What Jerry Sandusky did was/is heinous.  There is no excuse and no way to ignore the atrocities that he inflicted on those young boys.  I cannot even comprehend for any fraction of a second how ANY ONE can think this is ok.  But that is a topic for another post.

There is something clearly wrong with Mr. Sandusky.  This is not said to excuse his actions in anyway.  But to make a point.  He has issues and big issues.  What sickens me even more is that other adults knew about this.  And. Did. Nothing.  NOTHING.  This is more disturbing to me.  There is no excuse to stand by and 1-watch a rape of anyone–let alone a 10-year-old boy and walk away; and 2–to pass the buck.  That is what Paterno did.  He will die knowing that is what he did.  He will watch his legacy fade because he walked away.  Is that the message he wants to send to the generations he has coached?  To the boys he has coached into manhood?

Lest you think I judge without experience–you are wrong.  During my first year of teaching there were rumors about one of our administrators at our school.  Rumors that he had improper relationships with male students.  Relationships that were not consensual but predatory.  I was outraged.  I was sick.  While I learned that these had been rumors for a few years, I was even more sick.  No one had done any investigating or pushed the envelope.  This was someone who was around children in a position of power every day.  I could not and would not sit idly by if these rumors were true.

I didn’t go to my principal right away.  I did some good old investigative work and found out that this man had been removed from his previous teaching job a few years early for attempting to get a student to meet him at a hotel in exchange for an A.  It still make me sick to think about it. It also turned out that his teaching certificate in the neighboring state had been revoked and he was ordered to never work with children again.  So what the fuck was he doing working as the disciplinarian at a high school?  Well turns out when background checks are run–they are only run to see if someone committed a crime in that state–not a different state (scary huh?)

As soon as I found this information out, I went to my administration.  I had no choice.  This man was around children everyday.  My administration immediately (the very next day) put him on leave while they investigated.  Two days later he was fired.  This is what it looks like when we put kids first and not our own jobs/careers/images.

I could not have lived with myself if I didn’t say anything and he tried to attack/molest another young student.  I don’t know how Paterno has lived with it?

We must hold our leaders accountable.  There is no excuse for what has transpired.  There is no excuse.  There should be no support for those who turned a blind eye.  I respect the job Paterno did as a coach–I am sickened by the job he did as an advocate for kids and as a man.  A CNN headline claims that Paterno will never escape Sandusky tragedy but he was about so much more.  Yeah maybe–but in the scale of justice–being a winning football coach loses out every time to covering up for the rape of children.  EVERY TIME.