For the first time in 45 years, Penn State is without a head coach.
Joe Paterno was fired Wednesday night and President Graham Spanier also resigned after allegations have come to light concerning former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky and his terrible acts of sexual abuse of young boys.
The Penn State board of trustees, those who made the decision to fire Paterno, said all the right things in the press conference announcing their decision. In the ESPN story I’ve linked above, vice chair John P. Surma had this to say:
“The past several days have been absolutely terrible for the entire Penn State community. But the outrage that we feel is nothing compared to the physical and psychological suffering that allegedly took place.”
If you really want to read what those alleged acts are, you can read the transcript of the grand jury indictment here, although I would not recommend it. I couldn’t read more that the first few pages. It’s horrifying in the worst sense of the word.
But was all of this genuine regret or just a case of good PR?
Firing Paterno and pushing Spanier to resign was the right thing to do. These men may not be in trouble with the police, but they didn’t do enough to both report and attempt to prevent the sickening tales of abuse that reached their ears.
Needless to say, this is not over. Jerry Sandusky will stand trial for these horrific crimes. Former AD Tim Curly and former Penn State VP Gary Schultz will face charges of perjury. And that’s just the criminal side of this investigation. Expect many large civil suits to come against Penn State and all those involved here.
And it is up to the judges and juries assigned to these cases to determine guilt or innocence as all of the facts are presented to them. Until the trials are over and the verdicts and sentences are read, all parties involved, including Penn State, will be guarded in what they say publicly under the advice of their respective legal councils.
But this much we do know: Penn State had at least two chances to put an end to this and failed to do so as this NY Times story says here. First in 1998 when a mother of one of the victims came to Penn State campus police with allegations that Sandusky had touched her son in the shower and again in 2002 when a graduate assistant reported seeing Sandusky in the shower with another young boy.
As a result of inaction on Penn State’s part, Sandusky was able to allegedly victimize more young boys.
Penn State’s decision to fire Joe Paterno now cannot and does not change that fact.
Neither does Spanier’s resignation.
Now, I do believe that the Penn State board of trustees must be as horrified as the rest of us at these allegations. Many of them are parents. And you can ask any parent what lengths they’d go to protect their children.
At the same time, these people also have their duties to Penn State to consider. The best move from both legal and PR perspectives is to punish all of those who failed to put a stop to this, and Joe Paterno falls into that category.
In the end, it doesn’t really matter whether or not Penn State officials are acting out of sorrow and regret or simply out of self-preservation. It doesn’t undo the damage that was done. It doesn’t save the victims that they could have had those in authority done their legal and moral duties.
It doesn’t give those boys, many of them now men, their childhood back.
Penn State will do what they must to pick up the pieces and try to rebuild what once was perceived as a nearly spotless school and football program. They have a duty to the countless Penn State employees, athletes, students and alumni that are blameless in this disgusting affair.
But it is far too late to do what Penn State’s Alma Mater Song instructs:
“May no act of ours bring shame.”
