News Penn State

[Happy Head]

I just saw an inverview with Sandusky.... eeewww what a creepy guy... his behaviors/personality alone are suspect...

 

[ronin47]

I spent a semester and a half at a small college (thank heavens I transferred out) who's now-former chair of the department of education just last year was prosecuted for child rape, more specifically, rape of a child under the age of 10. It just makes me shiver to think I walked right past that guy on the campus. The college insisted they knew nothing about it, which is not unfathomable. I mean, it's not as if the guy would just go walking into a staff meeting and be like "Hey! Guess what everbody!" But as soon as it was known they banned him from ever going onto the campus again. However, when you do nothing even when you know something, that's another flavor altogether. The coach is not legally culpable, but he should've been more proactive.

 

[anni]

Exactly, which means the law ridiculously requires re-writing. Who knew? " If you know someone is raping small children, please go tell someone or we'll have to arrest you". Geesh. There's something you would not think we'd need to have on the books.

Sandusky gave a telephone interview in which he pretty much called every single person a big ( or small, since the vicitms were children ) fat liar. He says he 'enjoys young people'. Oh. And he is innocent of these charges. Ok.

His lawyer, wierdly, got a 17 year old girl pregnant when he himself was 49 years old. Now, as salacious a bit of gossip as this might be, surely it also calls into question this person's sleeze factor? Like, on a scale of 1 to 4093? HOW do we take an argument, or defense from this person seriously, especially on THIS subject matter?

 

[Happy Head]

I heard that interview and it was sick. I'm not sure if anyone noticed - Bob Costas sure didn't - but he said "I never inteded to be sexual with the boys" "intending" being the key word there...

I also heard this morning that 10 more people have come forward...

 

[mamachick]

Im sure most have heard about the sexual abuse going on at Penn State. I have found myself feeling really angry about many of the comments that I have read and heard lately. I only know what I have heard on the news and have not followed the story thoroughly. My local newspaper has articles on line and a comment section where people voice their opinions. I only voice opinions when something I read in the article or comments invokes some interest. These people that argue in the comment section often make every story a political issue, and you get to know the posters and almost what to expect.

I am amazed at the ignorance of some of the comments. One poster said that the early catholic church had marriages between priests for gays and gay coaches should have an outlet so they would not seek out young boys. Really.....
I found that when I get fired up about something, (which I do not do alot)I have opinions that are like lying dormant in my mind that erupt, and it doesnt happen often. When it does, it is like I come alive, right or wrong in my opinion, it ignites the person that I use to be before I was affected so negatively with ptsd and tbi, which had led to a beaten down, submissive, apathetic woman.

There were all kinds of excuses why the coach did not go further in reporting the matter, and others dropped the ball. It showed an importance for sports over humans in some remarks. These were comments and excuses from men. I came in touch with a couple of beliefs that I have that I didnt even know I had. I posted them as well.

1.) I only know 2 kinds of men, ones that abuse, and others that look the other way.

2.)If this would have happened within a group of women, the ball would not have gotten dropped. Women tend to go to bat for these things more readily and worry less about the consequences. They are more likely to be called trouble makers, bitches, crazies, psycho's, having issues of their own, pms-ing, meddlers, etc. Reports from men are taken more seriously, as if women are less credible, they may be hysterical or are accused of embelishing or exagerating. More cps reports come from women (4 out of 5-I think), yet those reported my men are responded to more quickly.

I realize these are my beliefs and they do come from my life experiences. I do not mean them to be sexist comments and know that they are, yet maybe no more so than saying men are physically stronger and have less body fat. I am wondering if others have had strong feelings about these events and comments that have been made. I hear more about how this will effect Penn State than what has happened to these young boys and how it has effected them.

 

[mamachick]

Oop-I started a thread, somehow missed one already existed Penn State so it was moved here.
Sorry

 

[Eleanor]

Hi brat,

I too am amazed at some of the comments I've read, and how homophobic they are. Truly, what rock did they crawl out from under? I am sorry you've not had experience with men like my husband and several friends, whom Sandusky should be Very glad he did not get caught by - My husband would have called the cops, CPS, hustled the kid out of there... and then struggled with the impulse to beat Sandusky to within an inch of his life. I can't say that he could be relied upon not to hit him at least once. Hard. (Which in my husband's case would break somethings.) I have another friend, who is, as he says, "a very scary guy" who would have called the cops, followed up with the kid, and then, one day, Sandusky would have disappeared - never to be found again.

I am furious at all the people who knew and did nothing. I am sickened by the predation. I am wondering what men who are not willing to stand between a guy like Sandusky and a kid are worth as Men? And these guys are in the business of educating young men? Can we get the one's they've dealt with back, and see what harm this whole cult of football personality has done to them?

I would like to think women would do better, and perhaps they are better in institutions. But then I think about my oldest step-daughter's biological mother, and I am not so sure. If only virtue and vice Were distributed according to recognizable features... life would be much simpler.

I suspect you are right that reports from men are taken more seriously - if only because they Are less likely to report, so are (apparently) more likely to be self-selecting for telling the truth. Listen up, men!

