the Penn State scandal

[Agent 47]

Gee, this whole situation is screwed up on so many levels. It's more proof that people devoted to sport are certainly not part of some kind of magical society of higher beings, as they would have us believe.

[Earl]

Andy Staples>INSIDE COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Penn State making progress, but two personnel moves still remain





STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- The letter boasted, but any college football program that could make such a claim would be expected to shout it from the rooftops. Such information would be very important to the recruit to whom the letter was addressed.

"Penn State is 1 of 2 Division I institutions who have never been investigated or sanctioned for any major NCAA infractions," said the letter, obtained and revealed on Twitter by ESPN.com Michigan recruiting editor Tom VanHaaren. "Think about this as you make your college decision. Coach Paterno's saying 'Success with Honor' has value here."

The author ended with "Think Penn State," and then he signed the letter.

Coach McQueary.

As in Mike McQueary, the redheaded former Penn State quarterback who led the Nittany Lions to the Citrus Bowl as a senior in 1997. As in Mike McQueary, the current wide receivers coach/ace recruiter. As in Mike McQueary, the graduate assistant who saw something he wasn't supposed to see in 2002.

As in Mike McQueary, the guy who still has a job. Interim coach Tom Bradley said on Thursday afternoon that McQueary would coach on Saturday when the Nittany Lions face Nebraska. Thursday night, Penn State announced that McQueary would not coach Saturday because of threats against him.

That McQueary remains on the staff is shocking. Penn State fired legendary coach Joe Paterno and president Graham Spanier on Wednesday for their failure to follow up on a 2002 report from a subordinate that former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky had molested a 10-year-old boy in a shower in Penn State's football building. That report came from McQueary, who told a grand jury earlier this year that he saw everything.

In fact, it was McQueary's testimony that ensnared the other person who still stunningly appears on Penn State's employment rolls. Athletic director Tim Curley is on administrative leave while he fights a perjury charge. This may be semantics to avoid a lawsuit and a prelude to a firing. But the point is Curley is still officially employed by a hemorrhaging university even though he allegedly helped cover up child molestation and then allegedly lied about it to a grand jury. Curley maintains his innocence, but the 23-page grand jury presentment paints Curley in a harsh light. The other school official charged with perjury, vice president Gary Schultz, has retired.

Penn State's Board of Trustees made the correct decision in firing Paterno and Spanier for their roles in this case. But if Paterno and Spanier had to go, so do McQueary and Curley. They all share in the blame for failing to contact the police to start an investigation that might have caught Sandusky before, as several young people alleged to the grand jury, he struck again. Trustees should not allow either man to remain on the books another day.

McQueary's situation is the most curious. The next paragraph comes directly from the grand jury presentment, which was prepared using McQueary's under-oath testimony. Be warned; the account is graphic.

"As the graduate assistant entered the locker doors, he was surprised to find the lights and showers on. He then heard, rhythmic, slapping sounds. He believed the sounds to be those of sexual activity. As the graduate assistant put his sneakers into his locker, he looked into the shower. He saw a naked boy, Victim 2, whose age he estimated to be 10 years old, with his hands up against the wall, being subjected to anal intercourse by a naked Sandusky. The graduate assistant was shocked but noticed that Victim 2 and Sandusky saw him. The graduate assistant left immediately, distraught."

In other words, McQueary told the grand jury he saw a boy being raped, and he ran away. McQueary told the grand jury that he next told his father, who told McQueary to report what he saw to Paterno. McQueary made his report at Paterno's home.

What happened next has been parsed endlessly this week. Bottom line, nothing happened. No one followed up. No one tried to identify the boy.

McQueary's handling of the situation has prompted outrage, and with good reason. He was a graduate assistant, a low man on Penn State's totem pole, but he was 28 years old. What kind of human being would watch a boy being raped and do nothing to stop it? A scared one, sure. Sandusky was a pillar of the Penn State football community. But human decency should trump loyalty to a football program or to a coach. And how could McQueary stand the sight of Sandusky, a frequent visitor to the football complex for years who was spotted there as recently as last week?

There are a few possible explanations for why McQueary remains employed. As the Penn State football employee who was the most forthcoming to the grand jury, he could present a different kind of PR nightmare for the university if fired. If McQueary got canned and decided to spill his guts to the media, who knows what revelations might pour forth? An already nasty situation could get even nastier.

The other possibility is that McQueary's job is protected by Pennsylvania's Whistleblower Law, which prohibits public employees from having their jobs threatened following a "good-faith report" of wrongdoing. McQueary did go to his supervisor, after all. Asked if the Whistleblower Law was the reason for McQueary's continued employment, Penn State spokesman Jeff Nelson said "I honestly can't answer that question."

