Last night Penn State fired Joe Paterno in the wake of the developing sexual abuse scandal. Earlier in the day he had announced that he was going step down at the end of season, but apparently Penn State's Board of Trustees wanted him out now. Mind you that Paterno is not accused of committing any crimes, and in fact the solicitor's office has stated that Paterno did everything in reporting what he knew that he was supposed to do. The vice president that he reported the witness account to oversees the PSU police; in effect Paterno reported what he knew the highest police authority on campus. Was he also supposed to conduct the investigation as well as coaching the football team at Penn State?
Penn State is correct in stating that the University is larger than any one person, even if it is the football coach. That Paterno was willing to step aside when he has done nothing wrong shows that he was putting the interests of Penn State ahead of those of the football program. I think it speaks a lot to his character that Paterno was willing to fall on his sword to save a university that he cared so much about, instead he was stabbed in the back by those he was trying to help. Among the more curious decisions that Penn State has made this week is to fire the President and the football coach, but the athletic director who appears to have tried to cover up the alleged abuse still has a job. How do two people that have not been charged with a crime get fired, while one who was charged with a crime gets to keep his?
One also has to wonder there is so much outrage over Paterno only reporting the accounts of abuse that were relayed to him to the proper authorities, but there has been relatively little complaining that the assistant coach who witnessed the abuse reported it to the head football coach before he went to the police. Why didn't the coach who is supposed to have witnessed the abuse go to the police before he went to Paterno? It seems hypocritical to claim that the graduate assistant did nothing wrong in telling the head coach, while claiming that the head coach did something wrong by reporting what he was told to the head of campus police.
Undoubtedly there are many details that have not been reported on yet, and hopefully we will get a clearer picture of what really happened in due time. However, I can't help but think that this situation feels like the board of trustees is taking advantage of a horrible situation to remove a coach who some people feel is too old to continue to be an effective football coach. Hopefully the truth of what happened can be determined quickly and with minimal impact for the victims, but by focusing on protecting their image Penn State is drawing attention to their football team rather than focusing on investigating what really happened in the alleged abuse incidents.
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