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Not So Happy Valley

Submitted by Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger

Happier Times: Sandusky (left) with Paterno

The reports from State College, Pa are shocking. Long-time assistant to iconic coach, Joe Paterno, charged with multiple counts of deviant sexual acts with at least eight minors — most under age 12. University administrators who did nothing despite horrific credible eyewitness accounts of  explicit sexual acts in locker rooms and showers. Disadvantaged kids taken advantage of by an authority figure who founded an organization ostensibly to help them, but apparently designed to fulfill his own aberrational desires.

These are the findings of the Grand Jury, and once unassailable Pennsylvania State University stands at a moral crossroads. At the institution’s hip stands legendary football coach, Joe Paterno, who is held out by the football world and the media as a guy who “does it right.” No cheating, no lascivious recruiting, no flashy uniforms a la’ Nike’s Oregon or Under Armour’s Maryland–the guy who made his football team clean the stadium after a game when criminal charges were placed against two of them. In short, a saint in the religion that has become football in Football America.

The center of the storm is former Penn State assistant coach, Jerry Sandusky, who made football fans everywhere think of the school as “Linebacker U.” An innovative mind who literally wrote the book on linebackers, Sandusky was Paterno’s right-hand man, and his heir apparent in Happy Valley.  The problem was Paterno just didn’t ever retire. Now at age 84 and in his 44th season coaching, Paterno is going strong and adding to his record 409 FCS wins.  Frustrated by the wait, Sandusky, 67,  applied for several head coaching  jobs, but, failing in that, retired in 1999 to work full-time with the Second Mile Foundation he created in 1977. Second Mile was designed to give disadvantaged youth “activities and programs for children  [and] … to promote self-confidence as well as physical, academic, and personal success.”

AD Tim Curley

Sandusky is alleged by the Grand Jury to have done quite a bit more. In 2002, a Penn State grad student overheard “rhythmic slapping” noises in the locker room showers. After putting away his tennis shoes, the 28-year-old went to investigate. What he saw can only be described as deviancy. According to published reports, the young man saw Sandusky involved in anal intercourse with a child he estimated to be age 10 (Victim #2).  He fled the scene shocked and the next day, accompanied by his father, reported the episode to Paterno. Paterno listened intently and then immediately reported it to University AD, Tim Curley. A week and a half later, the grad student met with Curley and University VP for Finance, Gary Shultz.  They too listened intently and assured him that steps would be taken. They weren’t. All that happened was that Sandusky’s keys to the locker room were taken away.

Then there’s that report by a University janitor who also caught Sandusky in the showers with another child victim ( Victim #8). He reported it to his supervisor. What happened at ol’ PSU in the face of the most unspeakable of crimes? Nada, zip, zilch… why, nothing at all. No report to the police as required of all educators under Pennsylvania law (In Pennsylvania, the statute requires all individuals who encounter a case of abuse through their professional capacity to make a report). No attempt to find out who the child was or to help him.

There is lots more. The Attorney’s General’s Report, found here (Warning:

Sr. VP Finance Gary Shultz

it’s graphic), reports fondling, oral sex, and night-time sexual assaults against children “sleeping over” at the Sandusky home and at other places. There’s even lots more about Curley and VP of Finance Shultz. Seems neither man recalls the grad student mentioning anything about anal sex in the shower that night. All these folks remember is something about Sandusky and the naked ten-year-old just “horsing around.”  Maybe that’s how they view screwing people over in the world of university finance and university athletics?

The Grand Jury didn’t buy it either and have charged both with perjury in their testimony.

As you probably guessed, the Old Boys have pulled together. No charges of failing to report the act to police against the iconic coach or anyone else at Penn State either — at least not yet. University President, Graham Spanier, issued a statement saying, “I have known and worked daily with Tim and Gary for more than 16 years. I have complete confidence in how they have handled the allegations about a former University employee.”  Tim and Gary aren’t issuing statements.

St. Joe’s not talking either according to the Athletic Department, but as a football icon he can’t keep that up forever. I’d like to pose a question here from a fellow coach: “Joe, as a legend in a profession who has as its mantra that ‘we’re in it for the kids,’ why would you ignore the suffering of and brutality against one of those kids whose only flaw seems to be that he’s not old enough to suit up yet?”

I’d like an honest answer to that. And then I’d like another question answered of every man that was involved — whether as a witness, authority figure, supervising coach,or just as a father of kids. Why didn’t you step up and confront that old bastard in the showers and hit him with all your might right square in the nose?

Source: Washington Post

~Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger

120 thoughts on “Not So Happy Valley”

  1. Well said Mespo. You are probably correct. At least it looks like Joe Pa’s days are numbered. However, for him to retire does nothing to help those victims. He should have been indicted. Sad.

