Child Rape In An Infotainment World
The flap in Happy Valley, Home of Penn State University, reminds us again that we receive our “news” from an entertainment driven media. What is news is squeezed out by deciding who should get star billing.
Multiple children, likely more than a dozen, were raped, their bodies, souls and psyches violated. They will live their entire lives with the emotional fallout of having been betrayed and assaulted by an adult in a position of trust.
Set the headline: Paterno Goes To Practice; Paterno To Retire At Season’s End; Paterno Fired; Paterno Issues Statement.
Get it? The children don’t matter. There is a famous person, a recognizable name, Paterno, within shouting distance of the real news. That’s the headline. That’s the story. It’s about Paterno, not the children or the man who set up a foundation to lure vulnerable kids for his sexual gratification. Welcome to the world of infotainment.
In the wake of the Penn State revelations, have you read, seen, heard substantial discourse on protecting children from pedophiles? How about treating the victims of pedophilia or the lifelong psychological impact of pedophilia on those who have been child raped? If you have heard, read, seen such discourse, how does it compare by column inch or minute by minute coverage to the latest on “JoePa”.
Does this mean Paterno should skate? No. What we know is that he did what was legally required, but no more. And, more details may come out that place him in even a lesser light. We don’t know. What we do know is that he is not the rapist, nor is he one of the rapist’s victims. Paterno isn’t the story. He’s an aside, a footnote. The story is upside down. The antics of the famous have once again trumped the substance of the news in our infotainment world.
19 Responses to “Child Rape In An Infotainment World”
I agree totally. What has angered me the most about this whole mess is that no one is concerned about these children many of whom are adults now. Why hasn’t Penn State made a public apology to these victims? Why hasn’t Penn State made a public call for these victims to not blame themselves but rather blame Penn State?
My hope is that the NCAA will also investigate this situation. Something needs to be done about the control and power football coaches have over our universities. It needs to stop.
Our children deserve much better.
Well, I see your point but I’m not sure I agree that Paterno shouldn’t be the story. After all, he’s the lynchpin in a coverup scandal and although that is being sensationalized, it’s certainly newsworthy. I do hope that some more thought provoking journalists will publish ind depth looks at the pervasiveness of pedophilia and institutional culpability, but I wouldn’t expect that in the first few days of media coverage. Maybe I’m just jaded and have low expectations of media, (and maybe that proves your point, that this is what we’ve come to expect) but in a way, I guess I feel that Paterno deceives to have wall to wall coverage of his part in this because trial by public opinion is likely to be the only consequence of his failure to report a crime. And the fact that a celebrity and sports hero had some involvement in a case like this is at least serving to bring the issue to public attention. How many times are pedophiles enabled by other institutions, including (perhaps most of all) our public school systems, without the accompanying public outcry?
I’ve been avoiding this because I actually live and work in this area and have to go into State College almost every day. I am a PSU alumni and no fan of Paterno, but I feel this situation was handled badly. If they had just accepted his retirement, the riots wouldn’t have happened. JoPa would still have gotten kicked out, but without the hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage, arrests and angst. The fact that there were riots was entirely predictable because State College is known for riots. The spectacle was completely avoidable and served no one.
And as for him not reporting it, that is not accurate. Gary Schultz was the head of PSU Campus Police in 2002 and Paterno reported the incident to him. Just because Schultz didn’t do anything with what Paterno told him, does not mean that Paterno “failed to report” it. It means he did what the rest of us did when we were PSU employees and wanted something done, he skipped the red tape and went to the top.
Do I think he’s culpable? Yes. Do I think he is more culpable than Tim Curley or Gary Schultz or even Mike McQueary? No.
If anyone should be sacked it’s McQueary. He was a material witness to the rape in 2002. He didn’t report it. He was a 6′ 2″, 225 pound 28 year old man against a 57-yr old man with his pants down, and he did nothing to stop it. Instead he told his father. Who told him to tell Paterno.
If Paterno deserved to be fired for his actions or lack thereof, McQueary is just as guilty.
Agree with ESweete to the extent there is an element of celebrity fixation going on here but the story is not just the crime, it’s the cover-up and Paterno is a big part of that. He deserves the public criticism as does McQueary and others who were ultimately enablers.
isilwath you are closer to the situation than me but I disagree with you. Even if Paterno did the minimum required to cover his butt you expect more and better from the head coach. I agree McQueary should also be fired but that in no way absolves Paterno. Schultz was nominally in charge of campus police as VP of business and finance but it’s a stretch to portray talking to him as reporting a crime to the police.
I agree that Paterno’s departure from PSU was necessary and he should not be absolved of his culpability in this horror story, however I feel that it should have been done with preventing predictable riots in mind.
State College riots on a regular basis. They riot if a frat party gets a bad keg of beer. We have riots pretty much every other year. The town replaced the light poles with poles that are almost impossible to rip down and installed street cameras because of all the riots. Rioting seems to be the bored college student with a gripe’s favorite pastime.
There is no way they could not have known sacking Paterno in the middle of football season would result in thousands of students flooding the streets in protest. It was practically a forgone conclusion.
My mind boggles that NO ONE EVER CALLED THE POLICE. I just cannot wrap my mind around that. Ninety -nine percent of women would have called the police. I truly believe that. Astounding.
Oh, yeah, I still hate Penn State for ruining the Big Ten. And you, too, Nebraska. So no fan at any level, here.