On the hopeful side - forty years ago none of this would have come to light. Ever.

 

[mamachick]

You are so right Eleanor that forty years ago it would have stayed under the rug. I think we have come a long was as women but still have a ways to go. Once women were diagnosed as hysterical because the were dissatisfied with aspects of their life, like their husbands behavior. We are more emotional, and maybe are not as concise at times, but it does not mean we are over-reacting.

Well I wish I knew men like that to. Where I live, men abuse way too much, and the ones that do not, really do turn their cheek. There is only one man that I know that is not that way and has modeled something much different. He is my sisters husband and will stand up for what is right. Thats pretty bad since I am 52 and know many men and only can say that about one.

On the bright side, I have read so many good comments here, and less worry about football and school reputation.

 

[anni]

McQuery just completely countered his OWN Grand Jury testimony. In his public statement he said that he not only stopped the attack he witnessed but reported it to the campus police. I have 20 problems with this beyond the fact that this is not what he said earlier. Now, I do not have any reason to believe the oily folks at Penn State security. I wish everyone at Penn State and in the press would stop calling campus security 'The Police' anyway. That must be deliberately misleading. The POLICE, who have the power to help prosecute crimes are the POLICE, not dressed up campus security people whose job it is to CALL the police for serious legal things. Which of your stories is now true, McQuery? And when you alledgly stopped this assault, did you get the child home, speak with the parents, get the child help, say to Sandusky WTF, ensure he was OUTA there? Nope.

These people need to stop talking now. With their continued denials and passing of this slimy buck they are re-victimizing these children, re-writing an awful history for them which badly, badly requires acknowledgement on the part of all responsible scum buckets so the kids can begin healing. WHY are the press even speaking to them? It makes them part of the machine also, part of the big fat problem.

I'm not sure about an across the board men thing. I see the point, if it were an entirely female set up there, perhaps this would not have happened in the first place. I do know a few men who would be in jail at the moment if they'd been the ones who had walked in on Sandusky raping a boy. Seriously. I am NOT saying it would have been the correct thing to do, just saying I know a few who would have knocked him into next week, from whence he might not have returned.

 

[Happy Head]

I heard on the news this morning that the "police" said they have no record of him ever reporting anything? I can't seem to find this on the internet though...

 

[catjudo]

I wish everyone at Penn State and in the press would stop calling campus security 'The Police' anyway. That must be deliberately misleading. The POLICE, who have the power to help prosecute crimes are the POLICE, not dressed up campus security people whose job it is to CALL the police for serious legal things.

I do not have any first hand knowledge of the campus police at Penn State. However, I do have first hand knowledge of campus police at a different large university and my understanding is that Penn State has a similar situation. At my alma mater they do, in fact, have a police department. Some people think they are nothing more than rent-a-cops or glorified security guards, but this is not the case. They are a full-fledged police department with all the power of the city police or county sheriff's department except their jurisdiction is the university campus. Just as a city police officer's jurisdiction ends at the city limit and it then becomes a county sheriff's jurisdiction, campus police's jurisdiction is limited to things that occur on campus. They have officers, detectives, victim advocates, etc. They investigate crimes. They arrest people. They work directly with the prosecutors. At my alma mater the campus police are actually state police officers (though many people do not realize that). Again, I do not have any actual knowledge about the campus police at Penn State, but my understanding is that they have a department similar to the one at my alma mater (a different, large, state university in a different state).

Which of your stories is now true, McQuery? And when you alledgly stopped this assault, did you get the child home, speak with the parents, get the child help, say to Sandusky WTF, ensure he was OUTA there? Nope.

Yeah, I'm not believing anything Sandusky is saying now. If he had stopped the rape and reported it to the police, that would be in his grand jury testimony. That is not what he told the grand jury. It seems like a convenient story at this juncture because he did not anticipate how angry millions of Americans would be when they heard his story. He probably thought he would be heralded as a hero for having stepped forward but didn't give enough thought to realize people would be outraged because he really did very little and definitely not enough given the circumstances.

Then there is the question as to whether things would have been different if there were females involved. Would it have been different if they victim had been a young girl rather than a young boy? Maybe, maybe not. How many times have we heard of colleges and universities covering up rapes of young adult females committed by college athletes? Would it have been different if the administrators had been female rather than male; would they have reported it rather than sweeping it under the rug? Maybe, maybe not. How many mothers do we know of who have stood idly by and ignored when their daughters were being abused by a male family member? And beyond that, I think in the case of a female administrator, it is more a question of power and responsibility than gender. I think we know that females have the ability to turn and look the other way when bad things are happening. Who is to say that a hypothetical female administrator who had to work twice as hard as any male to get in her position may or may not have had the same, albeit disgusting, reaction to protect the school and their athletic program. I think that speculating the male vs female thing is pointless. This is not about gender.

 

[Happy Head]

I did a little investigating and Penn State does indeed have an official police department. They are trained at a police academy. Following the Va Tech shootings many universities began training their police more thoroughly. I know at my university our officers come from the academy and go through yearly training for all sorts of crisis issues. I also came across this interesting article in the Link Removed