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Teaching the Penn State Scandal

Gene J. Puskar/Associated PressThe university president, Graham B. Spanier, left, and Coach Joe Paterno. Both men’s tenure at Penn State came to an end Wednesday night. Go to related article »

November 16 | Updated

Are you talking about the Penn State news this week in your classroom or at home with your children? Let us know how you’re handling it. Here are some ideas for discussion, writing or further research.

Understanding the Basics

A good place to start to quickly understand the story and its implications is the Times Topics page, Penn State (Sex Abuse Scandal 2011), which features a short overview of the events, along with links to all articles, opinion pieces and multimedia on the topic.

The overview, as currently posted (it may change as events develop) ends with this paragraph:

Law enforcement officials have said that Paterno had met his legal obligation in alerting his superiors at the university when he learned of the allegation against Sandusky, but they suggested he might well have failed a moral test for what to do when confronted with such a disturbing allegation involving a child not even in his teens. No one at the university alerted the police or pursued the matter to determine the well-being of the child involved.

Essential Questions about Leadership, Decision-Making and Morality

To raise the question of Coach Joe Paterno’s role, and the moral role of any leader, we published a Student Opinion question this week: “Do Leaders Have Moral Obligations?” As of now 166 students have written in, including one who noted that our question coincidentally echoed one he had just answered for the essay part of the SAT last Saturday.

When we read this, we alerted our colleagues at The Choice, a Times blog about demystifying the college process. They contacted the College Board to find out exactly what the essay question asked. In “SAT Essay Question Proves Prescient,” Jacques Steinberg writes:

Every so often, the essay questions on the SAT exam have the ripped-from-the-headlines feel of an episode of “Law and Order,” as when the test-makers asked students in the spring if they considered reality television to be “authentic.”

But to some students who took the exam last Saturday morning, it seemed as if those who devise the essay prompts for the SAT were almost anticipating what would later become the big news of the day, and the days that followed: the arrest on Saturday of a former assistant football coach at Pennsylvania State University on charges of sexually abusing young boys on campus, and the apparent failure of administrators (including the head football coach, Joe Paterno) to report to the authorities suspicions of abuse raised years earlier.

“All communities and groups have reliable rules of right and wrong in the form of laws, values, and social standards,” the essay prompt began, according to a transcript later made available to The Choice blog by the College Board, which oversees the SAT. “It is therefore generally assumed that most people know the difference between right and wrong and that they usually know the right thing to do. This view is simplistic, however. People often find themselves in complex situations for which no rule provides adequate guidance and the right course of action is unclear.”

The test-takers were then asked to answer a question — “Is it often difficult for people to determine what is the right thing to do?” — and directed to use “examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.”

Using our Student Opinion question or the SAT essay prompt reprinted above, reflect not just on this one case, but also on how these questions about morality, decision-making and leadership can apply to a variety of stories in the news, works of literature, and events in history. How do these questions resonate in your own life? Who are some famous fictional characters, historical leaders or current figures who have faced hard decisions and done what they considered the “right” thing, even if it was difficult? Who are some famous figures who did not? What lessons can you draw from reading about several such people?

Reacting to the Reactions

How did some Penn State students react after officials announced they had fired Coach Paterno? What do you think of their response? And does the depiction Penn State students jibe with other depictions of young people in current news stories like Occupy Wall Street?

How is the college itself, a place where there is a whole course devoted to Coach Paterno, using this news as a “teachable moment” in classes like “Ethics in Sports” and elsewhere? How did one professor use the video of student reactions in class the next day? How do you think you would have responded if you were a Penn State student this week?

Paterno was still practicing for the game against Nebraska on Saturday, and supportive students were rallying at his house. This is what Israel calls “the delusion that the ability to win football games indicates anything at all about your character or intelligence other than that you can win football games.”

And in his Op-Ed column “The Institutional Pass,” Joe Nocera argues that the fact of Paterno’s Catholic faith “is part of what makes his actions — or, more accurately, his inaction — so inexplicable.” He concludes, “For 46 years, Joe Paterno averted his eyes to the daily injustices, large and small, that his players suffered.”

What do you think? What might the fact that no coach in football has achieved the longevity and success that he has at Penn State say — or not say — about him as a person? How might his role as an “acknowledged Great Man” have affected him over time? Does Paterno’s successful coaching career and status as something of a legend make his apparent inaction in this case excusable or inexcusable? Why? As far as you can tell, what was Paterno’s role in the power structures at Penn State and beyond? What kind of culture seems to have existed among the football and athletic department staff?

