Cries of students at State College, PA were heard during the night of November 5 after the discovery of Joe Paterno’s end as Penn State’s head football coach. The news spread like wildfire around the country and many college students from various schools formed their opinions on the Penn State Board of Trustees’ controversial decision.
Jerry Sandusky, a defensive coordinator working alongside Paterno, was charged with sexually assaulting eight underage boys for more than a decade. Paterno, along with linebacker coach Mike McQueary (who witnessed the assaults firsthand), Tim Curley (the athletic director whom Paterno told), and finance official Gary Schultz passed this information along to others, but did not call the police. Now, Sandusky still waits to be pled guilty while Paterno is fired, along with the University President Graham Spanier.
After posting the question on the James Madison University Class of 2015 Facebook page of whether the firings were constitutional, over 30 strongly opinionated comments from JMU students appeared.
Freshman Stephanie Ross lives near the Penn State campus and therefore grew up with the name “JoePa” in her vocabulary. “The blame is being put on someone who did nothing wrong,” Ross said. Ross believes Paterno did everything he was supposed to do; he told someone else about the assault he never physically saw. It was unjust to have him fired before his last home game of the season.
Many JMU students agree with Ross’ point of view, saying because Paterno never actually witnessed the event he should not be charged. Paterno told the athletic director so he technically did not keep the information secret.
Numerous oppositions to this opinion arose as well. Several students say Paterno did the right thing, but he did not do enough. “Imagine if someone told you that he/she witnessed your co-worker sexually molesting a young child; what would you do? If that were me I would tell the witness that I would help him/her and go to the police together,” freshman Nicholas Farrar said. “I would not sit on something so serious and risk the victims’ lives even more.”
The riots at Penn State involved flipping a media van due to the apparent misinformation given by the news stations. The media made the scandal seem like all the blame was placed on Paterno, but he was only a piece of the puzzle.
“Looking at it realistically, JoePa makes a better story, not McQueary or Sandusky or Curley or Schultz… and that’s just how it is, unfortunately. The entire thing is so sad,” freshman Alex Parker said.
However, other students argue that many viewers of the scandal brush past the main reason why it began in the first place. Eight children were sexually assaulted, which left bruises lasting longer than the broken hearts over a lost football coach.
“People seem to only care for the well being of a man who made his choice and now must live with the fallout of it, instead of caring and being concerned for the little boys who never had a choice,” freshman Katie Bishop said.
Regardless of opinion, we asJMU students come together and remember those who were directly affected by the scandal. Most importantly, we remember those who were assaulted. As a school, we send our thoughts and prayers to the citizens of the Penn State community as they deal with this difficult controversy.
Sources:
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/p/penn…