would wonder about the quality of their education regardless of the college.
Mespo, thank you. What you are showing is not peculiar to Penn State. The fact is that unbelievable cover-ups of child sexual abuse are the norm, not the exception. Investigation of Second Mile may take place, but more likely, it will be “confusilated out of existence,” using the model of “the more information that is presented, the more confusion will arise, and the more doubt, and the less assurance, and the more influence to make the thing go away without any more heads rolling, and blah blah blah…”
If a very highly motivated very intelligent independently wealthy detective with degrees in both law and psychiatry, with unlimited subpoena power, a totally secure home and an inexhaustible supply of body guards and litigators, were to take on even ONE of the massive cover-ups (pick Penn State, Prosecutor Hynes in Brooklyn, a big city opera community, the Rockland County, New York department of human services, etc. etc. etc. etc. ad nauseam) and work straight for five years, they would have a chance to crack, put on display, analyze and confirm ONE massive cover-up, and even then, they would have to give up on the idea of ANY prosecutions of ANY perps for ANYTHING because the kicking-in of the constitutional rights of the accused would stop the flow of information instantaneously.
We’re in it so deep that information is the OPPOSITE of power; it is disempowerment per se.
bettykath,
if they want to play football, okay. The military academies have football teams. They usually don’t win because that isn’t the focus.
http://movies.about.com/od/fridaynightlights/a/nightbt100604.htm
“Our notions of exceptionalism allow us to sprinkle holy water on our denial mechanisms.”
Dredd, What a sentence. I believe the content is a human failing visited on us all, I know it is true for me. Thank you for it.
I wonder if this concept is the main precept for unchecked and rising Egos, a continued billowing of self aggrandizement, and ultimately the need for lawyers to prove in court, the righteousness and purity of Mr. or Ms. perfect.
I have no huge salary nor social position to protect, and I seek neither, therefore when I am confronted with failings, that are at times true, it is much easier for me to correct them, for my judgement of myself is based solely on my sincerity and desire to stay so. I do not have to defend a false principle for others to insure my status as a paragon of exceptionalism.
Simple things, truly and well done are rewarding. Something I believe that is rock solid true (to me) Most everything is simple, it is we humans that choose to make things complicated.
Following……
mespo – no problem, I have a civility problem when it comes to a handful of topics and sexual abuse is high on that list. I think many of these guys (and they were all guys in this case, right?) should go to prison (unlike some sadist I do not hope they are victims of sexual abuse themselves but I’d like to think they would fear that possibility so that they might learn empathy for the children abused because of their behavior). But after the legal consequences they thing these bustards care about most is money so my penalty would hurt them while helping the victims. It would be real justice
Frankly 1, July 21, 2012 at 5:36 pm
I do not hope they are victims of sexual abuse themselves but I’d like to think they would fear that possibility so that they might learn empathy for the children abused.
================
I never suffered that abuse. They wouldn’t have the appendage left.
Shall we talk reality? Probably not. What do you think your empathy amounts to? Nothing. When I was in Navy boot camp, one of the Senior Chief Petty Officers told me your a** s*ck* butt*rm*lick, recruit. I said, no it doesn’t. Do you know would have would have happened to him if he tried to prove it?
Matt Johnson, but your experience occurred when you were an adult and the petty officer was a relative stranger to you and the act he used in his inane vulgarity was one that you recognized as an act you would decide not to participate in. All these characteristics and your own grown-personhood make the scene you describe, while disgusting and offensive, NOT ANALOGOUS to the scene that was presented to any victims of child sexual abuse.
Kids abused by someone who is an authority figure, especially a male authority figure to kids who have some issues in their past with either authority figures (have ended up in the tender mercies of Second Mile) or inadequate or abusive parents, would not have the ability to see the situation the way you did, i.e., “This is abuse and I won’t take it.”
The problem is usually that NOT ONLY the victim-kids see the perps as authority figures, but those who thereafter cover it up.
Cover-ups never work to cover up the crimes of the powerless. THEY ONLY WORK to cover up the crimes of the powerful. And that is WHY they work.
Malisha,
Nobody ever did anything to me. I would have killed them. I’m not as nice as you think I am.
