Penn State Report: ‘Total disregard’ for welfare of victims

[spanone]

Louis Freeh, head of the independent panel investigating Pennsylvania State University's role in the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal, said today the school's most senior leaders, including football coach Joe Paterno, showed "total disregard for the safety and welfare of Sandusky's child victims."

Freeh made the statement in prepared remarks marked coincide with the release of the panel's report.

"The most powerful men at Penn State failed to take any steps for 14 years to protect the children who Sandusky victimized. Messrs. Spanier, Schultz, Paterno and Curley never demonstrated, through actions or words, any concern for the safety and well-being of Sandusky's victims until after Sandusky's arrest," Freeh said.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20120712_Penn_State_Report__Total_disregard_for_welfare_of_victims.html

[msanthrope]

1. I'm reading the report now....Freeh didn't pull any punches, it seems.

http://www.thefreehreportonpsu.com/REPORT_FINAL_071212.pdf

[Stuart G]

2. The Death Sentence for Penn State Football...only correct response from NCAA...nt

[erpowers]

17. Fire the Coaches Leave the Football Program Alone

The main people who would be hurt by ending the Penn State football program would be the student football players. All coaches from the Paterno/Sandusky era should be forced to resign or be fired. Any school administrator(s) from that era who could have ended this situation but did not should be forced to resign or fired.

[MadrasT]

26. That would work for me...

Edit to add... but maybe that isn't a painful enough "lesson" for PSU?

I am torn the more I think about it.

[Iggo]

32. No.

They should lose that which they sought to save by covering up for the kid-fucker.

Otherwise, what's the point?

[erpowers]

37. Not Punishing Kids

Ending the football program would mainly hurt students who did not have the ability to change the situation. If it has to go that far it would be better to put in place lifetime bans from academics and college sports for the adults involved in this case.

[riderinthestorm]

39. You mean the same ADULTS who rioted when Joe Paterno was finally forced out?

These weren't "kids", they are adult university students.

There's a systemic rot in the entire Penn State culture right now that has permeated even the student body. What punishment do you think will be severe enough to get their attention and remind them of exactly how terrible this really was?

I'm pretty sure Penn State football players will get picked up elsewhere - they're the least of my concern really. Some other teams will snap them up asap.

[Iggo]

40. Who? The football players?

They can play somewhere else or not at all.

Sandusky's kid-fucking was covered up in order to save face for the football program.

The program's gotta go.

[DrewFlorida]

42. Not only should the football program be shut down, the university should be shut down too!

The entire university should be shut down because of this wanton disregard for the safety of children. The school and sports programs could be phased out over a period of 4 years in order to reduce the negative effects to currently enrolled students. All officials involved with the cover up should be brought to justice.
No entity should be allowed to continue after such a history of disregard for childrens safety.

[MineralMan]

3. Good. Blame should be attached to all who covered this

up or simply ignored what they knew about. At a minimum, the NCAA should ban Penn State from post-season play for several years. They won't, I suspect, but they should. Next, the Justice Department should investigate, and, if the allegations are correct, all federal funding should be withdrawn from Penn State.

[spanone]

4. The most powerful men at Penn State failed to take any steps for 14 years to protect the children...

how pathetic, sad and fucking sick is that statement.....

[MineralMan]

6. Indeed. To start with, they should lose their jobs.

All of them.

[spanone]

8. it certainly appears that more men than just sandusky should be imprisoned.

this was a conspiracy.

[Junkdrawer]

9. Accessories after the fact to pedophilia

You bet

[riderinthestorm]

11. +10000. I agree completely. nt

[MineralMan]

15. I agree. A grand jury should investigate and

charge those who were complicit. Zero tolerance.

[melissaf]

23. Absolutely.

Get Spanier under indictment.

[justabob]

16. and pensions and whatever other benefits there may be nt

[coalition_unwilling]

20. Oh, come on, Spanone. Everyone who's anyone knows that college football is

way more important the the childhood victims of sexual abuse.

You'd better get with the program, as one of my old HS coaches - a real asshole - used to say.

(in case it's needed)

[rocktivity]

19. I believe Penn State gets funding from the Komen foundation, too!

rocktivity

[Junkdrawer]

5. Why? Because a Winning Football team trumped ALL OTHER CONSIDERATIONS AT PSU....

Which was, ironically, the very thing Joe Pa was supposed to have kept in prospective. That WAS to be his legacy.

Shut football DOWN at PSU for at least 5-10 years.

