Where Paterno Screwed Up

[vakkotaur]

* Make your own Penn State/State Pen joke. *

As those who know me know, I am not a sports fan and tend to think of anyone involved with such as more likely of being guilty of something than the averages of probability would indicate. Note that I am not defending what happened. I am explaining how I think the failure mode worked

Comments

[nefaria]

Covering up crimes is standard procedure on college campuses. Each year colleges have to report the number of crimes on campus, and the college admins have a stake in keeping that number as low as possible, to make the college look more attractive. So when a crime happens, they don't notify the police, they make a (sometimes half-hearted) effort to address the crime and then drop the subject.

The reporters should be investigating this, because it affects almost everybody.

[sideband]

If he'd gone to the authorities instead of the college, the police most likely would have ignored it, or, at best, documented it and let it lay. Secondhand accounts don't hold up in court (except in VERY rare occasions) and the police wouldn't have had the evidence needed to convict the offender.

What SHOULD have happened is that the person who actually witnessed the alleged abuse should have gone directly to the police, immediately, and kept the coach out of it until after it was reported to the proper authorities.

Honestly, I don't see what more the coach could have done that would have had any lasting effect.

[vakkotaur]

I quite agree. The original witness made the same screw-up Paterno did, really. Paterno's going to the police might not have resulted in any change to events other than it being the police rather than himself on which much is focused - and the police would truly deserve the focus. As for the original witness... I can only wonder why that person did not go outside the system.