Was that too much?
What happens when the odds are good, but the goods are odd? Move to Alaska.
Matt Johnson: What makes you think I think you are nice?
Graham Spanier fits that profile; he had a history of power abuse before arriving at Penn State. He had long been a careerist. Google “Spanier at Oregon State University” or “Spanier corruption.”
Read more: http://ideas.time.com/2012/07/17/penn-state-cover-up-group-think-in-action/#ixzz21JMLWJql
Matt you are a friggin moron – so full of yourself you are incapable of empathy or many other human emotions that decent humans can feel. How nice that you know exactly how you, as a 12 year old boy, would have responded to such a horrible situation. How nice for you to be so sure. How sad that you can’t imagine that not every child is as strong and brave and true and perfect as you.
Unless, could it be the false bravado of a weakling? Unable to face the reality that you may not be so brave and strong and perfect so you build a BS wall around you of macho tough guy talk? Given how hard you protest I bet that is more likely – why else would you have joined the Navy instead of a real fighting force?
Woah, Frankly, you sure got mad about something that didn’t seem too terribly offensive. Or am I just so silly and passive I read something and failed to see how it condemned us all — and showed my Pollyanna side?
The Navy, I think I should say, is a very respectable “fighting force” — I wish we never needed anything like it, of course. Maybe if everyone were as slow to anger as I appear to be, we could do away with all our military branches and get happy. But in the meantime I have to feel grateful that someone other than me joins those military forces, leaving me to do other stuff that is usually less dangerous than going to the movies or being “troubled” in a college town in Pennsylvania.
Joe Paterno Statue At Penn State Taken Down
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/22/joe-paterno-statue-penn-state_n_1692683.html
Excerpt:
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — The famed statue of Joe Paterno was taken down from outside the Penn State football stadium Sunday, eliminating a key piece of the iconography surrounding the once-sainted football coach accused of burying child sex abuse allegations against a retired assistant.
Workers lifted the statue off its base and used a forklift to move it into Beaver Stadium as the 100 to 150 students watching chanted, “We are Penn State.”
The university announced earlier Sunday that it was taking down the monument in the wake of an investigative report that found the late coach and three other top Penn State administrators concealed sex abuse claims against retired assistant coach Jerry Sandusky.
A spokeswoman for the Paterno family did not immediately return phone and email messages Sunday morning.
Construction vehicles and police arrived shortly after dawn Sunday, barricading the street and sidewalks near the statue, erecting a chain-link fence then concealing the statue with a blue tarp.
Penn State President Rod Erickson said he decided to have the statue removed and put into storage because it “has become a source of division and an obstacle to healing.”
“I believe that, were it to remain, the statue will be a recurring wound to the multitude of individuals across the nation and beyond who have been the victims of child abuse,” Erickson said in a statement released at 7 a.m. Sunday.
He said Paterno’s name will remain on the campus library because it “symbolizes the substantial and lasting contributions to the academic life and educational excellence that the Paterno family has made to Penn State University.”
The bronze sculpture outside Beaver Stadium has been a rallying point for students and alumni outraged over Paterno’s firing four days after Sandusky’s Nov. 5 arrest – and grief-stricken over the Hall of Fame coach’s Jan. 22 death at age 85.
They took down the statue to lessen the impact of the civil lawsuits that are going to be rolling in for years…look out!
I wonder where it is in Beaver Stadium. Is it on the sidelines for the fans to know that Joe Pa is with them? Is in the locker room for the football players to genuflect? Is it in a storage room where it is out of sight and out of mind? Removing it was a wise thing for the university in trying to change its image. Even a good thing considering it was a rallying point for those willing to overlook Paterno’s enabling of Sandusky. Let’s see where they put it. It will help understand how genuine their sense of shame.
I don’t have a good feeling about Spanier that goes beyond what has been exposed about his cowardice in stopping the abuse.
Malisha,
While a PR maneuver without a doubt, even though it is the right thing to do, removing the statue will do nothing to mitigate any potential civil suit damages against Penn State.
BTW, Mark . . . excellent article in the ongoing series. Maybe the best so far.