He did NOT do what was legally required. If you witness a crime your are REQUIRED to notify the police, not your boss.
Because of the hideousness of this crime, Paterno should go to jail….
…and I agree, the media is nothing more than mercenary self promoters these days.
I hate to say it, but Penn State authorities can’t issue any statements of apology, it would admit to culpability in the mess. I hope the families sue the shit out of PSU, it allowed this to go on for years.
I totally agree with CStanley’s comment. Also with Vera’s comment. What kind of screwed up mindset is it that doesn’t move one directly to calling the police???
While I agree that Paterno did not fulfill his moral duty, he did fulfill his legal duty. The public is rightly outraged, but unless some duty was imposed on him by the law, he did not have a duty to report. The Pennsylvania Attorney General, the Gatekeeper here, found that Paterno had complied with the letter, if not the spirit, of the law.
I am mostly in agreement with Isi. Joe Paterno was TOLD of an incident; McQueary is the one who witnessed it. If I was told of an incident, I would report it. However, to whom am I supposed to report it? The police? Maybe the reporting person had a vendetta? Paterno had not witnessed the crime. He reported it (albeit not to the civilian authorities) and may have believed–quite honestly–that the accusation was investigated and found to be without merit. I am not defending the actions of those involved, I am just suggesting that calls for Joe Paterno’s conviction are idiotic. The Grand Jury did not indict him because he did not commit any crime (at least as far as they could tell). He was not found to be “the lynchpin of the coverup”. He did notify police, just not the civil authorities. As Isi said, he notified the Chief of Police of the campus police.
Penn State is a HUGE university. The university is also a state university, so the campus police may (I don’t know the nuances of Pennsylvania law) have similar authority to their counterparts off campus. At least give some thought to the possibility that Paterno might not be some horrid bugbear who is trying to enable pedophiles and perverts for 41 years.
“If I was told of an incident, I would report it. However, to whom am I supposed to report it? The police?”
It was NOT an “incident,” it was a crime.
And, yes, one is “supposed to” report crimes to the police. Period
No ifs or buts about it.
Okay…and…which police? If I was on a military base, should I report it to MP’s or to the town police outside the base? Or MAYBE I should report it to my commanding officer? I am not saying that Paterno is blameless, I am suggesting that a lot of people might honestly believe that they are supposed to report second-hand knowledge of potential crimes to authorities of the establishment in which the alleged crime occurred. Paterno reported the crime to CAMPUS POLICE! The Penn State campus police are hired by Pennsylvania. The campus police at my college (Framingham State in Massachusetts) were a small group. The campus police at Penn State may not be nearly so small and may have civil authority.
If a crime is committed at Logan Airport (in Boston), am I to report it to the Boston police or the airport security? If a crime is committed on a boat or ship in a harbor, do I tell the captain of the ship, the coast guard or the police of the city the port is located in?
Once again; I would have reported a crime on campus to the civil authorities (i.e. what you call ‘the police’–meaning the town or city police). I am only suggesting that not everyone understands that people who are called ‘police’ may not be the ones who are tasked with actually investigating crimes.
If I saw a rape occurring, I would immediately call 9-1-1, in addition to trying to stop it and in addition to reporting it to the highest “level” of criminal authorities, i.e. the city police(The hell with campus police.) And –and this is important — in addition to following up to make sure something had been done about it. But that’s just me …
I would think that if there is any question of who one should call in such a situation, that the obvious answer would be ‘all of the above’ or at least start with one law enforcement agency and get advised by them if you need to contact a different authority. Deferring to not reporting it as a crime in progress is the most obvious wrong answer to immediately rule out on your list of options.
The media and some popular reaction that people decry here is no surprise, really, in today’s cheap and celebrity-laden society. It’s not limited to having a big-time coach and football program involved.
There’s the fallback position when it comes to not calling the police. (I’ve heard expressed to me the incredulity that nobody had called the police, not when the event happened, not later.) The coach who originally witnessed the crime could have called 9-1-1.
It was announced today that Mike McQueary has been put on administrative leave.
McQueary should be. Probably, he should have been fired. Coach Joe Paterno might more fairly have been put on Adm. Leave. I would rescue (as best I could) any victim of violence. Keep in mind that we were not told how soon Paterno was told (while the rape occurred, 3 days later?) I am NOT defending his actions, I am merely pointing out that there are quite a few people who may honestly not know that they need to do more than tell the Chief of Police of Penn State (as opposed to…what? The police of State College, Pennsylvania?)
I would have followed up. I would have been questioning McQueary as to what the people I contacted had done to corroborate the story. I might well have sought out the child (and his parents) and tried to comfort them and let them know that my organization does not condone such things. I believe that Joe Paterno (especially given his position and popularity) would have thought to do these things, just out of common decency.
It is a sad that we have people cutting hairs on who should have called whom. We as members of a civilized society have a moral obligation to protect our children.
Upon hearing the allegations from a credible witness, Paterno should have contacted campus and local police. He should have then suspended Sandusky with pay until a full investigation could have been completed.
but that isn’t what happened…why? because winning football games is more important than protecting children from a child molestor.
and this is why Paterno is a BIG part of this story. His influence is how these allegations were swept under the rug. The protection of his legacy is why this behavior was allowed to continue.
Had I been in Paterno or McQueary, I would have contacted the FBI after not getting movement from the local authorities.