When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Scandal should be no surprise Published 10:05 p.m., Friday, November 11, 2011
Why are we surprised?
The sexual abuse allegations against former Penn State football coordinator Jerry Sandusky are only the latest on the list of such scandals. Are we surprised, when our world is absolutely jam-packed with all sorts of flagrant sexuality?
TV and movies bombard us with almost every perversion of sexuality, thereby weakening any sense of wrongdoing. Hollywood stars mock decency and politicians mock integrity. Police set up stings to catch the perverts, but wait a minute -- I thought going to strip joints, unlimited use of the Internet, what I do in my bedroom, or for that matter almost anywhere, and with whom I like, was protected by our Constitution.
Tolerance is applauded and morality is sneered at and we are surprised by the "breaking news" of the latest victimization of women and children? Somewhere we lost our sense of right and wrong, ethics and morality, decency and perversion. Until we call a spade a spade, we will only reap what we have sown.
And parents, you had better wake up to the vulnerability of your children.
Under your own nose, your child is being groomed and desensitized to be the next victim, or victimizer.
tolerance is just another way to say "it's all in the pudding".......
PC tolerance is a JOKE....a smear campaign against the human psyche......how sad
we have stopped looking in the mirror at ourselves and have been trained to just run the wheel to get to be like those held up before us as pseudo-gods...whether they be teachers/politicians/actors/actresses/musicians....pathetic....
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
By now, anyone who even barely follows the news is familiar with the conflagration that has engulfed Penn State University and its now-disgraced legendary coach Joe Paterno, who has won more football games than any other college coach in history and did it at just one university. After Paterno’s former defensive coordinator, Jerry Sandusky, was arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting boys who were involved in Sandusky’s organization, The Second Mile, which works with boys who had "troubled" pasts, the fallout has resulted in Paterno being unceremoniously thrown out of his job, Penn State’s president fired, and the university’s athletic director and a vice president indicted.
What I am about to say is that this wildfire was not necessary; this entire thing could have been handled with much less destruction and this is the result of Pennsylvania Attorney General Linda Kelly’s irresponsible actions and statements. I’ll repeat: Linda Kelly has almost single-handedly taken a bad situation and turned it into tragedy.
Before I explain my point, I will inform readers that I do not endorse the predatory sexual behavior in which Sandusky allegedly has engaged. (This is to fend off the inevitable "You support child molesters!" emails that I am sure to receive.) Nonetheless, I also support the right of someone to a fair trial, and Kelly’s irresponsible and, frankly, selfish, actions not only have destroyed lives at Penn State, but they also have effectively guaranteed that no jury from this side of Outer Mongolia even could begin to hear Sandusky’s case without damning pre-trial prejudice. Furthermore, it is guaranteed that Kelly’s escalating of this issue will result in future laws and policies that will result in innocent people being falsely accused and convicted of terrible things that never will have happened.
The other thing that Kelly has done has to take a story and help turn it into a "narrative," and journalists around the country have jumped on this, not caring if the "narrative" even is true. If it sounds like what happened in the infamous Duke Lacrosse Case, that is because we are seeing something very similar occurring.
At Duke, the "narrative" was "rich, young white boys think they can beat and rape a black woman and get away with it." Even when the facts of the case immediately contradicted the media "narrative," nonetheless American journalists continued to run with it – until they ran into a wall. (The irresponsible and dishonest behavior of the Duke Administration and faculty, along with misconduct by Durham police and prosecutors, never seemed to make it to the newsprint, as journalists expressing their righteous anger could not be bothered by actual misconduct that was occurring right in front of them.)
The Penn State "narrative" is "Joe Paterno let Jerry Sandusky sexually assault boys so that Paterno’s Penn State football program would not have its reputation damaged." The parallel "narrative" is that the "good old boys were protecting each other." Yet, we have no idea if either "narrative" is true. We don’t know, and that is why there should be real-live investigations, as opposed to inflammatory statements from officials that journalists dutifully copy as though they were Official Stenographers of the State.
Obviously, the one difference is that the Pennsylvania authorities seem to have a much stronger case against Sandusky than did North Carolina prosecutor Michael Nifong, who had no case at all and had to lie in order to gain indictments. That being said, however, the firestorm at Penn State is about an alleged incident in 2002 involving Sandusky and an unidentified boy.
