How deep did coverup go in Penn State child sex abuse case?

Here are some more notes from Wednesday night’s press conference. The Penn State Board Of Trustees’ decision to immediately dismiss head coach Joe Paterno and president Graham Spanier was unanimous, John Surma says. Spanier will evidently receive a financial settlement.

“We thought that because of difficulties engulfing our university. .. we felt it was necessary to make a change a leadership and set a new course,” Surma said.

Surma says he does not know if the university will still be paying the legal fees of Tim Curley and Gary Schultz, who are accused of perjury and of failing to report allegations of child abuse against Jerry Sandusky.

As I mentioned in my last post, a number of these journalists sound downright agitated – like angry students, not like journalists. It’s incredible, really. Many are asking pointed, and obviously-angry, questions, about Joe Paterno’s legacy with Penn State and about, for example, whether the Board of Trustees has been “gunning” for him for years – as if anyone who isn’t connected to Penn State would possibly see these events that way. Pointed questions are fine, clearly, but this press conference is heading into the realm of the bizarre, as if Surma were answering questions from season-ticket holders rather than journalists

Paterno deserves to end his long career in shame.

Joe Paterno was Penn State football. The integrity of the school was the responsibility of someone else, but the integrity of the football program was his.

He's also a human being, and for a human being, the right think to do was to report a criminal to the authorities the minute he realized his boss was not going to do so

Remember this the next time you bitch about how boys are being let down by society... Hypocrite..

Angry Penn State students are back in the streets tonight after Joe Paterno was abruptly fired by the board of trustees.
CNN is on the ground, and the situation is really tense right now.
We'll update you here with pictures, video, and any news from State College.
UPDATE:
There are fireworks.
A student has been maced.
The Daily Collegian reports that an estimated 1000 students are on Pugh Street, but police are trying to keep them off the more popular Beaver Ave.
UPDATE:


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/penn-state-paterno-riots-2011-11#ixzz1dH3XwWWH

It seems the longer a legendary coach stays on the job, the slimmer his chances become to exit on his own terms. Woody Hayes won 13 Big Ten titles at Ohio State, but his tenure ended overnight after he punched a Clemson player on national television. Bob Knight won three NCAA titles at Indiana, but he was eventually fired for choking a player in practice, then violating a zero-tolerance policy by grabbing a student's arm. Bobby Bowden single-handedly built Florida State into a national power, but he was forced out when his program sunk into extended mediocrity.
Joe Paterno, Penn State's iconic head coach of 46 years, was fired Wednesday by the board of trustees. He wasn't ousted because he's 84 years old and in the last year of his contract, but rather because he was one of many who failed to turn in alleged pedophile Jerry Sandusky to the police. We knew Paterno would leave eventually, but we could never have fathomed his career ending this way. The circumstances surrounding Paterno's exit are far uglier and more disturbing than Hayes' sideline punch or Knight's burst of anger. They render Penn State's 8-1 record this season as irrelevant as Bowden's final 7-6 campaign. People are rightfully disgusted by the allegations against Sandusky, and Paterno admitted in his brief statement Wednesday "I wish I had done more."
In the weeks, months and years to come, there will hopefully be justice -- long overdue justice -- for the untold children Sandusky allegedly victimized. A university investigation will unseat all those it finds accountable, including president Graham Spanier. A jury will determine the fate of Sandusky as well as the fates of former Penn State athletic director Tim Curley and vice president Gary Schultz, the two officials charged with perjury. And the court of public opinion, which to this point has largely been bloodthirsty and venomous, will continue to have its say on Paterno. He will never escape the stigma of his career's final sordid chapter

But while it's hard to see the bigger picture in the middle of the firestorm, it's also shortsighted to think that history will entirely forget the rest of Paterno's 46-year career. Some may find that taboo to say at this particular moment, when the news of Sandusky's alleged crimes is still fresh and many are still waiting for Paterno to fully address what happened in 2002. People aren't ready to put down the pitchforks just yet, and I'm not saying they should.
And yet, distance and perspective will eventually create a more nuanced legacy. The record will show that Paterno won more games than any other coach and that his teams annually graduated more players than any other public school. Video clips and photos will forever immortalize his black shoes and spectacles. The library on Penn State's campus, for which he helped raise $13 million, will still stand, and a university to which he devoted not only his entire adult life but $4 million of his own money will continue to educate generations of students

I dont think thats even a drop in the bucket. Penn State, besides being a land grant, has several huge endowments in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
I think the Trsustees are mpst worried about unknown lawsuits. They could be spending the next few decades being defendants. Ill bet all these guys, including PAterno, will be lawyering up soon.

With so much attention being given to the firing of football coach Joe Paterno and school President Graham Spanier, as well the long-term impact on the school from the sexual abuse scandal that came to light at Penn State this week, there's a danger of the alleged victims being forgotten.

Harrisburg's Patriot News reminds us that if former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky did indeed sexually abuse at least eight boys over the past decade or so (he denies the charges), there are some young men and their loved ones who are suffering — and that what's happening now is causing them more pain.

The sister of one boy is a junior at the school. She's spoken with the newspaper (which did not identify her to protect her brother's identity). Her brother was 11 when he was allegedly molested by Sandusky in one of the school's showers. She says:

— "I've been going to minimal classes, because every class I go to I get sick to my stomach. People are making jokes about it." Others, she said, have coined the verb "Sanduskied." You can imagine the context.

— The young woman also says that the scenes in State College, Pa., last night of students rioting in the streets because they're angry about Paterno's firing, mean that "if there was any pride left at PSU, it's gone now."

"I've just been really upset about it all," she added, "because a lot of people aren't focusing on the victims in this. And instead they're focusing on other things, like football."

Meanwhile, attorney Ben Andreozzi is advising some of Sandusky's alleged victims and their families. He says the Penn State trustees should have anticipated how students would react to news of Paterno's firing and perhaps held off — allowing the coach to retire at the end of the season instead, as Paterno wished.

Trustees "should have considered these victims watch TV and are aware of the students' reaction and may not want to be associated with the downfall of Mr. Paterno," Andreozzi tells the Patriot-News. "The school instead elected to do what it felt was in its own best interest at the time. Isn't that what put the school in this position in the first place?"

Remember, youre clipping **** from random newspapers whose only job is to serve as a platform for ads. Ive seen the "victim's angle" in the Philly Inquirer and the Lancaster New Era, (right next to a'dont fire PAterno cause itll drop kick the fooball program).

Penn State, besides being a land grant, has several huge endowments in the hundreds of millions of dollars.