[NU Sports] PSU and how this could have been so easily avoided….

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

Well put, Dennis. We are casting stones awfully quickly and without all of the information.

I don't think Paterno would be as intimidated as the teacher in the scandal ... but it certainly makes me understand (not JUSTIFY, but understand) McQueary's actions.

You're a grad assistant who stumbles onto something in the locker room and is recognized.
It involves a campus legend and someone with friends in high places.
You report it to your boss, a living legend in the sport.
You wait and don't see anything being done - are you going to press the issue?


Like I said, there's a reason whistleblowers are a rarity.

A few years ago, our school district had a sex scandal involving the assistant principal and a teenage student. The damning evidence came in text messages. The weekend before this broke, a colleague and I had been at a school training workshop with the AP who was accused. He was constantly on his phone during the conference, but every once and awhile told us the basketball game score, so we thought he was just checking scores a lot. Hindsight ... we were blindsided by it when it came out, but some others weren't so surprised (which raised some questions in my mind why they hadn't said anything).

The main point to me bringing this up, though, is that the office secretary who caught the text messages when she confiscated the student's phone on an unrelated offense was "let go" at the end of the year for not "fitting in" with the office environment. And five years or so later, the AP (who was fired, obviously) is still a free man.

Like I said, whistleblowers are rare.

I'm not excusing McQueary, but I can certainly understand his position. He reported it but didn't want to push it.

It's easy for us to say now that we would have followed up -- but we'll never know unless we're in that position.

In any case, the higher-ups who knew MORE than Paterno or McQueary and did even LESS are the ones who need to be run out of town immediately ... and of course, the retired coach who actually DID the crimes deserves the ultimate blame.

-SjT
 
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
STEPHEN J. TRUOG
sjtruog at yahoo.com
GO CATS!!! GEAUX SAINTS!!!
Super Bowl XLIV Champions!
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________________________________
From: Dennis W. Brandt <tbng at comcast.net>
To: Jason Singer <jintsjason at me.com>; Northwestern Wildcats <nwu-sports at tssi.com>; judway at comcast.net
Sent: Wednesday, November 9, 2011 2:57 PM
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] PSU and how this could have been so easily avoided….

<One of the biggest issues here (and in hindsight, perhaps the biggest issue) that was finally (and thankfully) addressed yesterday by the PA legislature, is that employees of state educational institutions are not mandatory reporters of sexual and/or child abuse to child services in the manner that doctors, therapists, Psy D's, police and EMT's are.

You are wrong as far as public school teachers are concerned.  They are required to report abuse in Pennsylvania.  College teachers I can't speak to.

There is a lot of sanctimonious first-stone tossing going on here.  Isn't it amazing how everyone knows exactly what should have been done - after the fact.

Let's say you're a third-grade teacher.  (I happen to live with one who looking forward to retirement at the end of the school year.)  She suspects abuse of a student and reports it to the principal.  Some time goes by, and she hears nothing.  So, she checks back with the principal, who tells her, "It's being handled."  Each time she checks back, the principal says the situation is under control.  Her legal responsibility has ended, yet she still sees the possibility of the child being abused.  What does she do? Should she go over the boss's head to the school board president or perhaps contact the police?  There's a real job risker, not to mention offering fodder for a potentially crippling lawsuit if she can't prove the allegations, which aren't her job to prove.  The law could help by protecting teachers if they report suspected abuse whether their suspicions are right or wrong.  (They may; I don't know, but when did that ever stop a
 mega-million dollar lawsuit.)  But what if the child isn't being abused, and the problem is something altogether different?  The teacher may be trained to look for signs, but she isn't a trained psychiatrist.  A "mere" investigation of sexual abuse could destroy lives.  Ask the McMartin family about that.

It's not quite so easy before the fact.

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