Do you think this was the right move…or do you believe Joe Paterno should have been allowed to retire at the end of this season?
what people are talking about
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Us Girls..Our Views 
You know, I haven’t read much beyond headlines on this, but I feel that there is too much of “what will make the vultures happy” in this whole scenario. I mean, what is so complicated about “a boy was raped by X”? It seems very simple to me. Somebody rapes a child on my watch, and I don’t care who the hell he is. I don’t see how they could even sit in the same room with that guy after that.
I hear the students are protesting. Why, because sports are more important than whether a child gets raped? OK. I hope they look back on this and feel ashamed of themselves for thinking that way. When they have sons, let’s see how well they take child rape.
Of course, this is not the first time many in our country have taken the position that it doesn’t matter what the guy did in his personal life. I seem to recall a certain high-profile 50-year-old playing around with a 21-year-old (granted it was not rape), and being told that it’s not important in the grand scheme of things. That’s just one of many examples. I really don’t think some people have or want principles.
SKL it wasn’t just one boy it was several boys. And if you read the transcipts of the Grand Jury testimony you are a better man than i. i had to stop because I was literally g etting ill with the graphic details of what grown men were doing to ten, eleven and twelve year old boys.
I have not read into it and I did assume there was more than 1 boy, but I was only sure of 1 boy.
I was just thinking this morning – a guy takes steriods that affect nobody but himself, and he’s outta there. But a guy basically condones the rape of a child(ren), and he’s a hero. Splain me that.
As far as we know (so far) there are 9 boys. I think they’re going to keep coming out. My heart is breaking for these poor children.
Here is a clip and article from GMA this morning. It’s the “first” victim’s mother.
He and superiors have to go to jail. It is hypocrite to only nail this Joe and easily not mentioning the others who knew it also back then.
And, I totally agree with SKL.
This is what I posted on my Facebook wall.
“What sort of god has this game of football become when grown men are willing to lay innocent little boys upon the alter of the gridiron?!”
EVERYOE ivolved in this has earned a home of concrete and steel… for life. ‘they should be stripped of any and all financials they have and the victims should get it. The college should be bankrupted from alol the law suites that surley wll follow this.
Imagine a grown man taking a 10-12 old boy, soaping him up in the shower, bending him over and sodomiing him… time and time again. If this were Biblical times they would have millstones tied around their necks and thrown into the sea! ‘they are getting off easy as it is.
“Fire the entire lot of them and take every penny they ever made at that institution.
Scumbag perverts every one.
It was absolutely the right move! Why are there so many sick people in the world?
This makes me sick and sad and pissed right off. I think every “good ol’ boy” who knew this was going on and looked the other way should be fired and stripped of everything. I pretty much agree with Michael. These were little boys. Paterno did what he was supposed to do legally at that time but he knew the person he told didn’t do anything. HE KNEW what was going on. I also feel every single protester in the streets should be very VERY ashamed that they’re putting this 84 year old man on this pedestal for a stupid game and there were small children raped over and over at the hands of these men. They think this is okay? I hope when they see themselves on TV and realize what they did, I hope they’re so ashamed. When I hear those young people in the streets screaming JOE-PA, it makes me sick.
WHEW!!! I can’t believe I said all that in one breath!!! ALSO….when I heard that mother say how the guidance counselors pulled that little boy out of class for “time alone” with Sandusky, it makes me want to just cry all day and go beat this guy to a bloody pulp.
How many people were there really involved? Do you see how it’s trickled down? I bet teachers and secretaries knew. What did they think was going on? Who takes a 12 year old boy out of class when they have nothing to do with him. It’s not like it was his band teacher and it was normal. This just reaks!
I’m thinking that I don’t want to read more about this (in the news).
There aren’t many things that make me want to vomit, but this is one of them.
Last night in the car repair shop, someone had the news on and they were going on and on about the student protests. Miss E was supposed to be reading to me, but she is a vidiot and her eyes kept wandering over to the news. (See why we don’t do TV?) Ugh. I don’t even want to see that, let alone have to explain any of it to my kids.
YES! Him, and every single staff member that knew should be fired! Not one should be left. How in the world can anyone, see a grown man showering with a young boy, and even say he thought it was in a sexual nature…not beat the living pulp out that monster! To not say anything, but instead go tell your DAD?! This has cover up written all over it, all the way down the line. And every single one needs to go!