Meanwhile, Curley's continued employment can only be explained by a fear of a lawsuit from a man who might say he was fired for being accused of a crime. It was Curley who told the grand jury McQueary told him that he saw Sandusky "horsing around" with the boy. According to the presentment, McQueary told the grand jury that he told Curley he had seen what he believed to be anal sex. The grand jury believed McQueary.

McQueary has remained silent. His father, citing the ongoing investigation, has stayed quiet. A lot of people want to know how McQueary could simply leave the locker room. That includes the mother of one of Sandusky's alleged victims. "I don't even have words to talk about the betrayal that I feel," the mother of Victim Six told the Harrisburg Patriot-News this week. "[McQueary] was a grown man, and he saw a boy being sodomized ... He ran and called his daddy?"

Inaction cost Paterno and Spanier their jobs, yet McQueary still draws a check from Penn State. Meanwhile, Curley remains officially employed as he prepares to face a perjury charge.

This situation has exposed Penn State to a ton of lawsuits already. What's the harm in a couple more?

If the school's Board of Trustees truly wants to clean house, it needs to make two more personnel moves.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/w ... -mcqueary/

[Fat Man]

Good morning Earl:

I just read your private message when I got up this morning.

Anyway . . . . .

You know, I just love, how a few months ago, when Fit Man - AKA - Fit Shit came in here and started his topic that he titled "Fat Man Needs to go, play sports, and get some damn exercise" devoting an entire topic to me, and then . . .

. . . he calls me a disgrace to humanity???

Yeah, I guess being lousy at sports when I was in school, being physically handicapped, and overweight . . .

. . . that's a worse crime than raping children???

I was thinking about this last night while trying to sleep and I had some bad dreams.

I'll lay you 10 to 1 odds, that if Fit Shit had been one of the students at Penn State, he would have been out there in the streets among the other students who were rioting and overturning vehicles, and protesting against the pedophile coach, his hero, being fired.

You can make book on that, and take that to the bank!

Yeah, I'll bet you dollars to donuts that Fit Shit goes out molesting children, and he probably has the bodies of dead kids buried under his house.

Yes, Fit Shit did send me a private message apologizing to me, and explaining that he was frustrated because his girlfriend left him.

She probably left him because he's such a prick!

I hope some angry woman cuts off his pecker and drops in in the street, and runs over it, going back and forth several times with her car!

What happened at Penn State is further confirmation that all sports fans are scum!

[HugeFanOfBadReligion]

You know, I just love, how a few months ago, when Fit Man - AKA - Fit Shit came in here and started his topic that he titled "Fat Man Needs to go, play sports, and get some damn exercise" devoting an entire topic to me, and then . . .

. . . he calls me a disgrace to humanity???

Yeah, I guess being lousy at sports when I was in school, being physically handicapped, and overweight . . .

. . . that's a worse crime than raping children???

I don't think Fit Man ever said that child molesters weren't disgraces to humanity. I'm definitely with you that he was wrong to say you were a disgrace to humanity, but you shouldn't put words in his mouth and assume he has nothing against paedophilia.

Yeah, I'll bet you dollars to donuts that Fit Shit goes out molesting children, and he probably has the bodies of dead kids buried under his house.

I think that in the first place you shouldn't have assumed he sympathizes with child molesters, but this is even worse. Accusing someone of being a paedophile/child murderer is a massive leap, especially when he showed nothing at all that indicates that he would be one. Sure, I agree that he kind of was an asshole during his visit to the site, but the vast majority of people who are jerks are still not paedophiles.

I hope some angry woman cuts off his pecker and drops in in the street, and runs over it, going back and forth several times with her car!

Again, this is going too far. He has nothing at all to do with this topic so he doesn't even really have any place in this discussion.

What happened at Penn State is further confirmation that all sports fans are scum!

That again is a massive leap and I can say that I am 100% certain that not all sports fans are scum, as I've known many who are not scum. I'm also sure that not every single sports fan at Penn State was involved with the riots. Saying that this is proof that all sports fans are scum, it's like saying that because a few disorderly and chaotic protesters have shown up at these ongoing Occupy protests (in which there are much more peaceful protesters), that is proof that every single liberal is a radical anarchist who want to demolish the middle class.

[Earl]

November 11, 2011
Mike McQueary put on administrative leave at Penn State
By Genaro C. Armas
Associated Press




STATE COLLEGE â?? Penn State assistant coach Mike McQueary, a key witness in the child sex abuse scandal that has engulfed the school, has been placed on administrative leave.

