As a Penn State Alumni, I have been shocked by the scandal now ravaging my University. My first reaction was much like everyone else's. They all need to be fired now. I still believe the only way to repair the image of the University is to remove everyone involved, including Joe Paterno and Graham Spanier, simply because of the extent of the crimes involved and the negativity of the news coverage. However, my initial outrage has been replaced with sadness, as I have read through the facts of the matter and tried to make sense of what took place. I also have to wonder whether the lynch mob currently after Paterno and Spanier are really justified. I personally only see three villians in this situation.
Keep in mind that, with the exception of Jerry Sandusky, none of the people involved in this are truly bad people. In fact, they have all lead relatively exemplary lives. Paterno and Spanier are bastions of their fields. Curley and Schulz were highly respected. So why did the 2002 incident go unreported? For that you need to start with Jerry Sandusky.
This was no stranger. This was someone they all knew and respected. All accounts of Sandusky were that he was a highly likable guy who was trusted by everyone. He was the friend, neighbor and coworker that everyone got along with. He had dedicated his life to helping out the under privileged. He helped little boys who were in trouble, not molested them. There is no proof out there that anyone suspected there was this dark side to this individual.
Keeping that in mind, we need to look at the actions of each person in turn, starting with Mike McQuery. Many commenters have questioned why he didn't rush in and beat up the rapist and save the boy. But this was not just a rapist. It was his coach, friend and mentor of over 10 years that he saw in there. It was probably as much a shock who was doing the act as what the act was. He staggered off to his office and called his dad and his dad advised him to go home and contact Coach Paterno in the morning. We can all quibble about whether he did the right thing, but in the heat of the moment, it is hard not to understand it.
McQuery then talked to Joe Paterno about what he saw. We don't know yet what exactly was said here. It's a sensitive subject, so he likely said something like Jerry was molesting a little boy in the locker room. Again, this is someone Joe Paterno has known for 35 years. It's one of his closest friends. Someone he has to feel he knows really well. The natural reaction of anyone who is told that someone they know so well was doing something so incomprehensible is to say "no way Jerry would do that" and simply believe that McQuery didn't really see what he thought he saw.
Nevertheless, Joe agreed to set up a meeting with McQuery and both the head of the Athletic Department and the head of the University Police. In fact, he called them the very next day. People say Joe passed the buck, but clearly an investigation was warranted. This is a prominent member of the community and also a good friend. You don't want this to be done improperly. Maybe Joe should have called the police at that point. Maybe he should have called Sandusky and confronted him. However, you can't truly say that what he did at that point was unreasonable.
This is where I believe the actions become harder to justify. McQuery came to Paterno with an issue that needed to be investigated. Paterno sent him to two people whose job it is to investigate things within not just the Athletic Program, but the University as a whole. According to McQuery, they asked him about the details of what he saw and he described them in all their graphic gore. This certainly seems credible to me when conducting an investigation. Since they waited a week and a half to set up the meeting, they had time to get over the shock of who was being accused. At least one of them also know there had been a previous allegation against this same person.
So why did they end up doing nothing? Frankly I don't know. Their explanation that they didn't think it was serious just doesn't wash. Still, we have to come back to the fact that the accused was Jerry Sandusky, bastion of the community and the man who had supposedly dedicated his life to helping out underprivileged youth. This is a difficult person to accuse of such a heinous crime. The only proof is the word of a single graduate student who has no evidence to corroborate what he says he saw. They obviously had little compassion for the victim.
Accusing Sandusky invites a media circus they probably want to avoid. However, I don't believe they were protecting the University as much as themselves and Sandusky. Accusations that a former coach is a child molester are tough, but accusations that the University covered this up would ultimately bring down the entire institution. If they were thinking about the University or the victims, they would have called the police.
In the end, it is hard to justify their actions. Maybe they ultimately just couldn't get themselves to believe what they had heard. Though if they didn't believe McQuery, why did they ban Sandusky from bringing more boys into the locker room? Their obvious lapse makes them the most obvious targets of our scorn. Of course, their names are not as juicy as that of Joe Paterno.
Then we get to Graham Spanier, who was told that they have banned Sandusky from bringing Second Mile kids into the locker room and signed off on it. Was he told what the nature of the incident was? Was this in a private meeting about this action or part of a routing weekly meeting where he learns what every department is doing? Any mention of naked boy in shower should have set off alarms in a person with Spanier's background.
However, it is possible that he was just told there was an incident with a Second Mile kid and we decided to ban them from the facilities. Was he negligent in not enquiring further into what the incident was? Probably. But if it was part of a routing meeting where he hears hundreds of such statements, it is understandable if this one slipped though. We need more facts on this one.
Finally we get back to Joe Paterno and Mike McQuery. Once it was clear that no action was going to take place against Sandusky, wasn't it their duty to report it to the police anyways? First Paterno. Again, we are missing many of the actual facts here. Keep in mind that he probably didn't want to believe his life long friend was capable of doing this. If he went to Curly and asked what happened with the accusation of McQuery and Curly said they investigated it and determined it wasn't serious his very preinclination to trust Sandusky would probably let him stop at that point. Whew, it turns out Jerry isn't a pervert after all. McQuery just over reacted to something minor. Is this the right move? Probably not. However, it is understandable. Hopefully, Joe will get a chance to explain his actions at some point.
Mike McQuery is the saddest link in this chain. He saw a little boy getting sodomized in the locker room and reported it to a person he figured could do something about it. He knows it got reported all the way up to the University President and yet nothing was done about it. He has no pictures. He doesn't know who the boy is. If he goes to the police now it is his word against five of the most powerful people in the community. His career will likely be over and Sandusky will continue to go free. Should he have said damn the consequences, I want to help out those little boys? In a perfect world, the answer to that is obviously yes. However, ask yourself what you would have done in that circumstance and you might find yourself sympathizing with him instead of damning him.
So there we have all of the principles in this drama that has traumatized an entire community. Let us not forget that the worst of the lot is Jerry Sandusky, who abused his position to ruin the lives of far too many children. Assuming he doesn't do the honorable thing and kill himself, he is destined to rot in jail the rest of his life. Next on the list are Tim Curley and Gary Schulz, who will likely never work in their fields again and may well spend time in jail for perjury. It's hard to feel sorry for them. Finally we get to Joe Paterno, Mike McQuery and Graham Spanier. They made mistakes and children suffered because of it. They are going to have to live with that. But can we truly say those mistakes were not understandable? This is a sad ending for everyone involved.