Analyzing the Role of College Sports

Do you agree with him that serious academic, recruiting, concussion and now sexual abuse problems are often swept under the rug to maintain a successful college football program? To what extent is the college sports system broken? Are athletes – and, it seems, coaches – who apparently break the law sometimes given a free pass on campus? Why?

Take a critical look at the college football industry by reading this article and some of the other reports and pieces it links to, including Taylor Branch’s recent piece in The Atlantic on college sports in general. What are some of the problems these writers identify? What complications are there? What solutions have been proposed? Do you think anything will change as a result of this scandal or any others? Why or why not?

Learning More About Sexual Abuse

The longest, most exhaustively researched article I ever wrote for a newspaper or magazine was about a child molester who had sexually abused a little boy living down the street. The abuse went on for more than two years, beginning when the boy was 10.

This molester had a job. A house. A wife. Two kids of his own. And he gained access to his victim not through brute force but through patience, play and gifts: help with his homework, computer games, a new bike. To neighborhood observers, including the victim’s parents, the molester’s attentiveness passed for kindness, at least for a while. A molester’s behavior very often does.

Localizing Aspects of the Penn State Story

How can other schools apply the lessons of the Penn State scandal to their own institutions? What elements of the story resonate at any school, even one not touched by like sexual abuse? What other problems, like bullying, does it remind students of? What aspects of their own learning culture are they reminded of when they consider this story?

The Bystander Effect

In a much-e-mailed Op-Ed piece, “Let’s All Feel Superior,” columnist David Brooks writes about the “outraged reaction of a zillion commentators over the past week, whose indignation is based on the assumption that if they had been in Joe Paterno’s shoes, or assistant coach Mike McQueary’s shoes, they would have behaved better.”

Unfortunately, he reminds us, history tells a different story: whether during the Holocaust, the Rwandan genocide, Abu Ghraib or the street beatings that happen in American neighborhoods, so many of us do not intervene while witnessing ongoing crimes that psychologists have a name for it: the Bystander Effect.

Read Mr. Brooks piece and think about how it applies to you. When have you been guilty of “bystander behavior”? Why?

Related: In 2010, The Learning Network published this series of lesson ideas in conjunction with the Roman Catholic Church sex abuse scandal in Ireland.

Think from Sandusky’s perspective about what he was “taught” by the responses from Penn State and the nonprofit he founded, Second Mile:
In 1998, he was caught having a shower with a young boy; it was reported to Chile Protective Services, and it was found *nothing untoward happened.* All charges were dropped. What was Sandusky taught here? Even if I’m reported to authorities, nothing happens. I bet I can get away with more.

In 2000, he is witnessed raping a boy in the shower at Penn State by a janitor. Janitor tells his boss, who tells him to report it (boss doesn’t report it). Janitor doesn’t report it. Sandusky might have known he was witnessed and not reported. Lesson to Sandusky: I can be witnessed raping children in a semi-public place and no one will do anything.

In 2002, he was witnessed raping a 10 year old in a public place (shower). He and the 10 year old *both saw* that they were witnessed. It was reported to the highest levels at Penn State, and apparently reported to Second Mile (where he arranged to have access to foster kids who were already abuse victims and likely to be extremely easy targets for his predation). Consequences to Sandusky? *His keys to the locker room at Penn State were taken away.* *He was told not to bring kids on campus–something everyone states was unenforceable.* *The cops were never even called.* Lesson to Sandusky? You tell me. Perhaps: the President of the University doesn’t really mind that I am raping children on university grounds.

Since 1977 and until 2010, Sandusky was allowed access to vulnerable kids through the nonprofit he founded, Second Mile, even after they were notified at least twice of his inappropriate behavior. Even after Sandusky’s raping of a child was officially reported to police in 2008, he got to spend another two full years with Second Mile.

What message was sent by so many different people, at so many levels– ranging from janitors to the President of the university, and from staff and leaders of a nonprofit to Child Protective Services itself–was sent to Sandusky?

This tragic story arrived coincidentally with my sociology classes examining the notion of the iron law of oligarchy, where an organization’s (and in this case, Paterno himself) power is concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer people. Former Penn State player and current ESPN commentator Matt Millen said as much himself in an interview (//goo.gl/VmcMu), claiming that no one on the PSU campus was as powerful as Joe Paterno, save for the President. Yet, in examining the PSU administrative chart, football and athletics are nowhere represented. Tragic story, but relevant in the classroom.