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

7. ESPN says Freeh will have press conference at 10 am

[LynneSin]

10. Add Governor (and former PA Attorney General) Tom Corbett to that list

His ass should be investigated - he was just as guilty as the other officials who knew what was happening but choose to do nothing.

[Ruby the Liberal]

30. THIS!

Top of my hit list. Dude knew he was running for Governor and looked the other way for years as AG with his ONE (!) assigned investigator to this case.

[riderinthestorm]

12. Horrifying, despicable behavior by all. A huge effort to protect the football program and Sandusky

nothing for the abused kids.

Shut the place down - they are fucked. up.

[99Forever]

13. If ever crimes commited by...

... an "academic sports" administration warranted ending it, this is it. Anything less, is a travesty of justice. Likewise, there are many who deserve to spend the rest of their lives in prison.

[maddezmom]

14. Freeh live now on CNN and MSNBC

[rocktivity]

18. Candidate for this year's "You Call This NEWS?" Award

the "To Figure This Out, You Had To Do A Freaking STUDY?" category.


rocktivity

[coalition_unwilling]

21. Live, from the Hallowed Halls of the Department of the Obvious . . . - n/t

[Iggo]

22. The whole point was to protect the football program.

Fourteen years of letting Sandusky fuck children, just so they could protect the football program.

[hifiguy]

24. Let the lawsuits begin.

Penn State is in a world of hurt beyond words. IOW just where they deserve to be.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

34. damn right...think they need to be sued out of existence

and then raze the facilities and salt the ground...

sP

[Fumesucker]

25. I don't think PSU is unique as an organization in how they reacted to this situation..

Indeed, I suspect this kind of turn a blind eye is more the rule than the exception in areas of life where money, power and particularly emotion run so high and hard.

The odds of these high ranking powerful people all being "natural" sociopaths is quite low (hopefully). No, what I think is that you have situational sociopathy where an entire organization becomes morally adrift to an astounding extent, I think it would work similarly in any similar organization with similar pressures.

[MadrasT]

28. Sadly I think you are right.

Penn State got caught in a way that couldn't be shoved under the rug. The crimes were too horrible.

Not saying all organizations are covering up the same things, but I don't think PSU is unique as a morally adrift organization.

And none of that makes it excusable in any way, of course.

[Johonny]

29. Look at what happen in the Boston Red Sox organization

and the Catholic church. Two other high profile cases with tons of similarities to this case. The people on the bottom and the victims of the crime have their lives dramatically changed all because of corruption on the top. It's the reason many places take ethics training and places are trying to stress how organization ethics can be greatly effected by pressure from the top. See USA public and Bush torture crimes... So I agree totally.

[coalition_unwilling]

36. I wish there were a way to rec replies\responses as I would be

reccing yours emphatically.

As it is, I hope you will consider elaborating upon it and fashioning an OP around it. You might want to consider how that conspiracy of silence ('situational sociopathy') operated at Abu Ghraib. There too a lot of people in the chain of command seem to have known full well what was going down and did not do or say anything to stop torture.

At any rate, thank you for the though-provoking comment.

[hifiguy]

38. It's the natural behavior of any large organization to

engage in denial and ass-covering when unpleasant or inconvenient truths come to light. Sweep it all under the carpet, pretend it doesn't exist, cover it up and it will all go away. See, e.g., the catholic church. Except it never does, at least it doesn't for anyone but financial terrorists/criminals.

[seabeyond]

27. never demonstrated, through actions or words, any concern for the safety and well-being

that just says a whole hell of a lot.

[marsh hawk]

31. Covering Up! Who do they think they are . . ?

Catholic bishops?

[polichick]

35. Or U.S. politicians...

Interesting how easily people "look up to" psychopaths in high positions.

If more people recognized them for what they are, how might the world change?

[barbtries]

41. you know that unsettled feeling

you get sometimes? something's wrong, something's being missed or forgotten or lost...these bastards must have been feeling uneasy for the past ten to fifteen years. or maybe not, maybe they just don't care. i'm reading the report but it's gonna take awhile since i'm at work and it's some 267 pages long.
it's astounding that people in such exalted and responsible positions could be so heartless and cowardly, could have their priorities so completely twisted.

[Iggo]

43. Kick.

[E-Z-B]

44. I was expecting more support over at the Penn State Collegian newspaper but found quite the opposite

http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/2012/07/12/statement_from_freeh.aspx

[Odin2005]

45. College Football "culture" is toxic.

This isn't just a Penn State problem, it's a problem stemming from the corrupting puerile idiocy that is college football.