Can someone explain how an eye witness does nothing

story here

Yes, Paterno is guilty of not doing anything along with the other higher ups but for me the witness shares most of the blame.
If I saw a kid being raped, in a shower you better believe I would call the cops and attempt to stop it. Instead you run to your father for advice to report it. Listen this isn't like catching a fellow employee stealing. This is the worse crime and yet you run home to daddy. And on top of it, you never do anything else. I mean seriously, how could the witness live with himself knowing the guy raped a kid and may do it again if he isn't arrested. And how could the father not do anything or report it.

In the pantheon of screwups of public officials screwing up this takes the cake.

 

Mmm cake.

 

We need to create a beezel children repository thread.

 

my hair hurts

 

I love the bravado of people who feel they would step in to save the day, but can't help but wonder how many actually will.

 

Is anyone going from Penn State to the state pen?

 

Paterno! The father of Superheroes!

 

CEREBRO! MAGNETO! CEREBRO! MAGNETO!

 

A joke about beezel, children and suppositories.

 

This stuff isn't a joke. He should be gone. Now. You hear about this stuff, you contact the proper authorities. He knew about it in 98-99, and the guy was still using the facilities in 2002. Unacceptable.

There's only one sin I can think of that's worse than murder, and that's pedophilia. This sick **** is a serial rapist, his victims probably being at least 100 kids, and I would venture even more. He created a program to help underprivileged kids, and then uses it to gain access to hundreds of children. If this guy doesn't deserve life in prison, I don't know who does.

Star out the entire word.

 

The whole story is beyond sickening. As far as the question, people have a tendency to freeze up when confronted with something so shocking. That's why police, etc. get training (in part), to overcome that instinct.

That's no excuse and it certainly isn't one for then not reporting it.

 

There is a protocol for abuse in education systems. You immediately contact the next person in your chain of command and go from there. He did was he was supposed to do. I work for DC Public Schools and our protocol is the same. We contact the necessary persons and they are required to contact the necessary authorities.

So how about you calm yourselves down before you start burning him in effigy.

Edit: spelling.

 

What-the-****-ever. If I knew someone was raping children in the locker room and I followed the expected procedures and THEY didn't contact the authorities, I'd call the cops myself, I don't care what bureaucratic ****storm might result.

 

K.

 

[image=http://content.internetvideoarchive.com/content/photos/6421/26969734_.jpg]

 

Of all the places where this could have been stopped, Joe Paterno was the only one who did what he was supposed to do. Of course, in hindsight that looks horribly insufficient, but he was the only one who actually did something useful.

The athletic director did nothing.

The graduate assistant who actually saw this go down talked to his dad and then told Paterno instead of calling the police right then.

The victims' parents didn't file charges or at least go nuts until someone addressed the situation.

The graduate assistant's dad didn't call the cops as a tip-off.

Where were all these people?

Any one of them could have stopped this in its tracks.

Looking at it, Paterno didn't see this happen. He followed the administrative chain of command for an allegation. I'm sure he gets plenty of allegations in a school year.

Paterno can't hire and fire. Athletic directors do that. He coaches the kids. Athletic directors do the directing. Paterno can't unilaterally decide that because someone alleged something that he is not going to allow them back in the building. What if Paterno was told that the allegation was "addressed," in public administration speak, and he took that to mean it wasn't accurate? We don't know what he actually knew or did not know. We all looked at Paterno like some kind of football deity, but he still has to live by those murky public administrative rules as the rest of us.

So there are plenty of people I'd like to put on the fire for letting this happen. But of all of them, Paterno is the one that I have the least rage towards. At least he picked up a phone. In hindsight, he called the wrong person, but at least he did do something. The rest of these guys did nothing, and I find that much more reprehensible.

 

I just read up on this story, and wow. Holy ****. What a monumental failure on the part of everyone involved. Dear God.

