BishopAccountability.org
	Doblin: Boys Lost in the Company of Men By Alfred P. Doblin Daily Record November 11, 2011 http://www.northjersey.com/columnists/doblin/doblin_111111.html [Grand Jury report] LATE WEDNESDAY and early Thursday, Penn State students went on a rampage through State College, Pa., after they learned college trustees had fired football coach Joe Paterno. The revered 84-year-old leader of the football team lost his job due to the growing scandal over the alleged sexual abuse of minors by a former assistant coach, Jerry Sandusky. In some ways this sick display of loyalty to Paterno is fitting. It shows that a culture of winning-football-at-all-costs is both dangerous and a perversion of all that society should hold as moral. Sandusky has been charged with sexually abusing eight boys over a 15-year period. Two university officials have also been charged for failing to report the alleged abuse and lying to a grand jury. Over the course of this week, what school officials knew and how they reacted to that information has become the source of heated discussion, with calls for Paterno’s resignation growing louder each day. Paterno is an icon at Penn State. Firing him could not have been an easy decision, but it was the right decision. A leader does more than what is legally required; he does what is morally right. And morality is nowhere to be found in the grand jury’s 23-page report. The language is often graphic and disturbing, particularly a March 1, 2002, incident. The report notes that a 28-year-old graduate assistant entered a locker room on the university campus to store some sneakers around 9:30 p.m. He saw the showers were on and heard “rhythmic slapping sounds” which he believed were sexual in nature. He went to the showers and saw a naked Sandusky having sexual intercourse with a boy he guessed at 10 years of age. The boy’s hands were against the wall. The graduate assistant, who has been subsequently identified as Mike McQueary, said Sandusky and the boy saw him and McQueary immediately left “distraught.” McQueary then called his father who told him to come home. He later was advised by his father to report the incident to Paterno, which he did the next day. According to the indictment, Paterno reported the incident the next day to his superior on campus and never followed up. Never. Paterno had to go. So did Penn State’s president, Graham Spanier, who also was fired Wednesday. But let’s not kid ourselves. There is so much more wrong at Penn State and perhaps in State College, Pa. This kind of stuff cannot happen in a vacuum. For starters, what the hell was wrong with Mike McQueary? A 28-year-old man allegedly sees a 10-year-old boy being sexually assaulted and walks away and calls his father? He should have called his father after he pulled Sandusky off the boy, after he made sure the boy was not in need of immediate medical attention, after he called the police, and, from my perspective, after he washed away the alleged sexual predator’s blood from his hands because he had thrown Sandusky violently across the locker room when he pulled him off the boy. Calling Daddy is not a priority for a grown man. And there we have the heart of this sad, pathetic tale occurring in a sea of testosterone: a lack of men. Penn State’s football program, revered because it supposedly molds men, is nothing but a sham. Men do not watch children being sexually abused. Men do not wait or fail to report allegations of sexual abuse regardless of the consequences to their beloved institution. It sounds strangely familiar if you switch out helmets and pads for white collars and black vestments. Many have likened what allegedly happened at Penn State to the sex abuse scandals of the Roman Catholic Church. The timeline of events is equally disturbing. The church scandals were at their height in the winter of 2002, the same time that Sandusky allegedly abused a 10-year-old boy in a locker room shower. That makes it even harder to imagine grown men failing to recognize the dangers of not bringing in police to investigate the possibility of a predator on the loose with unfettered access to sports facilities. There is a good chance more alleged victims may come forward as this scandal continues. It will take more than a few high-placed firings to clean house. It also will take more than firings to right priorities at Penn State. In an interview in USA Today, McQueary’s father said his son “did what he was supposed to do and all of this has been very hard on him.” Somehow, I don’t think this has been as hard on Mike McQueary as it must have been for the 10-year-old boy who allegedly was being sexually assaulted by Sandusky and left with him after McQueary walked away to call Daddy. For all the bravado over a football dynasty, for all the sights of large, muscular frames pounding at each other on stadium turf, and for all the closed male ranks of failed leadership at Penn State, when it mattered most, there was a singular absence of men. Alfred P. Doblin is the editorial page editor of The Record. Contact him at doblin@northjersey.com. Follow AlfredPDoblin on Twitter.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.