Malisha 1, July 21, 2012 at 8:32 pm
Matt Johnson: What makes you think I think you are nice?
=======
I’m nicer than you.
Editor 1, July 21, 2012 at 9:44 pm
Graham Spanier fits that profile; he had a history of power abuse before arriving at Penn State. He had long been a careerist. Google “Spanier at Oregon State University” or “Spanier corruption.”
==================================
Oregon State University. Home of the Beavers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Spanier
Did you mean Cocker Spaniel?
http://www.google.com/search?q=cocker+spaniel&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=K2N&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&channel=np&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=IVkMUJ7YD-TY0QGsws3mAw&ved=0CGYQsAQ&biw=1024&bih=665
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444025204577542670920264682?mod=djemalertNEWS
Who get their statue torn down?
From the Centre Daily Times, State College PA
Chip, I wish I could agree with your belief that the only way to bring perspective back to the PSU football and the University is by eliminating football for some period of time. However, I read your words as meaning nothing more than attempting to buy back honor through attrition. I could easily accept that approach if at least one fact had emerged.
1. Proof that Joe had any knowledge of Sandusky’s criminal activity prior to the ’98 investigation. To date, not a trace.
2. Proof that anyone within the football program and with Paterno’s knowledge in any way inhibited the investigation of the 1998 investigation that included psychologists, TSM, at least two police forces, both CYS and Harrisburg’s DPW and the Centre County DA’s department. To date the only fact established is that 2 emails from that period may have referred to Paterno with absolutely no context. The emails mentioning “coach” and “the coach” are totally nondescript.
3. Proof that the janitor’s reaction to allegedly seeing a criminal act was in anyway known by anyone in the football program. The inclusion of this allegation boggles my mind with the fact that it has never been established that the janitor would have had any different reaction had he caught a professor in any other building in the same situation. Thismight have been an PSU cultural issue, but highly unlikely a football issue.
This brings us to 2001 and also places all failures prior to that year outside the realm of the football program. Victims 4, 7 and 10 all began prior to ’98 and without proof of point 1 have nothing to do with PSU football other than involving a very clever and secretive coach.
Without proof of points 2 and 3, the true enabler of Sandusky, as a pedophile, was not the football program. Either the system, made up of professionals trained to uncover deviants, failed their responsibilities or parties outside the football program had reasons not to want Sandusky caught.
4. Proof that Joe Paterno led or was an active participant in attempting to cover up the molestation of a young boy. Many have been convinced by the press that JoePa was the ringleader of such a coverup. Again we, at this point have learned very little from Freeh’s $6.5m opinion piece other than that the press is very weak at establishing fact. After the Schultz and Curley perjury trials we may have a better understanding of what happened, but as of today, there are only opinions.
You and your newspaper are partially responsible for allowing this to happen. Read and analyze p.73 and p.74 in Freeh’s report. Read what he says on p.73 about a series of emails written between Feb. 26th and the 28th written, as Freeh says, in “code” between Curley, Schultz and Spanier. Then on p.27 he writes about what he alleges Curley wrote, “After giving it more thought and talking it over with Joe yesterday– I am uncomfortable with what we agreed were the next steps……”
Now I would be very uncomfortable as a reporter looking for answers with accepting what is written on these two pages. I would be asking Freeh, if he had established culpability in a cover up, why he did not include the series of emails from Feb. 26th to Feb. 28th in his exhibits rather than writing about what they said. I’d also be asking Freeh how he jumped from a paragraph of a lot of “I” sentences (“After giving it more thought”, “I feel uncomfortable”, “I am having trouble”, “I think I would”, “I would plan”, and “I would indicate”) to a cover up including Paterno because he talked to Joe yesterday. As a journalist, these are the questions that need to be clarified.
Prove 4 and the football program certainly has some responsibility. Without proof of any of the 4 points we only have mass hysteria.
Read more here: http://www.centredaily.com/2012/07/22/3268640/newspaper-must-try-to-bring-perspective.html#storylink=cpy
Jen W:
I guess psufan 69 (who wrote this comment) must have read a different report than the one prepared by the ex-head of the FBI. He seems to blame the newspaper as if Freeh consulted them before submitting the report. There are apologists and there are the deluded. The readers can decide into which camp psufan69 belongs.