 

Yes he should helped, especially if he was the coach - that makes him responsible. But if you are not a responsible party, you may only have moral obligation. Under the law, however, and though this sucks, in the USA you have no obligation to involve yourself to aid anyone unless you connected as responsible party in some way. Sad, but true. So if you saw a baby lying on a train track crying and you do nothing but walk away. Guess what? No obligation under the law.

 

Ah thank you! Someone else who has worked in education. I am attempting this discussion in the Arena thread and people are contemplating crucifying me for it.

 

If your superior doesn't do anything about it-- nay, actively attempts to cover it up-- you bypass him and go to the police yourself. I don't see why that's so hard to grasp. "Boo-hoo, I'm inconvenienced by saving kids from being diddled by a pedophile."

 

In my state anyway, adult education is separate from children's education in that professionals are not required by law to report child abuse. That said, the person who witnessed this was morally obligated to call the police.

Why that didn't happen immediately I can't understand.

 

WORMIE STOP. You are oversimplifying broad legal principles to the point of actually spreading falsehoods. You do this constantly and in a situation like this it's pretty damned awful. Curley and Schultz are being charged with failure to alert the police because they had legal obligations to report their investigation and they failed to.

Here is the Pennsylvania statute that requires certain people to report child abuse: http://law.onecle.com/pennsylvania/domestic-relations/00.063.011.000.html

STOP.

 

Yeah, he wasn't legally obligated to report it. He's just scum because he didn't attempt to stop a guy from ass raping a child and didn't report it to the police when he knew his superiors failed to do much about it.



Scum higher than the pedophile, but scum nonetheless.

EDIT: Huh, I thought they were only charged for perjury (am I using the word scum too much? 'Cause that's what they are, too). Guess my mind was too boggled by the other ****.

 

Ugh, this whole thing pisses me off. And students at Penn State rallying... I don't think this is the time, or the reason. This is bigger than football.

 

First, going home, calling Daddy, and then telling Patenro the next day is hardly "immediately" contacting the next person in your chain of command.

Second, as I replied to horsey in the Arena thread, you have to look at the circumstances here. Those laws are written to deal with a situation where you suspect a child is being abused. Generally, this would arise because you see suspicious bruising or other injuries. Maybe you even see the adult strike the child. Doesn't necessarily mean the child is being abused. The situation here is so far beyond that -- he walks in and sees Sandusky sodomizing a 10 year old boy. We'd all like to believe we'd have jumped in ninja style and put a stop to it, who knows how many of us actually would have. But at the very least you go to the nearest phone and all the the cops, or at least Paterno. But go home and call Dad, then call Paterno the next morning? That's absurd.

Third, the law sets forth your minimum obligation under the law. Do what the statute says and you have complied with your obligation under the law, and aren't subject to criminal prosecution (as the AD and a second school official now are). Doesn't by any stretch of the imagination mean you did the right thing. No where does it say that you can't call the cops yourself. Again, it's one thing if you see bruises on the boy and suspect Sandusky physically abused him. Quite another if you see what McQueary did.

Last, taking a step back, I find it silly at this point to say one person is more culpable than another. The legal/criminal side is one thing -- two people have been charged with criminal conduct for not reporting the incident. McQueary's criminal guilt is a bit trickier, he reported it as he is supposed to , but certainly not immediately; in the end, prosecutors won't go after him because he's cooperated so fully. The moral aspect is another completely. Paterno complied with his obligations under the law by telling the AD, his nominal superior. But as anyone who knows the PSU football, Paterno is no one's subordinate on that campus, he calls the shots. Calling the AD is essentially calling his secretary in that situation. It's unbelievable that he never followed up on it.

And Paterno isn't completely in the clear legally. He testified to the Grand Jury that McQueary only told him about inappropriate behavior, rather than the exact nature of what he saw. Some sources say that McQueary did in fact tell him specifically what he saw. That would make Paterno guilty of perjury. In the end, the AG probably won't pursue it, since Paterno did report the incident to the AD anyway.