School president Rod Erickson announced the move Friday, a day after the school said McQueary would not be present when the Nittany Lions play Nebraska on Saturday because he has received threats.

McQueary testified in a grand jury investigation that eventually led to child sex-abuse charges being filed against former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky. The ensuing scandal brought down longtime coach Joe Paterno, who was fired by university trustees amid growing criticism that he should have done more to stop the alleged abuse.

McQueary, who testified that he saw Sandusky sodomizing a boy in the shower in 2002, has endured similar scrutiny. The university's athletic department released a one-line statement Thursday night saying it would be "in the best interest of all" if the receivers coach didn't attend the season's final home game at Beaver Stadium. The school did not provide details on precisely who threatened McQueary.

"It became clear that coach McQueary could not function in this role under these circumstances," Erickson said Friday, adding McQueary was told of the decision Friday afternoon.

Besides Paterno, school president Graham Spanier also has been fired.

Athletic director Tim Curley and vice president Gary Schultz have each been charged with perjury and failing to report an incident of abuse in 2002 to authorities. Curley has taken administrative leave, while Schultz â?? who was already working on an interim capacity â?? has returned to retirement.

Paterno has not been implicated, and prosecutors have said he is not a target of the investigation. Curley and Schultz, through their attorneys, have denied wrongdoing.

The campus leaders faced mounting public criticism for failing to call police and prevent further suspected cases. So, too, has McQueary, who has not spoken publicly. His mother, Anne, said Thursday they have been advised not to comment.

Described in court papers as distraught about witnessing the 2002 attack, separate newspaper accounts from the time indicate McQueary appeared in the months and years that followed in charity events that Sandusky also took part in, or were to benefit Sandusky's group The Second Mile.

Asked if McQueary would be fired, Erickson said "there are complexities to that issue that I am not prepared to go into at this point."

In forums online, and in comments on other websites, some have indeed called for McQueary to be ousted, but the assistant coach could be protected as a whistleblower.

Gerald J. Williams, a partner at a Philadelphia law firm, said Pennsylvania law is broad in protecting a person who reports wrongdoing, as long as that person is part of a governmental or quasi-governmental institution, such as Penn State.

Asked if McQueary was protected by whistleblower status, trustee Boyd Wolff said Friday after a board meeting, "He's a witness. He's different from the others, so he has to be treated differently."

As an emeritus trustee, Wolff is a non-voting member, though he said he took part in deliberations this week.

According to Williams, such whistleblower protections could include any kind of adverse employment action â?? such as being fired, demoted, ostracized or punished â?? although a court, ultimately, would determine whether the person is protected if they bring a claim.

The penalty on an employer can include monetary damages, attorneys' fees and reinstatement of the employee, he said.

According to the grand jury report, McQueary "reported what he had seen" to Paterno the next day, and Paterno then spoke to Curley.

McQueary was also called to a separate meeting with Curley and Schultz. Schultz, in turn, notified university president Graham Spanier.

Curley and Schultz â?? as well as Paterno â?? testified they were told that Sandusky behaved inappropriately in that 2002 incident, but not to the extent of McQueary's graphic account to the grand jury.

Sandusky was arrested and charged last Saturday. His lawyer maintains his client is innocent.

A Penn State graduate and State College native, McQueary also played for Paterno. He was the starting quarterback of the 1997 team that finished 9-3. McQueary joined the staff as a graduate assistant in 2000 â?? the season after Sandusky retired â?? and moved on to become receivers coach and recruiting coordinator in 2004.

McQueary has relayed the offensive play calls from the press box on the field. Graduate assistant coach Terrell Golden is expected to assume McQueary's sideline duties against Nebraska.

Regardless of what university administrators do, the outcome of the search for a new coach could affect McQueary's future at Penn State. In college football, when a coach is hired from outside a university, he frequently brings along his own set of assistants who replace the current group.

http://dailyitem.com/0100_news/x8691475 ... Penn-State

November 10, 2011
Police use video footage to identify Penn State riot suspects




STATE COLLEGE â?? Police in State College say they have identified numerous suspects in a riot that followed the firing of Penn State football coach Joe Paterno.

The department said in a statement Thursday that the people are under investigation for crimes such as riot, attempted arson and other counts. Investigators are also reviewing video footage.

Police are not saying how many arrests were made following Wednesday night's riots, in which crowds toppled a television news van and at least one photographer was pelted with a rock.

Students flooded downtown State College for about three hours after Paterno and university president Graham Spanier were fired amid a growing furor linked to their handling of sex-abuse allegations against a former assistant football coach.

http://dailyitem.com/0100_news/x8112087 ... t-suspects

[Fat Man]

Good evening Earl:

OK, I'm just pissed off thinking about how Fit Man - AKA - Fit Shit registered to be a member of these forums just so he could come in here to harass me.

