Penn State's Child Rape Cover Up

[jimmy olsen]

^ I don't see the university doing that, so we'll just have to hope the NCAA gives them the death penalty.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/freeh-report-joe-paterno-burning-in-hell-right-now,28754/

PHILADELPHIA—Releasing a full report of his investigation into the Penn State scandal at a press conference Thursday morning, former FBI director Louis J. Freeh disclosed that the late Joe Paterno was indeed burning in hell at this very moment for his part in covering up the sexual abuse of young boys. "My examination of the available documents found that Jerry Sandusky's activities were almost certainly known to Coach Paterno, who failed to act appropriately in reporting or following up on certain incidents and who is indeed shrieking in indescribable anguish as the searing flames of hell devour his flesh for all eternity," Freeh told reporters, adding that Paterno's firing by the university was also warranted. "Every moment since his death has been one of pure suffering and excruciating, flesh-melting torment, based on the interdepartmental communications given to us for review." Freeh refused to confirm whether Penn State fans and alumni who supported Paterno during the scandal would also eventually burn in hell, saying they had "the remainder of their lives" to reflect and repent and "may still escape eternal and painful damnation."

[frunk]

A Failed Experiment

Last November, as the worst month in my alma mater's history unfolded, a Penn State medical-school researcher named Craig Meyers went on the radio to detail a remarkable scientific discovery: He had discovered a potential cure for cancer. It went largely unnoticed, because Craig Meyers is a scientist and because no one associated with Penn State gave a good goddamn about science in that moment, because they were enveloped by football.

That's what we are left with now that former FBI director Louis Freeh's damning independent report on Penn State has been released: It is everything the lawyers and flacks and message-board apologists assured us it wasn't. It is a football scandal, it is a Penn State scandal, and it is a fundamental violation of the very Grand Experiment — of the balance between academics and athletics, of the notion that football can elevate a university rather than weigh it down, of the idea that men like Craig Meyers benefit from men like Joe Paterno — that the school had espoused since the 1960s. It is a betrayal of every academic advancement Penn State has made since Paterno became its head coach; it is a betrayal of all of us who came of age within Paterno's sphere of influence; and it is a betrayal, most of all, of those abused children who grew up as my neighbors, and who were ignored and then abandoned by their elders in apparent deference to the abuser himself.

Taking into account the available witness statements and evidence, the Special Investigative Counsel finds that it is more reasonable to conclude, that, in order to avoid the consequences of bad publicity, the most powerful leaders at the University — Spanier, Schultz, Paterno and Curley — repeatedly concealed critical facts relating to Sandusky's child abuse from authorities, the University's Board of Trustees, the Penn State community, and the public at large.

It would be easy for me to say now that I saw this coming, that the mythologizing of Joe Paterno in the town where I grew up always made me a little uneasy, that I had grown increasingly skeptical of the Grand Experiment as Paterno clung to his job long after it appeared to be time for him to let go. But this is not entirely true. Because my doubt was always outweighed by the notion that the people in charge, as distasteful as their treatment of the media might be, as much as they battled against transparency and disclosure and open records, had the best interests of Penn State at heart.

This was my fundamental mistake. This was our mistake, as a community. The Grand Experiment began as a sales pitch, as a way for Paterno to elevate the standards of the university he loved by using football as the lure. And then at some point, the lure outweighed the catch, and the sales pitch drove motivations, and we were too myopic to see it. At some point, the little white lies that Paterno hid behind — that he would retire after five more years, that Bowling Green was, in fact, a formidable opponent, that the culture of football was in no way segregated from the culture of the university at large — ballooned into this, into a lie so unthinkable that it takes your breath away.

I realize that, in the upcoming days and weeks and months, the focus will be on Paterno, because he was the face, and because he is the only one of these four "powerful leaders" Freeh mentions who has a statue in his likeness. But I couldn't care less about Paterno's legacy right now, and I couldn't care less whether that statue stays or goes. For me, this extends far beyond a single cult of personality. For me, this is now and has always been about the legacy of the institution, about a university I grew up around, a university where I met some of my best friends, a university that I hold a degree from and return to several times a year. There are four men who betrayed this legacy, and I hold them all equally responsible. Beyond the egregious and irreparable damage to those children, I hold them accountable for a betrayal of the people who raised me: My father, who has spent 35 years at Penn State conducting arcane organic chemistry research and teaching a generation of premed students; my mother, who spent two decades working at the university library, a wing of which now bears Paterno's name. My parents gave themselves to this university, as so many others did, and this university failed them, and instead of confronting their failures, the men in charge chose to "hope it is now behind us."1 They made this a Penn State scandal. In so doing, they cheapened everything my alma mater ever purported to stand for, and that is unforgivable.

