Mama Bin Cranky

Just heard Geraldo rant on about how Joe Paterno should have known about Sandusky’s pedophilia.  Somehow I have the feeling that Penn State is covering its collective ass by firing Joe Paterno.  If Joe Paterno took the issue of an assault witnessed by another current coach to his supervisors, then I am not certain he should have been canned.

Rape is a crime.  What is Penn State’s written procedure for handling a rape on campus?  Are all faculty informed of the procedures to take when a crime has been witnessed?  Universities often handle such things as sexual assault in house and then choose not to call it what it is in their crime stats. Did Penn State officials give Joe Paterno a pass on taking the training on reporting crimes because he was the vaunted football coach.   It sounds to me like officials dropped the ball on this one.  Since Joe Paterno did not witness the sexual assault, was he supposed to be the one to report it to the authorities? It seems to me that grad student should have reported the assault to the authorities.  Why he wasn’t interviewed by Campus or Community Police is strange and might be evidence of a cover-up.

This whole thing is awful, but we should remind the Trustees/Board Members that someone is innocent until proven guilty.  At this point, it seems that 4 people have been fired, and only one of them has been indicted for a crime.  Since the board knew that students were protesting already, didn’t they consider the possibility of a riot when they rushed to judgement.

It seems the least that could have happened was to investigate the entire issue and then decide who did what when.  Then if Joe Paterno did something wrong that is a firing offense.

No excuse for students to riot, but it really appears that Joe Paterno did not get due process in this firing.  It feels to me like the board is hanging these people out to dry to keep the investigation from going further.