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Monday, November 7, 2011

Sports Nut: Shame on You, Joe Paterno

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Sports Nut
Shame on You, Joe Paterno
Penn State's horrific sex abuse scandal reveals the school's moral hypocrisy.
By Torie Bosch
Posted Monday, Nov 07, 2011, at 10:13 PM ET

Penn State football is usually the highlight of my fall. But just as my Catholic mother stopped going to mass for a time because of the church sex-abuse scandal, I don't think I'll be able to watch the Nittany Lions any time soon. For the first time, I'm ashamed to be a Penn State graduate.

At a school where football comes first, the news came during a bye week: A former Penn State assistant football coach, Jerry Sandusky, was charged with sexually assaulting eight boys, and administrator Gary Schultz and athletic director Tim Curley have been accused of failing to report the allegations. Though it's impossible to pick out the most-nauseating details in the grand jury report, school officials' lack of interest in reporting Sandusky's alleged crimes is particularly disturbing to this Penn State alum. Among the people who didn't go to the police is legendary football coach Joe Paterno. In 2002, a graduate assistant to the football team told Paterno that he walked in on Sandusky showering with a young boy. Paterno told his athletic director, but he didn't notify the police.

I graduated from Penn State in 2006. When I arrived on campus, I had no interest in any sport involving a ball and elected not to purchase season football tickets. But I quickly realized that being alone on campus with my principles on game day was not as much fun as taking part.

Moreover, I was taken in by the ...

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