Football is not the be all, end all — humanity is.
The recent report of sexual abuse of children by former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky has only made the point truer.
Sandusky is accused of sexually assaulting eight male children between 1994 and 2002. Sandusky coached at Penn State from 1969-99 before retiring. During that time, four of the incidents are believed to have taken place.
The seventh incident, which took place in 2002, was reportedly witnessed by Mike McQueary, a graduate assistant with the program at the time. McQueary said he reported to coach Joe Paterno that he had seen Sandusky sexually assault a 10-year-old boy in the locker room showers.
Paterno testified to the grand jury that he relayed this information to Athletic Director Tim Curley, according to the grand jury report. Approximately a week and a half later Curley met with Vice President for Finance and Business Gary Schultz and the graduate student. Curley testified that he told Penn State President Graham Spanier about the grad assistants’ report in 2002, according to the same grand jury report.
Nobody called the police or did anything to protect the child.
There are few acts in life more disgusting than sexual assaults on children, but by not reporting the incident to police, all involved managed to be even more disgusting.
It’s difficult to comprehend how these men have slept at night knowing they did nothing. These men represent a university, and continued to do so for a decade after the incident McQueary said he witnessed.
Universities are supposed to be a safe place for students, faculty, staff and the community. They are supposed to be open and honest — not deceitful and shady. Nothing about this episode shines a positive light on Penn State or universities in general.
In the past few years, universities have become more and more tight-lipped, allowing only certain people — who have been highly scripted by cheap public relations hacks — to relay indirect, vague and shallow messages to students and the university community as a whole.
It would have taken only one person to report Sandusky to the police and resolve what evolved into a 10-year lie. Instead a man accused of child molestation and the men who knew about it have walked around unpunished while those children were left confused, hurt and potentially permanently scarred.
The alleged victims were stripped of their innocence and childhood, and will never get it back. The blame might ultimately fall on Sandusky — that’s for a court to decide. But if McQueary witnessed it and Penn State officials knew about it they are guilty of allowing a culture of exploitation to exist on their campus.
Some argue that these men should have been allowed to keep their jobs or resign at the end of the season, specifically Paterno. That is ridiculous. These men should be punished, and it should be more severe than losing a job — regardless of how many games a coach has won.
Football is not important in the slightest when sexual abuse of children — or any abuse — is involved. In fact, the clear lack of judgment and basic humanity from the university leadership when it comes to football should be cause enough for Penn State’s Board of Trustees to consider shutting the entire program down for a period of time.
If the allegations are proven true, Paterno, Spanier, McQueary, Curley, Schultz and anyone else who thinks they should have been able to keep their jobs should revisit the definition of humanity. They clearly do not understand what it means.
— ER