It is absurd, of course, to presume that the work of a cancer researcher will ever win more public attention than the exploits of a football team. Society is not structured that way, and the beauty of the Grand Experiment is that it seemed built to work around that flaw, to use football to impact the greater good. It is clear now that the most powerful leaders at my university perverted that cause, and if it takes a temporary shutdown or de-emphasis of the program to right that wrong, those of us whose primary concern is the integrity of this university we held dear will accept that. Anyone who doesn't — and anyone who is more concerned with the lasting legacy of a football coach than that of the institution itself — is just furthering the lie. The Grand Experiment is a failure, and the entire laboratory is contaminated, and there is no choice but to go back and start all over again.

[grumbler]

I've always hated that "Grand Experiment" bullshit.  There are plenty of great schools with great teams that didn't resort to slick advertising gimmicks to sell the parent of players on their teams.  Stanford graduated 87% of their football players last year, the same as Penn State, but achieved more on the field and none of those graduate were tainted by the "JoPa says to graduate them" syndrome.

You can see all the specifics on graduation rates here: http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/newmedia/public/rates/index.html

[CountDeMoney]

I hope Matt Millen is forced to ass-rape himself with the report.

[KRonn]

WFT has been going on at Penn State!? What a bucket of corruption in their leadership. There really needs to be some serious penalties on the School, letting this kind of culture of fear and corruption go on. Nikey has removed Joe Palermo's name from some center for kids. He's done so much, and all of it now risks coming down because of the scandalous atomsphere at that school for so many years.

[Neil]

I find it difficult to believe that a lot of universities don't have dark secrets that wouldn't come out in a witchhunt.  And why penalize the football program at all?  That's the height of Timmay-thinking.

[CountDeMoney]

And why penalize the football program at all?  That's the height of Timmay-thinking.

It is, and it isn't.

[Valmy]

I find it difficult to believe that a lot of universities don't have dark secrets that wouldn't come out in a witchhunt.

How is investigating a criminal conspiracy a witch-hunt?  And sure Neil every university is covering up for serial rapists.  Therefore we should never convict anybody or investigate any criminal activity?

And seriously why do you give a fuck about their football program?  I thought you thought College Football was shit.

[Martinus]

I find it difficult to believe that a lot of universities don't have dark secrets that wouldn't come out in a witchhunt.  And why penalize the football program at all?  That's the height of Timmay-thinking.

I agree. Unlike penalizing, say, corporations or churches, when you penalize schools, you are really penalizing students first and foremost, and not the teaching staff. Which is the height of idiocy, considering the students were the victims of these shenenigans.

[sbr]

I find it difficult to believe that a lot of universities don't have dark secrets that wouldn't come out in a witchhunt.  And why penalize the football program at all?  That's the height of Timmay-thinking.

I agree. Unlike penalizing, say, corporations or churches, when you penalize schools, you are really penalizing students first and foremost, and not the teaching staff. Which is the height of idiocy, considering the students were the victims of these shenenigans.

Actually no, the kids he was raping were far too young to be in college.  They were 8-11ish for the most part.

[Martinus]

I find it difficult to believe that a lot of universities don't have dark secrets that wouldn't come out in a witchhunt.  And why penalize the football program at all?  That's the height of Timmay-thinking.

I agree. Unlike penalizing, say, corporations or churches, when you penalize schools, you are really penalizing students first and foremost, and not the teaching staff. Which is the height of idiocy, considering the students were the victims of these shenenigans.

Actually no, the kids he was raping were far too young to be in college.  They were 8-11ish for the most part.

I was talking in broader terms - closing these programms would make students the victims.

[sbr]

OK

[sbr]

A trolling Canuck and a fucking Polack who doesn't even like Eurofag sports trying to discuss what might or might not happen to an American College football team?   

No thanks, I'd rather slam my dick in the dishwasher door.

[garbon]

A trolling Canuck and a fucking Polack who doesn't even like Eurofag sports trying to discuss what might or might not happen to an American College football team?   

No thanks, I'd rather slam my dick in the dishwasher door.

+1

Though I don't own a dishwasher. 

[Rasputin]

A trolling Canuck and a fucking Polack who doesn't even like Eurofag sports trying to discuss what might or might not happen to an American College football team?   

No thanks, I'd rather slam my dick in the dishwasher door.

This is a huge freaking issue of an epic scale for penn state as an institution both legally and morally

the adminstration conspired to cover up criminal activity and did so out of an amorality that put football and the JoePa brand above all else

that being said, i don't actually see a violation of the ncaa rules here or even where the ncaa would have any more jurisdiction than an alaska justice of the peace would have to sanction me for getting a parking ticket in miami.