Why are students rioting over the firing of Joe Paterno? Paterno may be a legend but he also should be ashamed that he failed to protect our children. Authorities might have concluded that he fulfilled his legal obligation by reporting the incident to the athletics director but it is morally criminal that Paterno and others did not report the egregious crimes committed by Jerry Sandusky to authorities.
What kind of monster rapes and molest under privileged kids with privileged dreams? When those nine and ten-year old boys were brought on the sprawling Penn State college campus they probably dreamed of getting a good education and playing sports and not of getting a penis stuck in their rear end.
Yes America at-promise kids dream. Not kid ever dreams of growing up and becoming a drug dealer, bank robber or murder. But tragically too many at-promise kids from tough neighborhoods and living in poverty, often see their dreams deferred.
In 2002 when Mike McQueary reported to Paterno that he saw Jerry Sandusky in the Penn State showers with a young boy, not only should Paterno have reported it to the athletic director, he should have reported it to the authorities and followed up until Sandusky was prosecuted and sent to prison.
To do otherwise renders him guilty. Not only should Paterno have been terminated but he should be prosecuted and sent to prison where the odds are that the boy he failed to protect might end up going.
It’s disturbing that 2,000 misguided students would riot in the streets over the firing of Paterno. As my beloved deceased grandmother would say, “he made his bed and now he needs to lie in it.”
Paterno released statement indicates that he reluctantly accepts his punishment of being fired, and why wouldn’t he? He got off easy. Paterno and others failure to report the crime raises questions. Were they involved? Or do they just not value the life of a poor minority kid?
To some Paterno is a legend because of his winning record and because of his humanitarian work that has helped many.
Paterno’s accomplishments and good deeds cannot excuse his failure to protect the least of them – our children.
Paterno only got terminated, but his victims have a life sentence.
2,000 thousand students may have rioted in the streets to protest Paterno’s firing, but the other 42,000 sensible students thankfully stayed home.