This is sad beyond comprehension, and I hope like hell those young men (now) are OK. I’d bet they aren’t, though. 😦
At the very first inkling, it should have been reported to the POLICE! Every man I know, would have surpassed, Joe Paterno and gone straight to the police. Joe Paterno, in my opinion did not do what he morally should have done, either. He did what he was “supposed” to do, and nothing beyond that. He knew, and let it continue, by not doing something about it. He makes me sick, and I don’t care if he is “History” because he was the Penn State coach for 46 years. He’ll go down in history, in my book, as a complete D-Bag! Sorry for the language.
I don’t know how you could talk about this without strong language, being the mom of a boy that age. OK, I need to stop thinking about this because I think my brain is about to explode.
Yeah, it’s been one of the most emotionally hard weeks I’ve had in ages!
Deep Breathes. Deep Breaths. Deep Breaths.
Aside from the complete disgust I feel, I wonder how they thought they would get away with this in the long run. They just assumed that those boys would “suck it up” and never report? That even an abused boy would understand that the athletic department must live on at all costs? Or what? Are they insane or just really stupid?
I’m almost afraid to comment here, because.. .well… I’ll just explain.
First, I do not like Joe Paterno. I never have. I’ve always thought that he was an egotistical jackass who really let the fame go to his head. Yeah, he’s a good FB coach, but there are a lot of other coaches out there.
Second, I have deliberately not read or listened to a lot of the reporting on this. I just plain do not trust the press to keep a story the size that it should be – they have sensationalized so many stupid little things, and ignored so many big things, that I just plain do not trust them.
Third, and this relates to the second – because I do not trust the press, I have taken a “wait and see” attitude. Earlier this week, when I heard about the possible ‘stepping down’ of Paterno, I thought, he’s just taking the opportunity. And when I heard that he was fired, I seriously wondered if he was taking the heat BECAUSE he’s so famous. See, I have been in situations where I’ve had people come to me and say that they saw things that another person is doing – horrible things – but it also came back to me that those things were not true. So I had to look at it this way: we did not know the relationship between Paterno, Sandusky, the Grad Assistant, and anyone else (not the boys; adults only) involved. Was it possible that this G.A. was setting Sandusky up for something by telling stories on him, hoping that just an accusation would be sufficient to dump him? I didn’t know, so I didn’t want to judge.
Now that more details are coming out, I don’t like that people are vilifying Paterno, but seem to be holding this other guy up as a hero. “He told Paterno… it was PATERNO and everybody else that didn’t do anything!” No… he didn’t do anything either. If he was so horrified by it, why did he stand back and do nothing? I challenge any person to say that they would just walk away from that and mean it.
Having said all that, I think it was right, based on the little bit that I know, that Paterno and the rest of the crowd be fired. The hell with the game, the hell with the season. Every member of that FB team should be standing together against the protesters. This isn’t about football, it’s about every one of those guys having escaped horrors beyond measure.
I don’t know if I want to see Paterno, et al, dumped in jail. They did what they were supposed to do. I don’t know even, if the law should change. Yes, it’s a sick thing to do, to hold that info in, and not do anything else about it beyond reporting up the line, but as someone else told me… when you’re in a situation like that, where all you’re obligated to do is pass it on up the line, once you do, often you are out of the loop. Did Paterno know what his superior did? Did the superior report it to the police and the police say, “we’ll handle it,” and set up a sting? If that had happened, likely nobody would have been given leave to report back that yes, indeed, they had reported. There is so much we didn’t know. So much we still don’t know.
Like I said, I’m glad Paterno got fired. If it had been my son in there, you can bet that I’d have more than a few words for every one of those “men” who were involved and didn’t do anything.
But I don’t know yet, if I’m ready to throw him in jail, strip him of pension, or anything else until the full investigation comes to light.
I’m not sure he did anything illegal. However, from a moral / ethical perspective, he seems to have admitted that he could and should have done more. Fortunately for him, that probably does not mean jail time for him. However, he may be fair game in a civil lawsuit, though that too may be iffy.
I do agree that they may be hoping to make him a scapegoat. That’s part of what I meant by too much “what will please the vultures.” I don’t think we’ll ever know how many other people up and down the chain shirked their moral duties in this situation. So there may always be an open question whether additional people ought to be fired too.
I don’t have any desire to see a whole school etc. get damned because of the actions and inactions of a few. That’s not the point. But I gotta say, the more the student body sticks up for this guy (and others), the worse that school is going to be tainted.
Right now, at this point, I could care less about these men. I’m more scared for these boys. When I heard that mom talk this morning, something in my heart broke because she knew something was wrong with her son.
Ditto!
Joe Paterno knew of the abuse years ago and didn’t call the police because he didn’t want the football program, and by extension himself, to suffer. He clearly put football ahead of the well being of innocent children.