Michael McQueary, then a graduate assistant coach on the football team and now a paid assistant, allegedly saw Sandusky sexually assaulting a boy in a gym shower at Penn State. McQueary supposedly told Paterno what he saw, and Paterno then told PSU Athletic Director Tim Curly and Curly then told university Vice-President Gary Schultz, who then allegedly relayed the incident to PSU President Graham Spanier. No one in that chain told police or child protective officials.
Despite the fact that it was known for many years that authorities had been investigating Sandusky for his alleged behavior with boys, the narrative – and much of the case – centers around the alleged shower incident that McQueary claimed to have seen. In fact, Kelly got indictments against Curly and Schultz for not reporting the alleged incident to police (and she says she might indict Spanier), and then got further indictments against them for perjury, as she claims they lied to the grand jury.
As I see it, this is where Kelly not only has gone off the tracks, but also has acted destructively. According to Pennsylvania law, neither Curly nor Schultz are what the law calls "first responders," people who are required to report any claim or alleged incident of child abuse or neglect. For example, as a college professor, if any of my students even make an offhand claim about being abused, I must report that claim to the police, or I can be charged with a crime myself.
Curly and Schultz, however, did not fit into this legal category. Furthermore, according to the law under which they were indicted, the statute of limitations had passed. To make things even more complicated, the alleged victim in this incident is not even an accuser and no one knows who he is, nor has he "come forward," despite pleas from Kelly’s office.
Thus, what Kelly did was to secure indictments against people who did not break the law and even if they did, knowing that the statute of limitations had passed. To make things worse, she made inflammatory comments about them in a press release, declaring:
Those officials, to whom it was reported, did not report the incident to law enforcement or any child protective agency, and their inaction likely allowed a child predator to continue to victimize children for many more years.
From my own reading of the Rules of Conduct for Pennsylvania attorneys, this violates Rule 3.8(e), which states:
...except for statements that are necessary to inform the public of the nature and extent of the prosecutor's action and that serve a legitimate law enforcement purpose, refrain from making extrajudicial comments that have a substantial likelihood of heightening public condemnation of the accused and exercise reasonable care to prevent investigators, law enforcement personnel, employees or other persons assisting or associated with the prosecutor in a criminal case from making an extrajudicial statement that the prosecutor would be prohibited from making under Rule 3.6 or this Rule.
Moreoever, Rule 3.8(a) states that prosecutors shall:
refrain from prosecuting a charge that the prosecutor knows is not supported by probable cause;
I believe it is safe to say that a prosecutor that knowingly charges someone with a crime even though the law does not cover their positions, and that the statute of limitations has passed, has violated that rule, and the punishment for that violation could be disbarment. That action combined with the inflammatory public statements she made about the defendants (while knowing that the indictments against them were legally questionable at best) certainly reflect reckless and illegal behavior on behalf of Pennsylvania’s top law enforcement officer.
To make things worse, because this particular alleged incident has produced no person who has come forward to claim he was the "victim," we are dealing with a phantom crime. Yes, the incident very well might have occurred, and I don’t think that McQueary had any reason to lie. Nonetheless, I don’t believe that Kelly can claim that these men forsook their legal duties to report a crime when, in fact, she has no proof that a crime was committed other than what McQueary has said.
This hardly is legal hairsplitting. If there is no crime victim in this situation, there is no crime (even if we believe that the events McQueary described actually happened), and unless a credible person shows up who can prove his whereabouts that night in 2002, Kelly cannot charge Sandusky with that alleged assault.
Yet, it is this very incident, with subsequent indictments, that has created the worst firestorm at Penn State. Until Kelly decided to escalate the situation, the police were quietly investigating Sandusky, not seeking major publicity in the process. This was what police should have been doing, and at the end of their investigation, if they believed they had enough evidence, they could have arrested Sandusky and charged him with the assaults for which young men who say they were Sandusky’s victims have claimed he committed.
Sandusky would have been arrested, and while I have no doubts that there would have been further investigations at Penn State, I also believe that if investigators believed that Paterno had looked the other way, he could have been permitted to retire at the end of this season without the show of force from the PSU board of trustees.