  3. The one thing I notice visually is that all involved in this obscenity are college educated, upper middle class, middle-aged white men. I wonder how long this debacle would have lasted if just one female was in the power loop on this at Penn State. Ashamedly as a male, I’m willing to bet it would not have been very long.

  4. Thanks, anon nurse. I read the NYT article. It was really the only way out for all involved.

  7. In many ways, this is a good example of how “the system” protects the 1% …until someone starts the ball rolling to reset the equilibrium. By the way, who was that “someone,” after all these years of cover-up in this case?

  9. Penn State Scandal: Joe Paterno Didn’t Do Enough To Stop Abuse Says State Police Commissioner
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/07/penn-state-scandal-joe-paterno-police-commissionner-sandusky_n_1080443.html

    Excerpt:
    HARRISBURG, Pa. — Time and again, questions about an alleged cover-up of a sex abuse scandal at Penn State circled back to one name: Joe Paterno.

    Major college football’s oldest, winningest and perhaps most revered coach, was engulfed Monday in a growing furor involving former defensive coordinator and one-time heir apparent Jerry Sandusky, who was indicted on charges of sexually abusing eight boys over 15 years.

    The Pennsylvania state police commissioner said Paterno fulfilled his legal requirement when he relayed to university administrators that a graduate assistant had seen Sandusky attacking a young boy in the team’s locker room shower in 2002. But the commissioner also questioned whether Paterno had a moral responsibility to do more.

    On the Happy Valley campus and in the surrounding town of State College, some were even asking whether the 84-year-old coach should step down after 46 seasons on the sidelines.

  10. All educators are mandatory reporters. In most jurisdictions with which I am familiar, failure to report is an indictable offense. It may range from misdemeanor to felony, but still an offense. If one has a license to practice a profession it can be revoked if the holder failed to report either child abuse or a sex offense against a child.

  13. team means never having to say you are guilty.

    To bad for Paterno, you would have thought his reputation meant something to him. I guess fealty to friends is more important than personal morality.

    The whole place should be shunned.

  15. Excellent insights, mespo… and they are “cowards, all” to be sure, as you say… (I wasn’t clear, perhaps… It’s heartbreaking, knowing how the victims were exploited and injured. They will never fully recover. of course.

    At the moment, the only real feeling that I have for those who participated or did nothing is one of loathing…. and pity, perhaps…

  16. anon nurse:

    All this macho football thumping of chests about courage and committment. One horrible deed in their presence and they go scurring off like rabbits. It’s heartbreaking but un-manly too in the good sense of that oft-underused word. Cowards, all.

  17. So Paterno fulfilled his obligations by passing the allegation along to his superiors according to the link anon nurse posted. Not good enough. He should have fired his ex-assistant or demanded a full and impartial investigation take place. Actually, the most obvious and simple act would have been for any of these people to call the police – they had knowledge of, directly or indirectly, a crime.

    And what Blouise and anon nurse said, if any of the adults had acted in a responsible manner they could have saved a lot of future grief. Everybody involved is just spouting a variant of the ‘good soldier’ defense.

  18. mespo,

    Very well said — all of it. I, too, hope that “heads roll” in what is, yet, another example of a “culture” of complicity.

    There are too many who are willing to look the other way and let terrible things continue. It’s heartbreaking.

  19. anon nurse:

    From the NYT article:

    “This is not a case about football,” [Pennsylvania Commissioner of State Police] Noonan said. “This is not a case about universities. This is a case about children who have had their innocence stolen from them and a culture that did nothing to stop it or prevent it from happening to others.”

    Amen, there Commissioner Noonan. If ever there were a case where heads should roll if these allegations are proven true, this is it. This case reveals a sick culture of denial and protection of wrongdoing that should be exposed and eradicated starting from the top. Admitted inappropriate contact with a minor by the alleged perp in 1998; a janitor apparently observing the man performing oral sex on an 11 -13 year old in 2000 and struggling with the decision to report it to his superior; a 28-year-old coach seeing anal sex performed on a 10-year-old in 2002 and running from the scene and then having to call his Dad to find out what to do; the alleged perp bringing kids to Penn State football practices after all of this was known — at least to some in the University. Everyone afraid that doing the right and legal thing will cost them their jobs or that the school’s reputation will be sullied, and all the while absolutely no regard for the child victims. On second thought, “sick” is too nice a word for this “culture.” I’d call it depraved and cowardly. I’m trying to think of a more insulting characterization but I can’t.

  20. anon nurse,
    I agree. A hollow response. How about firing everyone who knew something about the abuse. Including Joe Pa.

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