In 2002 a graduate student, one Michael McQueary, with connections to Penn State’s vaunted football program witnessed a long-time assistant coach, Jerry Sandusky, engaging in inappropriate acts with a boy that McQueary estimated to be 10 years-old. McQueary told his father what he saw. His father suggested he alert the head coach, living legend, Joe Paterno. In turn, “Joe Pa” brought the allegation in some form to his boss, the athletic director. The stories of all those involved begin to crawl down their own unseemly paths from that point. The athletic director in league with a university administrator kept a lid on the story for years, even as other “concerns” about Sandusky’s troubled-youth foundation called “Second Mile” – yes, you read that correctly – bubbled up through the fetid ooze. No one, even though there’s no question a crime has been committed whatever its degree, calls law enforcement.
In the past week Paterno, 45 years the head coach, and the President of Penn State have been dismissed by the university’s trustees. McQueary, now the wide receivers coach (draw your own conclusions) at PSU, appears to be in protective custody after a number of death threats came his way. Misguided undergrads staged an alcohol-fueled protest in support of the fired coach in the downtown of State College, the town the university dominates. Some former players are sending money to Sandusky to help with what they perceive to be the million dollars he’ll spend defending himself against the charges that will result from McQueary’s and others’ grand jury testimony. The fans of PSU’s visiting opponent today, Nebraska, have been warned not to wear their team’s colors to the game. That game is being played as I type. Many in the media are exhorting PSU to shut down their football program to show concern for the victims.
OK, here’s why I brought this mess to your attention. I was caught up in a similar situation in 1994. One of my students shared with me that her math teacher and she had a “relationship” the year before in another school. I did what Paterno did. I went up the chain-of-command with the information thinking I had done my due diligence. In fact, I had not. As the witness of discovery in an alleged felony, I was supposed to have called the cops. I had a guardian angel. A woman I had known for years, a detective on the local PD, got wind of the story and called me. She asked when I was going to call her. She explained what my legal, (moral and ethical too, in retrospect) responsibilities were. Then she said, “Let’s consider this call you calling me.”
It may have been that Paterno and McQueary (and his father) put the needs of PSU’s football program before the needs of sexually-abused boys whose numbers are now nearing double digits. It may be they thought as I had thought back in ‘94 before the cop set me straight. That concern with Sandusky’s extra-curricular activities at PSU continued to mount even after the events witnessed and reported by McQueary lends credibility to the former. Lawyers and public relations people will get in the way of any halting steps the truth might take. We probably will never know all we need to know to make informed decisions. And shortly the next scandal will have supplanted Paterno’s Agony, anyway.
All of us who play a role, formal or informal, in the lives of children need to know this. If you are the witness of discovery in what appears to be abuse you must, must contact law enforcement. It is not our job to investigate the allegations. Nor, is it our bosses' job to do so, whether they are inclined to do so or not.
For the record, my boss didn’t call the cops either. He called the principal of the other school. His reaction was to circle the wagons. It took nearly a year to adjudicate the matter and get the abuser out of the teaching profession.
4 comments:
AS far as I know to date Paterno has not been charged with anything, nor is he likely to be. So while what he did is morally and ethically wrong you need to be careful inferring what his legal responsibility is based on your past experiances.
I did not mean to imply that Paterno had a legal responsibility. In fact I don't see where you think I might have. What I think to be more important in this discussion, though Mike, is he may have done exactly what he thought he was supposed to have done. I know I did. He didn't have a "guardian angel" as did I.
"It may be they thought as I had thought back in ‘94 before the cop set me straight." Often people do not know what their legal responsibility is in situations like these. My school district trained everyone they employed after the fact.
Thanks for reading it. I appreciate the comment, too.
I think the natural instinct, unless you were trained accordingly (and not after the fact) would be for any teacher to go through the "chain of command". I don't think any teacher, new to the profession or otherwise would have done any differently than you did Michael.
I don't disagree Gord. It usually takes a tragedy before organizations become sensitized to the issue and learn what their responsibilities are. Here's some irony for you. There was another teacher whose name surfaced as being a double date partner with this guy, but it never went anywhere in the investigation. It was alleged the two would would dine together with their "dates," mostly room service. When the school district asked schools for names of teachers in each school to be the point man for PD training, his principal recommended him. We had a workshop the following fall and he led it along with the detective who knew of his connection to the case. When discussing the interview process, she asked him about the one she'd done with him. Silence. Everybody looked at him and then at me.
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