Yeah, I know he's not a pedophile or any of those things, but having been called a "disgrace to humanity" I feel justified with letting him have it with both barrels!

I can play dirty just like the next guy! Yeah, I can be a real bitch sometimes!

My advise . . . to anybody who comes in there with the intention of attacking me, before knowing all the facts, is this . . . . . don't piss on me and tell me it's only raining!

Either way, he is scum.

Anyway. . . . . getting back on topic . . . . .

In forums online, and in comments on other websites, some have indeed called for McQueary to be ousted, but the assistant coach could be protected as a whistleblower.

Well, I would like to know, why he didn't blow the fucking whistle nine years sooner when all this shit began happening instead of waiting until now.

That's like calling the fire department after the house has already burned down.

Anyone who sexually abuses or rapes a child deserves to have a chainsaw up his ass!

I would deliver same-day-service!

Well, anyway . . . . .

I'm getting tired of reading these articles. I feel like I'm watching a train wreck in slow motion. I'm actually getting physically sick just from reading about this.

Well . . . . . I got some more COSMOS videos by Carl Sagan to finish watching.

Catch all ya gators later.

[Fit Man]

Long time no see guys. I figured I'd check out all the hype that I know would be going on after the Penn State scandal. You guys didn't disappoint me.

Fat Man: are you STILL bitter and angry? Get over it already. Also, to set the facts straight: I call you out or "haze you" or whatever you want to say because girlfriend dumping me. I mentioned her because I was trying to tell you that shit happens in your life, and you cannot let bad things happening in your life as an excuse to be an outright asshole, like you are.

The fact that believe that I rape children just shows how delusional of a person you really are. Please, please, try and collect your thoughts and make intelligent statements before your next post.


Earl: hope you are doing alright.

[Fat Man]

Fat Man: are you STILL bitter and angry? Get over it already.

OH NO! IT'S BAAAAAAAAAACK!

Oh yes indeed! I just love that! The ol' standard "get over it" cliché!

Oh! Oh! Oh my! Are we all going to be treated to another cliché festival?

Let's have some circus music and send in the clowns!

Long time no see guys. I figured I'd check out all the hype that I know would be going on after the Penn State scandal. You guys didn't disappoint me.

Oh! Hype, now is it???

To you it's just hype???

Excuse me, but to all those innocent child victims who were sexually molested by that scum-bag piece of dog shit, coach Jerry Sandusky, it is not mere hype! To the parents of the children who were molested, it is not hype. The NEWS articles about the whole fucking incident is not just hype!

You seem to have no further opinion in this matter, whether or not you think what Sandusky did was wrong, or not.

So, I must assume, that what Sandusky did to those kids most likely meets with your approval.

And why not? He is, after all, a football coach, and as we know, football coaches can do no wrong, because they are gods! Right?

Tell ya what! You may go suck his cock!

I call you out or "haze you" or whatever you want to say because girlfriend dumping me. I mentioned her because I was trying to tell you that shit happens in your life, and you cannot let bad things happening in your life as an excuse to be an outright asshole, like you are.

Oh yes indeed! Shit happens, and I guess I'm just suppose to accept that shit happens, and that will make it all OK!

Well, my own brother, back in 1970, when he was in high school, he took his anger and frustration out on the family, because he couldn't get a girlfriend and he wasn't getting laid, so because he couldn't score, he had to take his anger out on the rest of the family.

I still think your girlfriend dumped you, because you're a prick!

My brother was a prick, just like you, only worse, actually.

Yeah! As I mentioned before, in some other forum topic, my own dear sweet brother once tried to steal a shotgun from a neighbor and come back to our house to blow me away!

Why? Because he felt, that my wanting to build a telescope was disrupting our family.

He was in the high school marching band at the time. Our mother bought him a $150 dollar trumpet and she worked her butt off for him, altering his marching uniform so it would fit him properly.

There were times when I needed new shoes, or new clothes, but we couldn't afford it because we were investing money in my brother so that our Little Boy Blue could come blow his horn and march during the high school football games.

Then one day, I scraped together a lousy $25 dollars to order a kit from the Edmund Scientific Co. to build and 8 inch Newtonian reflector telescope. My mother was happy for me, because I finally had something for myself.

But, my brother, who was getting everything handed to him on a silver platter, resented my having something of my own for a change.

So, he wanted to blow me away with a shotgun to stop me from building a telescope.

And so, I have a perfect right to be an asshole when it comes to dealing with scum like you, and my dear sweet brother.

