Connecting Dots Between Child Abuse & The Sexual Assault of Women on Campus
Tenured Radical Claire Potter:
As you absorb the news about the key people at Penn State who ought to have reported what they knew of coach Jerry Sandusky’s alleged assaults on little boys, please keep one thing in mind. Penn State’s cover-up is embedded in the interest it, and all universities, have in keeping many forms of sexual violence and sexual harassment a private, internal matter. The mistake Penn State made was, in many ways, a simple category error: they mistook these pubescent boys for women…
Penn State seems, to paraphrase Donald Rumsfeld, not to have known what they did not know: society and the law have much stricter rules when child abuse is finally uncovered. Since most people don’t believe that ten year olds want to be anally penetrated by grown men, once there is credible evidence that the sex happened, people tend not to spin alternative scenarios about little boys like: ”look what he was wearing;” “he’s probably just mad that Coach Sandusky wouldn’t hook up with him;” “he was drunk;” or “it was just bad sex and he’s trying to get back at Coach.”
Meanwhile, Moody’s Investors Service has placed the Penn State’s bond rating on review for possible downgrade because of risks to its reputation and finances. Expensive legal judgements are a very real possibility — “The damages sought could total $100 million.”
4 Responses to “Connecting Dots Between Child Abuse & The Sexual Assault of Women on Campus”
A bit of a reach. I think child molestation and sexual assault of an adult are nasty enough things that they can stand on their own. This isn’t a Penn State problem or university problem, it is a national/world problem. Interests of the organization will always trump those of the individuals within it…just ask the catholic church.
My wife made the same point. In her words, “Football players have been raping women forever. Why doesn’t that get anyone fired?”
[sarcasm]The little sluts were asking for it, did you see what they were wearing?[/sarcasm]
tidbits, one can look back on a number of incidents with JoePa and PSU and see that there should have been some sort of prescience as to troubles to come. I read this article today:
http://www.thenation.com/blog/164587/world-joe-paterno-made
I think it makes a good point that sexual assault has been dealt with as a subject extremely poorly for years now.