I was so aghast at the students’ reaction to the Paterno firing, and I couldn’t help but contrast what they did with the noble behavior of the young people at Occupy Wall St. I think these Penn State students should think before they act and I wonder what they would feel like if it had been their own brother or nephew who had been sodomized by this sick man, and how that child is going to fee for the rest of his life. Misplaced, blind loyalty which results in violent behavior is a really, really frightening thing to witness.

We watch current events and I prepared the kids prior to watching. I tried to be careful in my words with my middle school students. I explained Jerry Sandusky is being accused of doing inappropriate things to a number of young boys.

I also tried to tie this in with our school effort to stop bullying. We discussed how other children would not have been abused if someone had spoken up and put an end to it. Sometimes our students are afraid to report incidents because they might be embarrassed or think they are a “snitch”. I thought it made sense to them that there is a need for others to speak up when we see others being mistreated.

I can’t believe that an assistant coach has to go on leave, while a long-time head coach, who failed to step up when children are being abused is supported. Shame on Penn State. I’ve always admired the program. Now I’m sickened.

By pure coincidence, I had begun the week with my 11-year-old son with a frank and open “sex ed” discussion (I am not a squeamish mom).

By mid-week the Penn State issue fully exploded, so it seemed necessary to me to put the two things together.

I explained about the issues involved (complex for a adult, so think of a kid!), which inevitably involved how kids get assaulted and how and why they don’t tell; because I think the mechanics of child sex assault are complex and need to explained more fully to kids than they are.

This is difficult for parents, since explanations involve discussions of things that you feel as a parent are beyond them and that injure their innocence. YET (!), if you don’t explain the mechanics (both physical and psychological) of what pedophiles actually do, then how will a kid know what’s wrong in a situation with a clever, manipulative and controlling figure of trust and authority?

[To wit, one Sandusky victim interviewed on CNN still hadn’t realized that Sandusky’s repeated hand on his thigh in the car had been a violation! And of course the more serious violations had been kept secret by who-knows-how-many boys…]

So we had discussions that were tough for me as a parent. Certainly my sons have been given all the standard talks, but this was more substantial than I’d ever given previously.

Thanks for the great teaching resources!
I appreciate writers like yourself using the horrific events that transpired at Penn State to bring awareness to the unspoken epidemic of child abuse and molestation! I am 57 year old and sustained physical, emotional and sexual abuse by people who were thought of as pillars in my community! In ultimately led to being raped at 13! I tried to tell someone and that person told me it was my fault and I should pray on it! I was terrified for years! I never told anyone for years, not even my husband of 32 years until 4 years ago! I have suffered with depression, feelings of inadequacies and fear! I have so many nightmares that I am afraid to go to sleep! I started seeing a counselor 1 1/2 years ago and have been diagnosed with PTSD! I have lived the terror of my abuse since I was 6. I hope the episodes at Penn State start a conversation and culture where people start opening their eye to this hidden epidemic. I hope it makes it easier for victims to come forward! I beg the media not to let the topic die when the dust of this scandal settles! We as a country canNEVER become complacent about this topic. Don’t let this be the sensational story of the day forgotten when the next big story comes along! Too many lives are at stake! The scars from abuse and molestation never fade. We victims try to cope, but always live looking over our shoulders with fear!
PC

I teach medical students at Drexel University and we spent some time in a small group session of first year students discussing this Thursday. The culture of medicine has many similarities to that of sports – teamwork where everyones’ performance is crucial, the leadership is often extremely intimidating and powerful and mistakes are humiliating – and fatal in our case. Medicine can foster the same “culture of complicity” where those lower on the team feel unable to approach leaders with mistakes or concerns out of fear. A doctor who engenders fear and avoidance in nurses and residents can be skilled and brilliant but a danger to patient care if underlings feel the need to hide mistakes or minimize problems.
Senior attendings need to defend people even when they are wrong so mistakes don’t compound themselves. One example could be if a second-year resident is concerned that the ureter may have been nicked during a routine hysterectomy but feels afraid to tell the attending. The culture has to be for the attending to be open and understanding, stop what is being done and go back to run the ureter and make sure it is patent, all as a matter of routine. The resident should be praised for bringing up the concern, not berated. That a student coach and janitorial staff were afraid to come forward with what they saw speaks volumes to the culture and autocracy at Penn State. I try to tell my students to be approachable by all members of the healthcare team – everyone from the unit clerk to the fellow should be able to come to you with a concern and not fear retribution.

With respect Tim I believe you have totally missed the real story and the media is not either willing, or is clouded by Joe Paterno’s impeccable reputation, to connect the dots to come to a full realization of the horror of what we are likely looking at here. The 2002 shower incident has by far garnered the most attention but I believe that the 1998 incident, which led to a lengthy police report detailing Sandusky admitting to showering naked with a young boy and likely touching and fondeling him, and the decisions made by Paterno and Penn State President Graham Spanier is by far the most important event in this scandal.

I believe that the most likely scenario following the completion of that report was that the DA and Chief of Penn State police met with Paterno and Spanier to discuss with them how they wanted this report to be released. Paterno was the most important and powerful man at Penn Stae and there is no way anything having to do with his football program would move forward without his knowledge and consent. It is unfathomable that a man who knew within 5 minutes that one of his players spit on the sidewalk downtown would not be a part of how this report moved forward. And this is where the light needs to be shed on this investigation.

Someone in that room decided that they didn’t want this report to be released, someone said “make that report disappear.” There is enough evidence in that report for the case to go to the grand jury 100 out of 100
times, but it didn’t go. Why not? Maybe they didn’t want the Penn State Football brand to be stained, maybe Paterno who had his strongest team in a decade-and maybe his last chance at a national championship-didn’t fell like he could do it without his genious defensive coordinator. Is that so hard to believe about this man as more and more of the details of this scandal come to light? Whatever the reason, they made a decision to bury that report and once they made that decision their future was inextricably tied to Sandusky’s.

Why? Because by covering up that incident and making that report “disappear” they made themselves complicit to and accomplices to any criminal acts committed by Sandusky in the future. Think about it, if the 2002 incident had been reported to the police the 1998 incident would have been brought back into light and answers would have been sought as to why that report had been buried. All those involved would be criminally complicit in the rape.

I believe this is the only scenario that makes any sense-do we really believe that Paterno’s only crime was that he didn’t do enough? Let’s look at the 2002 incident, Mike McQueary reports the incident to Paterno-okay-then we are led to believe that Joe Paterno, the king of all things Penn State, simply called his athletic director Tim Curley, a man who answered to Paterno not the other way around, told him what happened and left it at that. Does that seem likely? Or is it more likely that Paterno met with Curley and Spanier and said basically we need to bury this or we are all going down. Which is the more likely scenario knowing what we are all coming to know about this man and this program-not what we thought we knew.

Does it seem strange to anyone that Mike McQueary has kept silent about this? Forget that he didn’t go the police, he didn’t tell his friends? At the bar on Saturday night when someone brought up Sandusky, no “let me tell you something about that disgusting…” Would you tell anyone? Maybe someone sat this Graduate Asst. coach down and said something like “tell me Mike does Penn State football mean anything to you? It’s the most important thing in the world to you isn’t it and you wouldn’t do anything to hurt it, would you? You’ve got a big future here you know…” Oh yea, since that incident McQueary has risen from GA to Penn State’s national recruiting director and receiver’s coach-he is looked at as Paterno’s right hand man. Hmmm…

Let’s turn on the lights and see that the emperor has no clothes. Joe Paterno is not guilty of doing to little, of looking the other way, he is an accomplice to the sexual abuse, rape, and sodomy of countless young boys. Those of you who are defending Joe Paterno are good people, you are defending him because we all thought he was a man whose values were a beacon for us all. I understand that but we were wrong.

Paterno a scapegoat? He knew for years what Sandusky was capable of repeating with another victim. I read the grand jury report. Paterno turned his cheek. He deserves more than losing his coaching position. All the victims…are the fault of campus police? WHHATT? All of this is the fault of a sick man who used his position to manipulate and the fault of so many adults that did nothing or did something just to cover their butt. Anyone with knowledge of the abuse should do something and more until EVERY child is safe. Children depend on adults for safety. How can these adults sleep at night knowing that a young boy was physically and mentally tortured. Yes, our generation is a ME generation where football and ME, MYSELF, and I are more important than protecting an innocent child.

Their hope is that instructors and students can use the questions and links included on the page to help guide discussions of the issues raised by the Penn State sex abuse scandal.

Debbie Hawhee, Heather Adams, Michael J. Faris, and Mark Hlavacik are responsible for this collective act of writing and intervention. They made this in one day! Please share and use in your classrooms or conversations.

Students everywhere need to wonder whether tribalism and “absolute faith” have a place in their schools, and if so, what are the limits.

I’ve written three posts to help educators get at the key issues with their students:
(1) “What creates such a powerful interest in loyalty and stability that it completely over-rides the commitment to the best interests of children?” //speedchange.blogspot.com/2011/11/cultures-of-compliance.html
(2) “he rape of a ten-year-old was not enough for this 26-year-old, steeped in PSU’s concepts of loyalty, to over-ride his faith in a God-like Paterno and get him to pick up his phone. “McQueary locked eyes with the “boy” and Sandusky briefly and then quickly left the room” (says the Grand Jury report). What if he had seen a ten-year-old being stabbed to death? Would he still have walked away, gone home, talked to daddy and JoePa? And what about Paterno himself? What would McQueary have had to tell him to get him to dial 9-1-1? Maybe, “there are eight boys buried under our practice field”? How horrendous a crime would it have had to be for Paterno to move loyalty to Pennsylvania State University into ‘second place’?” //speedchange.blogspot.com/2011/11/teaching-of-tribalism.html (this links to Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s speech on the Cloyne Report, 12 minutes your students should listen to.
(3) “We all need to look at our schools. Where has faith, belief, automaticity, replaced doubt, questioning, and conscious thought? And how can we undo that?” //speedchange.blogspot.com/2011/11/darkness-at-noon-saturday.html

I think that Joe Paterno should not of been fired. I think they should of let him finish the year. He was such a big coach and he made lots of money and could shut people up. Paterno told his superior about what was happening, which was what he supposed to do.
I think if a student is raped in school the teacher should get fined and go to jail. He should have told the authority so he might of kept his job. Paterno did in a way the right thing, but also the wrong by doing it himself.

Leaders such as coach and teachers and authorities play a big enough role in society too know what is wrong from right. The moral of the situation is that what Sandusky did was wrong at all costs, and disgusting too. Even if the situation was not under Paternos authority, when he saw that his boss and people who had higher power than him in the University, he should have taken it in too his own hands and went too the police. Despite that he didn’t go too the police when he heard of the situation many years ago, I don’t think he should have lost his job for it now because the higher authorities should have done something themselves.

Paterno has major athletic achievement and respect from all of Penn State, guaranteed. But, too gain all of that leadership and respect also comes a lot of responsibility. After bringing in millions of dollars too Penn State over the years he was a huge role model too athletes and other workers, and drew in many students too Penn State. Now the reputation of Penn State is bound too be ten times as worse as it would have been then because it has been covered up for so many years. Students won’t feel safe going there anymore if they think things like that can be covered up, and the school has created a bad name for itself now because no one felt it was necessary to speak up years ago. They only made it worse for themselves.

Joe Paterno was the Football coach at Penn State university. He was fired for the recent discovery of the sexual abuse scandal at Penn State. Paterno has a moral obligation to talk to authorities about issues in his program that involve legal issues. However Paterno was not the one committing the act so he should not have been punished as severely punished as he was. Paterno made a mistake by not calling the authorities, but he should not be the one being punished because he did go to someone and the president of the university swept it under the rug.

Paterno brings millions to Penn State every year. However he has a bigger responsibility than winning football games and bringing in money. Paterno’s responsibility is to show the young men he coached how to be good men through football. Paterno set a bad example to his players when he did not tell authorities about Sandusky raping of young men.

I feel that you put what is wrong before the program, yes it is a huge program with a fantastic reputation but these are young kids being raped. I feel that the kids come first and is much more important. If this was documented when it was first spotted there reputation would still be in tack. But since they have been holding this information inside for so long that it is now too late. As for Paterno he did the right thing in telling the presidents what happened. Joe should have noticed that still no action has been done and spoke up. But it is not his responsibility but it shows his morals and that shows allot. Joe has done nothing but great achievement for that school and for him to go out like this is sad. now his reputation is in jeopardy due to the fact the the higher authority did not take action after finding out about the incident. Enough is enough, 40 counts, well that is wrong. you cant let that kind of thing go on. very disappointing in the Penn State program. Skandusk should have been spoken too, fired and sentence to life in prison.

Joe Patterno was a leader of Penn State on and off the feild. He created a name for himself and the school he loved so much. As a leader who impacted the school so much, he had an obligation to correct what was going on at the school, rather than thinking of saving the reputation. Even if a case doesn’t fall under their authority, someone still has the power to stop a situation that shouldn’t be happening.