The fact that believe that I rape children just shows how delusional of a person you really are. Please, please, try and collect your thoughts and make intelligent statements before your next post.

No, I don't really believe that you rape children! I just wanted to pull your chain!

Actually, I would like to pull the chain that would cause you to swirl down the crapper, because, you really are a piece of shit!

Oh! And I also like how you said in your earlier topic addressed to me, that my being allowed to get a decent education would have been a poor investment.

Of course, it wasn't enough, to merely not allow me to get a good education, no, I had to be punched in the stomach with a basketball almost fracturing some ribs, and have my head bashed against a concrete block wall by a teacher would not allow me to check out astronomy books from the school library.

So, they had to get their jollies out of torturing me before rejecting me from school, because, as you have said, my being allowed to get an education would have been a poor investment.

Yeah! Unlike society's most worthy investment in coach Jerry Sandusky who sexually molested children over a nine year period.

So, I was placed on the sacrificial alter and rejected by society, because I was not good at sports.

Well, their precious coach got fired anyway, and he's going to go from Penn State to the state pen!

Yeah! A fine investment he turned out to be! Eh?

By the way, I think you and my worthless brother would make a cute couple.

You both can lay down together and make the 69

OK, my advise to guys who can't score . . . . .

. . . . . go use a knothole in a picket fence or . . . . .

. . . as we like to say in the great southwest desert region . . .



GO FUCK A YUCCA!

[Safety]

I feel so bad for the students attending Penn State who have to go through this. There were talks about Penn State receiving a possible downgrades: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-1 ... andal.html

The students shouldn't have to suffer because of this, and neither should the football program, as the players had nothing to do with this.

[Fat Man]

I feel so bad for the students attending Penn State who have to go through this. There were talks about Penn State receiving a possible downgrades: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-1 ... andal.html

The students shouldn't have to suffer because of this, and neither should the football program, as the players had nothing to do with this.

I don't give a flying fucking Hootenanny in Hell if the football program goes swirling down the crapper!

I'm more concerned about the good students at Penn State who had nothing to do with the riots on campus, the good students who are serious about their academic subjects.

The rest of those bed-wetting ignoramuses who rioted in the streets and overturned vehicles, they should all be put in a retard institution somewhere.

Fuck this shit!!!

[HugeFanOfBadReligion]

Wow, Fit Man returned, that was unexpected. Carry on folks, this should be entertaining.

[Safety]

I don't give a flying fucking Hootenanny in Hell if the football program goes swirling down the crapper!

Well, the reason I mention the football program is because some of the players are riding athletic scholarships at Penn State, and if the football program were to receive the death penalty (the banning of a school's sports program for a year or more), what would happen to those players? They may be their mostly for football reasons, but they're students too.

[recovering_fan]

Surely the kids who were already on scholarship would keep their scholarships, right?

I always thought that was what it meant when they took away the ability of the school to grant football scholarships; it meant that the school lost the right to grant any more of them going forward for the next few years. And if the sport gets the death penalty, it should not affect finances of the student athletes that are already there. The money that's in place for them should still be there for them even if they aren't playing football any more.

Whatever happens, Penn State has a moral obligation to honour its financial commitment to the kids that it enticed to attend school there. The NCAA should not stand in the way of that.

I may disagree with sports-scholarships as a school policy, but I hate bait-and-switch behaviour a lot more (which means changing a deal once you've got the other party to agree to it).

[Fat Man]

I don't give a flying fucking Hootenanny in Hell if the football program goes swirling down the crapper!

Well, the reason I mention the football program is because some of the players are riding athletic scholarships at Penn State, and if the football program were to receive the death penalty (the banning of a school's sports program for a year or more), what would happen to those players? They may be their mostly for football reasons, but they're students too.

I DON'T GIVE A FUCK!

[HugeFanOfBadReligion]

I agree with RF, I'm not a fan of athletic scholarships, but I still think it'd be unjust to suddenly take their scholarships away. I don't have a problem with the people who receive those scholarships anyway, as I can't deny that if I could avoid the horrors of student loans by getting a scholarship, I'd take that scholarship regardless of whether or not I earned that scholarship. People with athletic scholarships are at university for a reason. They're not just there to play football, but they also want to learn. So I think we should avoid generalizing all athletes and recognize that many of them haven't done anything wrong and have a right to go to university. Let's not judge who is wrong and right in this whole Penn State scandal simply by focusing on who is an athlete/sports fan and who isn't, but let's instead realize that there were people involved in the athletic community at Penn State that have acted wrong and there are also people involved in the athletic community that haven't harmed anyone. Stereotyping people based on whether or not they like sports is just as poorly founded as racism.