Instead, we are treated to an awful show of riots, public accusations, and a situation in which it now is impossible for clear heads to prevail. I believe that this did not have to be the result, yet because Kelly wanted to ramp up the heat, she has sowed the wind, and what follows is the inevitable whirlwind.
Penn State is a multicampus public research university that educates students from Pennsylvania, the nation and the world, and improves the well being and health of individuals and communities through integrated programs of teaching, research, and service.
Our instructional mission includes undergraduate, graduate, professional, and continuing education offered through both resident instruction and online delivery. Our educational programs are enriched by the cutting edge knowledge, diversity, and creativity of our faculty, students, and staff.
Our research, scholarship, and creative activity promote human and economic development, global understanding, and progress in professional practice through the expansion of knowledge and its applications in the natural and applied sciences, social sciences, arts, humanities, and the professions.
As Pennsylvania's land-grant university, we provide unparalleled access and public service to support the citizens of the Commonwealth. We engage in collaborative activities with industrial, educational, and agricultural partners here and abroad to generate, disseminate, integrate, and apply knowledge that is valuable to society.
Public Character
Penn State, founded in 1855 as an agricultural college, admitted its first class in 1859. The Pennsylvania legislature designated Penn State as the Commonwealth's sole land-grant institution in 1863, which eventually broadened the University's mission to include teaching, research, and public service in many academic disciplines. Penn State has awarded more than a half-million degrees, and has been Pennsylvania's largest source of baccalaureate degrees at least since the 1930s. Although the University is privately chartered by the Commonwealth, it was from the outset considered an "instrumentality of the state," that is, it carries out many of the functions of a public institution and promotes the general welfare of the citizenry. The Governor and other representatives of the Commonwealth have held seats on Penn State’s Board of Trustees since the University's founding, and the legislature has made regular appropriations in support of the University's mission since 1887.
Today Penn State is one of four "state-related" universities (along with the University of Pittsburgh, Temple University, and Lincoln University), institutions that are not state-owned and -operated but that have the character of public universities and receive substantial state appropriations. With its administrative and research hub at the University Park campus, Penn State has 23 additional locations across Pennsylvania. While some of these locations, such as the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, have specialized academic roles, they all adhere to a common overall mission and set of core values and strategic goals.
either way it is state related......wonder wonder wonder.......
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
From agricultural college to world-class learning community -- the story of The Pennsylvania State University is one of an expanding mission of teaching, research, and public service. But that mission was not so grandly conceived in 1855, when the Commonwealth chartered the school at the request of the Pennsylvania State Agricultural Society. The goal was to apply scientific principles to farming, a radical departure from the traditional curriculum grounded in mathematics, rhetoric, and classical languages.
Centre County became the site of the new college in response to a gift of 200 acres from agriculturist and ironmaster James Irvin of Bellefonte. President Evan Pugh drew on the scientific education he had received in Europe to plan a broader curriculum combining classical studies with practical applications. Pugh and similar visionaries in other states won federal support for their ideas in 1862, when Congress passed the Morrill Land-Grant Act. The act enabled states to sell federal land, invest the proceeds, and use the income to support colleges "where the leading object shall be, without excluding scientific and classical studies... to teach agriculture and the mechanic arts [engineering]... in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in all the pursuits and professions of life."
In 1863 the Agricultural College of Pennsylvania became the Commonwealth's sole land-grant institution. But Pugh died the following year, and the concept of land-grant education was so novel that over the next twenty years, his successors failed to define it. As the curriculum drifted between the purely agricultural and the classical, public confidence fell; only 64 undergraduates were enrolled in 1875.
In 1882 George W. Atherton, a vigorous proponent of land-grant education, became president of what had then become The Pennsylvania State College. He introduced engineering studies, and Penn State soon became one of the nation's ten largest undergraduate engineering schools. He broadened the liberal arts, and Professor of English Fred Pattee taught the nation's first course in American literature (heretofore considered an unworthy stepchild of English literature). Atherton founded the Agricultural Experiment Station as a center for scientific research, and helped to draft the Hatch Act that gave annual federal support to such stations nationwide -- thus setting the precedent of Congressional support for academic research. Impressed with Atherton's improvements, the state legislature authorized regular appropriations to the college beginning in 1887.
From Atherton's death in 1906 to mid-century, