Penn State’s student newspaper, The Daily Collegian, reported today that an attorney working with some of Sandusky’s victims is questioning the actions of Penn State’s Board of Trustees. Specifically, he suggests that the board did not consider how the abuse victims would be affected by the decision to terminate Joe Paterno rather than allowing him to resign at the end of the year. The effects in question are the reactions of Penn State students to news of Paterno’s termination; the student protests turned JoePa into a victim (not the innocent children Sandusky assaulted), and the attorney places the blame for this on the Penn State Board.
Dostoevsky gave us a character, the nameless narrator of Notes from the Underground, who “couldn’t even become an insect” because that would require action. Underground Man was so conscious, so intellectually aware, that he thought himself out of action each time he considered it. Inaction was the result of overanalyzing the consequences of action.
It seems pretty clear Mcquery and Paterno and Curley and Schultz and Spanier all failed to call police on Sandusky because they worried about the consequences of doing so. Whether it was protecting the university or protecting their own self –interests, the potential effects of taking action appear to be the only explanation for why Sandusky was allowed to continue his predatory assaults on children after the 2002 shower incident. Our outrage is split between Sandusky and the officials who, from bottom to top, “couldn’t even become an insect” by reporting his crimes to the police.
So, it is ironic that this attorney questions Penn State’s decision to fire Paterno because of the potential for student outrage that would turn JoePa into a victim. Yes, the students were wrong, and I can only hope more time at a university will teach them that football is not as important as innocent children. But had the Penn State Board withheld ACTING based on possible fall out, it would have been no better than the long list of people who enabled Sandusky’s crimes because they would not act. In mourning Paterno’s termination, Penn State students may have added to the victims’ pain, but I suggest their pain would have been much greater had the Board of Trustees followed the school’s earlier example and remained paralyzed and useless underground. And I hope those who Sandusky hurt will chose to remember the Penn State students who seem to have gotten a real education after all, the students in AP photographer Gene J. Puskar’s photo that accompanies this blog.
Dostoevsky gave us a character, the nameless narrator of Notes from the Underground, who “couldn’t even become an insect” because that would require action. Underground Man was so conscious, so intellectually aware, that he thought himself out of action each time he considered it. Inaction was the result of overanalyzing the consequences of action.
It seems pretty clear Mcquery and Paterno and Curley and Schultz and Spanier all failed to call police on Sandusky because they worried about the consequences of doing so. Whether it was protecting the university or protecting their own self –interests, the potential effects of taking action appear to be the only explanation for why Sandusky was allowed to continue his predatory assaults on children after the 2002 shower incident. Our outrage is split between Sandusky and the officials who, from bottom to top, “couldn’t even become an insect” by reporting his crimes to the police.
So, it is ironic that this attorney questions Penn State’s decision to fire Paterno because of the potential for student outrage that would turn JoePa into a victim. Yes, the students were wrong, and I can only hope more time at a university will teach them that football is not as important as innocent children. But had the Penn State Board withheld ACTING based on possible fall out, it would have been no better than the long list of people who enabled Sandusky’s crimes because they would not act. In mourning Paterno’s termination, Penn State students may have added to the victims’ pain, but I suggest their pain would have been much greater had the Board of Trustees followed the school’s earlier example and remained paralyzed and useless underground. And I hope those who Sandusky hurt will chose to remember the Penn State students who seem to have gotten a real education after all, the students in AP photographer Gene J. Puskar’s photo that accompanies this blog.
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