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	Wendy Murphy: Joe Paterno Has One Last Job By Wendy Murphy The Enterprise November 13, 2011 http://www.enterprisenews.com/opinions/opinions_columnists/x1100402589/Joe-Paterno-has-one-last-job COMMENTARY — I wouldn't recognize Joe Paterno if I sat on him but there's no denying that Penn State's involvement in a child sex abuse controversy is the primary reason an all too common form of child abuse has been thrust into the spotlight. The downside of having Paterno involved is that the football angle is getting too much attention. The story has little to do with football and much to do with the way institutions evade oversight and accountability from real world law enforcement, especially on matters involving child abuse and sexual violence. At the center of the story is Jerry Sandusky, the former Penn State assistant coach who stands charged with 40 predatory sex crimes against at least eight boys. His alleged rape of a 10-year-old boy in 2002 was witnessed by graduate assistant Mike McQueary, who did nothing to stop him. Think about that. A grown man walked away from a child being brutalized and he didn't even call police! Instead, he told his father and Joe Paterno what he saw. One (poor) explanation for why the witness didn't do more is that Penn State, like most institutions, likely has policies in place that require employees who know about abuse to report the incidents internally, to a designated official, who is then supposed to comply with mandatory reporting laws on behalf of the university. Indeed, this chain of command process is common in virtually all educational and other institutional environments and is explicitly authorized by Pennsylvania law – even though it enables institutions to cover up scandalous information. Any employee who dares to act in derogation of the policy by calling police or child protective services directly, faces employment sanctions including termination. Even worse than the lack of oversight for institutional noncompliance is that in nearly every state, including Pennsylvania, the law provides that violations of mandatory reporting carry, at most, only a minor fine. When school officials weigh the burden of a trivial fine against the implications of public disclosure of scandalous information, noncompliance is an easy choice. Penn State as a whole, including the board of trustees, should wither in shame, but some of the blame rests with lawmakers in Pennsylvania who know well that passing a mandate with no teeth, and explicitly allowing institutional cover-ups, is tantamount to announcing to the public that we don't really care if people comply with child abuse reporting laws. Even with only minor penalties on the books, prosecutors are reluctant to pursue violations of mandatory reporting laws when they occur in university settings because of concerns that such powerful institutions carry great sway during re-election time. Presidents of influential universities have the capacity to funnel large amounts of money to campaigns of prosecutors who, with a wink and a nod, agree to protect universities from scandal rather than publicly redress crimes on campus. Thus, it came as no surprise that even though a grand jury report included mention of incidents in 1998 involving Sandusky's sexual exploitation of two children in the Penn State locker room, the incidents were declined for prosecution by the district attorney – despite Sandusky's admissions. Another incident involving yet another child on Penn State's campus in 2000 involved Sandusky orally raping a boy in the shower. This was witnessed by a janitor and another janitor corroborated some of the facts. The matter was reported to a high-level supervisor at Penn State but was never reported to law enforcement or child welfare officials. Two individuals at Penn State who deserve more blame than Paterno are former athletic director Tim Curley and ex-vice president for business affairs (otherwise known as the risk management guy) Gary Schultz, who were told about the rape in 2002 but failed to report the matter to cops or child welfare officials. Schultz and Curley now stand charged with violating mandatory reporting laws as well as perjury for lying to the grand jury about what they knew. They claimed, under oath, that Paterno told them the 2002 incident involved only harmless horseplay. Paterno, by contrast, testified that he told both men the incident involved sexual activity. The grand jury concluded that Curley and Schultz lied, no doubt because they found it hard to believe Paterno would have felt compelled to report to Schultz and Curley an incident involving only roughhousing. By far the worst offender of law and morality in this ugly saga is recently ousted university president Graham Spanier, whose responsibility it was to ensure compliance with child abuse reporting laws. Just as the cover up of child sex abuse in Boston's Catholic Church scandal was the ultimate responsibility of Cardinal Bernard Law, the failure of Penn State belongs to Spanier. Yet in stark contrast to the contrite (if fake) tears of Joe Paterno, Spanier issued a public statement announcing his unconditional support for Curley and Schultz. Think about that. What kind of university president offers support for two men charged with perjury whose actions enabled the continued sexual abuse of children? Answer – the kind of president who knows that Curley and Schultz are taking the fall for him by testifying falsely about whether they knew the 2002 incident involved sexual abuse. If either man testified truthfully, they would necessarily implicate Spanier and the integrity of the entire university because everything the men did and didn't do in response to the 2002 incident was approved by Spanier. Of course he supports them unconditionally. Heads are rolling in this case, which is a good thing. But getting rid of Spanier and Paterno is not a sufficiently retributive pound of flesh. McQueary has to go – and the board of trustees itself has to come clean about what it knew, and why it failed to provide adequate oversight. Most importantly, all the victims must be supported in their quest for justice. Children are easy to silence when the offender is a person in a position of trust. For kids from troubled families, the idea of speaking out against a guy like Sandusky isn't even a consideration because they don't expect to be believed against the denials of an influential perpetrator, and usually they're right. If Joe Paterno is half the man he claims to be, he will use the little credibility he has left to urge all Sandusky's victims to come forward. He should get his tears flowing again and speak directly to the victims – ensuring them that by speaking out, they will be perceived as heroes far greater than even the winningest coach in major college football history. Contact: wmurphy@nesl.edu
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