Gene H:
Thanks, Gene. Always appreciated.
Matt Johnson, so what if you ARE nicer than me; almost ANYBODY can say THAT. If you want anyone to think you’re nice, you have to be nicer than somebody whose niceness is measurable, at least. I have something that shows absolutely that I’m NOT NICE: A court order entered by a Virginia Circuit Court judge that says I’m not credible because I presented myself as a “nice sweet” woman and I’m really NOT! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!
But at least you think you’re nicer than he thinks I AM! (BTW, this judge is a big pew in a nice place. He quoted Neville Chamberlain in a court order!)
Malisha,
What about Neville Chamberlain’s piece of paper? Munich Agreement. Didn’t do much good.
Neville Chamberlain was too nice. You’re nicer than you think you are. But you’re smarter than Neville Chamberlain.
Well the judge wasn’t totally ignorant of history; he said that he understood it was not possible to appease my ex-husband, and what the psychiatrist had said about him made the judge think of Neville Chamberlain, and he speculated that what he was about to do might be “a heck of a mistake” but he decided to “try it” anyway. Total fool, a buffoon, and then when it didn’t work out and he LOOKED LIKE AN A55, he decided that was all MY FAULT for not being appeasing enough to the little hitler he had appeased, and turned on me. You can stand in any courthouse in the country and throw a stone and hit a judge as stupid, arrogant, dishonest and crazy as this guy. But they’ll throw your a55 in jail for throwing stones at them, too.
About how relatively nice I am (nicer than I think I am) and how smart I am (smarter than Neville Chamberlain), thanks, but you may be damning me with faint praise.
The hammer has fallen:
http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/8191027/penn-state-hit-60-million-fine-4-year-bowl-ban-wins-dating-1998
I read this in the NYTimes this morning but the ESPN link you provided is more informative.
I was pleased to read that they removed Paterno’s statue.
Although I was initially in favor of the “death penalty”, I believe the decisions enacted are the correct ones.
Here’s Graham Spanier’s reply letter to the Board of Trustees about his role:
http://espn.go.com/pdf/2012/0723/espn_otl_spanierletter.pdf
Ask yourself why he never clearly explains what he meant by:
“The only downside for us is if message isn’t ‘heard’ and acted upon and we then become vulnerable for not having reported it, but that can be assessed down the road.”
About that concern, Spanier says: “My comment that we could be
vulnerable for not reporting it further relates specifically and only to
Tim’s concern about the possibility that Jerry would not accept our
directive and repeat the practice.”
Huh?
Who do you think he’s worried about when he says ” we then become vulnerable for not having reported “it”? Sandusky? Second Mile?The Safety Patrol?
Yeesh.
Mespo,
Spaniel is dirtier than dirt itself.
I’d appreciate it if you weren’t so hard on dirt, raff.
Agriculture depends on dirt.
Now scum on the other hand . . .
Am I the only one here who talks “coverup”?
“The only downside for us is if message isn’t ‘heard’ and acted upon and we then become vulnerable for not having reported it, but that can be assessed down the road.”
This means: “Let’s just cover this up. The only downside if we do is that if Jerry doesn’t stop molesting kids, and somebody whom we cannot control TELLS, and they get believed and we don’t, and we can’t fire whoever it is who sails forth against us, then we’ll be up sh*t creek with no paddle — but let’s go ahead and cover this one up now and we’ll just figure out, later on, whether the kids he molests have any power or credibility, and if he sticks to molesting kids who are utterly powerless and totally unbelievable no matter what they squeal about, we’ll be OK.”
About that concern, Spanier says: “My comment that we could be
vulnerable for not reporting it further relates specifically and only to
Tim’s concern about the possibility that Jerry would not accept our
directive and repeat the practice.”
