If Penn State’s Board of Trustees has, as reported, decided that Joe Paterno’s career as Penn State’s coach will end in this, his 46th season, then the move needs to be made immediately, prior to Saturday’s game against Nebraska. It then needs to be followed by the firing of school president Graham Spanier.
The New York Times reported the icon’s tenure will be over “perhaps within days or weeks,” the casualty of a widening sex abuse scandal that has imploded the once tranquil world of Penn State football.
There’s no reason to wait. The debate over Paterno’s moral culpability in not informing police in 2002 after a then-graduate assistant told Paterno of “something inappropriate involving (former defensive coordinator Jerry) Sandusky” during an “incident in the shower of our locker room facility” will wage forever.
Paterno did what he was legally obligated to do – he informed his boss, athletic director Tim Curley, about the allegation the following day.
He did nothing else though, and a lack of action that has been criticized by many, including the Pennsylvania law enforcement entity that eventually charged Sandusky with dozens of counts of abuse of a minor and Curley and a school vice president for perjury and failure to report the abuse.
The result has been a hurricane of a scandal, rocking not just the football program but also Penn State as an institution to its foundation.
Just Tuesday, a ninth potential victim of Sandusky emerged, according to the Harrisburg Patriot-News. The state’s attorney general has asked for other victims to come forward. Sandusky was allowed to roam free for nine-and-a-half years after the 2002 allegations were brought to Penn State’s attention, a time when other victims were molested. In 1998 the Penn State police department investigated other molestation accusations against Sandusky, but he was not prosecuted.
The depth and fury of the questions still remaining unanswered not just by Paterno, but also by other school officials, including President Spanier, are considerable.
