Gerald Arthur "Jerry" Sandusky (born January 26, 1944) is a retired American football coach. He served as an assistant coach for his entire career, mostly at Pennsylvania State University under Joe Paterno, and was one of the most notable major college football coaches to never have held a head coaching position. He was honored with Assistant Coach of the Year awards in 1986 and 1999.
In November 2011, Sandusky was arrested for 40 counts related to allegations of sexual abuse of young boys over a 15-year period.

Joseph Vincent "Joe" Paterno (born December 21, 1926) is a former college football coach who was the head coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions from 1966 to 2011. Paterno, nicknamed "JoePa," holds the record for the most victories by an FBS football coach with 409 and is the only FBS coach to reach 400 victories. He has coached five undefeated teams that won major bowl games. Paterno has been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach. He announced on November 9, 2011, that he intended to retire at the end of the 2011 football season, but was removed from his position by Penn State trustees later that night as a result of the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse scandal.

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/7212054/key-dates-penn-state-nittany-lions-sex-abuse-case

"March 1, 2002
A Penn State graduate assistant enters the locker room at the Lasch Football Building. In the showers, he sees a naked boy, known as Victim 2, whose age he estimates to be 10 years old, being subjected to anal intercourse by a naked Sandusky. The graduate assistant tells his father immediately.

March 2, 2002
In the morning, the graduate assistant calls coach Joe Paterno and goes to Paterno's home, where he reports what he has seen.

March 3, 2002
Paterno calls Tim Curley, Penn State athletic director to his home the next day and reports a version of what the grad assistant had said.

March 2002
Later in the month the graduate assistant is called to a meeting with Curley and senior vice president for finance and business Gary Schultz. The grad assistant reports what he has seen and Curley and Schultz say they will look into it.

March 27, 2002 (approximate)
The graduate assistant hears from Curley. He is told that Sandusky's locker room keys are taken away and that the incident has been reported to The Second Mile. The graduate assistant is never questioned by university police and no other entity conducts an investigation until the graduate assistant testifies in grand jury in December 2010."

Nov. 7, 2011
Pennsylvania Attorney General Linda Kelly says Paterno is not a target of the investigation into how the school handled the accusations. But she refuses to say the same for university president Graham Spanier. Curley and Schultz, who have stepped down from their positions, surrender on charges that they failed to alert police to complaints against Sandusky.

There are a lot of people defending Joe Paterno in this case and believe he is a scapegoat in the situation. I've heard mention that it wasn't his responsibility and that him notifying his boss (athletic director) was the appropriate action to take.

My thought is this happened 13 years ago and every person that did not contact the police from the graduate assistant on up to the university president is in some way responsible, if not legally, morally.
Any thoughts?

1) rightly, police should have been contacted immediately. thats a given.

2) No doubt, the reasoning behind this, is there is a 'protocol' the the staff and the school itself is required
to adhere to, to minimize first and foremost, damage to its own reputation, thus the lengthy
chain of command and discussion that had occured.

Its complete horse shit that most places will use such measures, and this is a testimony
to that fact.

thing I thought about when I was reading about this was all the sex scandal cover ups in the Catholic Church.

I've only seen bits and pieces of this story on the news, so I'm basing my opinion on the little I've seen & the info you provided.

My gut says it was swept under the rug intentionally. It wouldn't be the first time that kind of cover-up happened in college sports, but usually you hear about some football player who does something and the school covers it up. From what I understand it's all about reputation and revenue.

I would think that reporting it and doing the right thing would be good for the schools rep, but apparently they felt it would be better to keep it quiet.

Ultimately, once the other faculty members knew about it they should have taken appropriate action. Since they didn't, I'd consider them just as guilty as the child rapist himself.

Sexual assult on a child is one of the most heinous crimmes imaginable, and the thought of it makes my stomach turn. How could these people sleep each night knowing what they knew and not reporting it? Do pillows stufed with money muffle out their conscience?

very similar deal. boy scouts have a similar deal, most major corporations with sexual harassment/assault,
the list is endless. but all in the name of personal image.

curiously, everytime the public find out, the public image they saught to protect
is tarnished even worse, you think somebody would step up and stop the practice...

...which brings another grim thought, that the practice might be far more successful
than it fails, thus why so many organizations etc keep doing it...

That's what I'm thinking. There's a whole lot we never hear about. (successful cover-ups)

rather disgusting to think about, that peoples kids, even the people themselves,
could daily be going into places where such things have happened, and nobody is the wiser...

Well that's what struck me as strange. This graduate assistant witnesses the act, goes home and talks to dad, next day goes to coaches house and reports it. Coach notifies Athletic director and so on. How is it this act goes through this many people with no one calling the police? Because no one notifies this to the police it continues for 13 more years.

What kind of moral disconnect is there in our culture that keeps so many people from automatically calling the police when they see or are notified of something like that?

Thinking about how many other kids may have been exposed to horrible people like that because some "good ol' boys club" cover up literally makes me feel sick. There are many things breaking down in our society, but this may be the saddest. And for what? greed? ego?
IDK... *distraught*

Isn't an abortion a form of cover up? Sweeping problems under the rug as it were. So when society condone such acts, don't be surprised of its side effects.

yeah cause abortion and the religious implications you'll spew out have any
relavance to pedophilia, though I imagine several churches and their leaders
would figure out ways to make abortion a far worse crime...

That's not even close to the subject here.

well one needs to see whats happened in the past for such things to take place.

I cant find the story, but i recall a church had a pastor who had done a few naughty things
to kids, it went up the chain of command, whom relocated him to another church, the same
things occured again, only this time somebody DID call the police.

The church swept as much of it under the rug, and the informant, whom was 2nd in charge
of the church? told his services would not be required any longer.

Guess their own positions are far more important than the moral or legal implications,
again, Public Image vs Morals...guess who the winner is...

Yeah it is, who goes shouting about that they supported/had an abortion? They keep it quiet. Just like this case. Accept that you and your 'liberal' policies creates these problems we have today.

i can name several people that contentedly say they have had an abortion.

Further, we have abortion clinics, that advertise they are...abortion clinics.

your argument is invalid, and still remains off topic.

I just caught the coverage of the rioting crowds supporting the coach at Penn after he was fired. It's hard to wrap my head around why so many people don't think he holds some responsibility for this.

Was that story in the US? It sounds a lot like the one that happened here.
I understand that case, but I'm not sure how someone physically watches a rape of a child and then fails to immediately call the police. It's a graduate assistant, so I'm not sure what his loyalties were towards the University, but I wouldn't think they are as strong as the ones held by priests. Nor do I believe one coach being prosecuted for pedophilia is going to tarnish the reputation of an entire university.

Several university officials covering up a coach guilty of pedophillia and effectively allowing him to continue the act for 13 more years will definitely tarnish the reputation of an entire university.

My dad went to Penn State, but my brother-in-law is a big Pitt fan so my dad bought season tickets for them. Ever since I heard about it, I've been calling my dad a traitor and asking how he could do it. Now that this shit is out, I fuck with him even more and constantly ask him if the reason he turned his back on his alma mater is because he was involved.

Sweeping dirt under the rug a form of a cover up?
Sweeping problems under the rug as it were.
So when society condone such
acts, don't be surprised of its side effects.