This means: “We’ve got THIS covered so far; of course, as Tim has mentioned, if Jerry keeps on raping kids and doesn’t listen to us about the need to stop doing that, we might get busted. So we’ll probably be OK if compulsive behavior will just stop being as compulsive as it is. And to really work this out right, we should just rely on the fact that we think that giving a “pass” to Jerry for having raped a few kids will make him stop — yeah, that ought to work just fine. If you tell him to stop his compulsive behavior, he ought to listen. After all, there was a child psychiatrist named Richard Gardner who said that even if a guy molests a child, as soon as you focus a little attention on that behavior he gets the idea that he shouldn’t do it any more and then it’s over and done with. Let’s follow his guidance.”
=======================
That said, I don’t understand this idea of “vacating” Penn State’s wins. What I have always longed for is the idea that people just can’t magically UNDO what has happened. Will it teach us a lesson, as a culture, to have a bunch of real events, that took place in the real world, called “UNHAPPENED” rather than admitting that what DID happen actually DID happen?
PENN STATE DID WIN.
JERRY SANDUSKY DID RAPE AND EXPLOIT A BUNCH OF KIDS.
THE OFFICIALS OF THE SCHOOL DID FIND OUT.
THEY DID COVER IT UP.
THIS DID HAPPEN AND PEOPLE DID GET HURT.
ACT SANE ABOUT IT AND DEAL WITH IT.
DON’T GO UN-HAPPENING OTHER STUFF BECAUSE NOBODY SUCCESSFULLY UN-HAPPENED THE SEXUAL ABUSE OF CHILDREN!
=========================
I mean, why don’t we just unhappen Gadjusek’s nobel prize; unhappen James Holmes’ university degrees and high school diploma; unhappn all awards and honors ever given to people who have acted wrong, bad and immoral — oops, a lot of judges would be retroactively disbarred, wouldn’t they? That can’t be good.
Interesting article relating to Penn State’s NCAA sanctions:
Penn State will still have a large TV presence
Gene,
re the link … it will be interesting to see what advertisers do especially since other investigations into the matter are ongoing. I’m not certain I’d want my product associated with the next bombshell blow up in Happy Valley.
Blouise:
“it will be interesting to see what advertisers do especially since other investigations into the matter are ongoing. I’m not certain I’d want my product associated with the next bombshell blow up in Happy Valley.”
**************************
State Farm has pulled its advertising from Penn State. Pepsi says they are staying.
Malisha 1, July 22, 2012 at 11:10 pm
About how relatively nice I am (nicer than I think I am) and how smart I am (smarter than Neville Chamberlain), thanks, but you may be damning me with faint praise.
=============
Years in the dark? Who wrote that song.
Eagles?
“Pepsi says they are staying.” (mespo)
They probably supply all the vending machines on campus and hold the contract for food and beverages at the stadium and student union etc.
mespo,
Come to think of it … maybe that should be investigated … kickback advertising dollars to get concession contracts?
Storms just blew through in Wisconsin. Sun’s shining now.
Is this some kind of weird I.Q. test? Years in the Dark? Who wrote that song? Eagles?
When I google “Years in the dark” with quotation marks it kicks up the Batman movie; more gives less.
I know a lot about a little. Sometimes it is possible to generalize or find analogies but not often. Anyway, I’m lost now.
Amazing Grace?
http://www.lyrics007.com/Eagles%20Lyrics/I%20Can%27t%20Tell%20You%20Why%20Lyrics.html
Here you go.
Matt Johnson, oh, thanks for that song, fabulous! I’m sure I have heard it, the line “I can’t tell you why” came through as a distinct memory. Often, though, I can’t make out what the lyrics are as songs play. That’s why I like James Brown; it doesn’t matter WHAT the lyrics are (all lyrics = please please please) and every instrument is percussion.
That said, I then had to go back and read to try to figure out the significance…maybe I’m going through a period of stubborn incomprehension but, if so, good music is probably the best medicine. Thanks.
Malisha, good to hear of someone else who doesn’t “hear” the lyrics. King Ralph was mentioned on a thread. I watched the movie last night. Good fluff. Best part was Goodman’s Little Richard number and Little Richard’s version during the credits. Don’t know if the lyrics make sense (probably don’t) but the percussion does.
Malisha,
I usually don’t listen to the lyrics. I’m dense. I just listen to the noise.
You’re not dense.