I don’t know if there has ever been a college football season where the actual games have continued to take a backseat to all the other issues. And if the sundry expansiopocolypse matters, Miami football scandal, the legitimate debate of paying college athletes all haven’t been enough. They all pale in comparison to the seriousness and depravity that has come to light in Happy Valley.

Now it is announced by Joe Paterno in a press release that he will be retiring.

Everyone comes at these matters with their own history, biases and knowledge. My wife has been working in juvenile justice for over fifteen years. She has been a juvenile court magistrate for nearly ten years. Her fist year as a magistrate she heard “abuse, neglect and dependency cases.” These were emergency hearings on the immediate removal of a child from their home, parent and/or guardian. Those are not taken lightly. They are done when the risk to the safety of a child is so great that there is not time for a regular hearing with procedural standards. The details in these cases created emotions that ranged from rage to hide under the blankets depression. There was not a week that went by where my wife would come home in absolute tears over a particular case that was so horrid. I would listen as she described the matters, and do what I could to comfort her while trying not to lose it myself. My wife is much stronger and less selfish than I. Could never have kept doing that for even a year. Sadly, I have actually heard more disgusting things than what was described in the indictment of Sandusky.

There are two primary parts to the Sandusky-Penn State child molestation scandal. The first are the crimes by Sandusky. Horrific. Disgusting. Repulsive. Tragic. There aren’t words sufficient to describe the revulsion anyone with a shred of decency feels if they actually read the charges and years of preying on young children. Those are being handled by prosecutors and the legal system. It has been investigated, charges have been filed. Sandusky will never truly pay for his crimes, because there is no punishment. No remedy that can ever make whole what he has done to so many.

Then there are the crimes — both legal and moral — by so many in the Penn State administration. That is where everyone has their focus at this time.

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(I’m sure Chas will have something to say on this matter also but I wanted to get this up while events are unfolding.)

The news that broke in the middle of Pennsylvania this week should have shocked no one.  The child abuse issues with Jerry Sandusky had been reported as early as 1998, with subsequent reporting on the convening of a PA State Grand Jury almost two years ago.

We pretty much all knew that some sort of charges would be leveled. What was surprising was the extent and boldness of Sandusky’s crimes and the blatant misdirection and covering of facts by the Penn State athletic department, campus police chain of command and the university’s administration, up to and including President Spanier.

For those of us who have been living under a rock for the past week here is a reference page from the Pgh Post-Gazette that has links to articles covering this story.

For those of you who have the stomach for it here is a copy of the aforementioned Grand Jury Report.  I really mean it about the warning – what you will read in there can literally make you sick to your stomach.  Not just the physical actions conducted by Sandusky, but the decision making by everyone involved with this at PSU.

From a janitor who witnessed Sandusky in action, to Mike McQueary, who saw the most heinous of crimes against humanity play out in a locker room shower, through Coach Paterno, Tim Curley the AD, Gary Schultz who is a university Vice-President and oversaw the campus police and on to the University’s President, there was a turning of a blind eye to what is the most basic responsibility of an adult… the protection of our children.

Not one person either stopped the crime being committed or reported the incidents to the local civic authorities.  That is unbelievable, truly unbelievable, for the rest of America to understand.

Their moral compasses pointed directly to Penn State University and never once wavered.  (more…)