When it comes down to it, you can have achievements and respect you want, if you mess up once or don’t give information, people will turn on you in a second. With leadership comes high responsibility, and oyu have to be smart with those responsibilities.

yes! leaders do have the responsibility and obligation to take action in cases that do not necessary fall under their specific authority. If you seen actions with your own eyes you must still report them. Paterno is being criticized for something that he thought he left the oppurtuinity to Graham B. Spanier but yet spanier decided to let things be and not report them that has nothing to do with Paterno. Paterno did witness these action taken place but he did aware people so Paterno should have no lead in this.
No it is enough to have major athletic achievements and respect. Even though you should respect each individual under every circumstances i think that leadership does carry a higher responsibility.

In a leader position i feel as though you should have a responsibility and a moral obligation even to whats not under your authority, if something is going horrible wrong you cant just sit back and let it slide, that’s what Joe Paterno did. i give him some credit for telling his higher ups but after that didn’t work why would he not go to the authorities concerning sandusky’s actions, 40 counts is alot of reasons for Paterno to go to the police,i dont blame joe or feel he should have been fired but i do feel like something more should’ve been done. That being said i don’t understand the animosity toward Joe Paterno, he is a football coach, just because he is the face of Penn state doesn’t somehow make him responsible beyond his measures,hes just a person there are many things we don’t know, he didn’t keep it to himself he did tell someone so i feel like him being fired was the correct justice.

Although Joe Paterno reported what he saw to the Penn State president. He did take action but his responsibility shouldn’t have ended there. Yes, he fulfilled his obligation to report any illegal actions on campus but when the Penn State President chose not to take legal action Joe Paterno should have made the moral decision and go to the authorities. Legally, he fulfilled his obligation and therefore no longer hold any responsibility in the eyes of the legal system. In the eyes of morality his responsibility in the matter was not over just because he reported it to who he was supposed to. Everyone who knew about it should have reported it to legal authorities.
I understand, Penn State football is a huge organization. It brings in millions of dollars in revenue. It was so high up on the Totem Pole that it was seen as untouchable. The President felt that if word got out it would be disastrous. But what’s more disastrous the lives of dozens of young boys being ruined for the rest of their life or the reputation of a football team.
I don’t think that he should have gotten fired but he’s not completely innocent in the matter. He held a piece of the responsibility and should have contacted legal authorities.

First i would like to show my concern and sorrows to the helpless young victims who were effected by this horrible scandal. In my opinion as too coach Joe Paterno being fired , Im going to have to agree with the decision because a person with that much respect and power cannot let something so evil and horrible happen right under your nose and not do the CLEARLY right thing. I understand he told his higher enforcers but once he saw that the proper punishments were not being received he should of gone to the law directly. As a man i couldn’t imagine being told that ” someone saw the assistant coach raping a 10 year old boy in the shower”, this major problem should of been dealt with along time ago. Its just a moral obligation that Joe Paterno should of acted upon. His great athletic achievements and mutual respect should of pushed towards the issue being resolved and not swept under the rug for it to come out years after and now resulting in him being fired . Every action has a reaction and in this case the reaction is due to Paternos lack of action.

His friends appear surprised when asked why the prosecutor, Ray Gricar, failed to prosecute Sandusky for sexual assault of a child.

Then Gricar disappears and someone attempts to destroy the hard drive on his laptop computer. The computer at his home shows that someone in his home searched the query “how to wreck a hard drive,” creating the speculation that Gricar himself tried to “wreck” the hard drive of his laptop.

Might there have been child porn on that computer? Might Gricar, fearful that the contents would be discovered, have attempted to destroy his own hard drive? Would threats from those allied with Sandusky that they would disclose the contents of the hard drive have kept Gricar from prosecuting Sandusky?

Wednesday, November 16, 2011new york post comment
Do leaders have responsibility and moral obligation to take action in cases that do not fall under specific authority?
in my opinion i think that under certain situations it is right to take action. in Joe paterno’s case i believe he did the right thing by telling his superiors about the situation.
Is it enough to have major achievements and a great deal of respect?
in Joe paterno’s case he was Penn state football. he shaped the team to what it is today. some people see paterno as a “untouchable” figure in the Penn state sports system. Joe’s leadership was a big piece of this argument. McQueary saw Sandusky committing the crime. McQueary quickly told paterno. After Coach Paterno was notified he quickly went to the school president spaner. in my opinion paterno did the right thing by letting his superiors know what was going on.
Is it wrong to choose protecting an institution’s reputation over intervening to stop wrongdoing of some of its matters? Absolutely! what happened at Penn state was a absolute shame. it really is unbelievable that people would hide such a crude thing. overall in my opinion it is not right to cover up anything to save an institutions reputation.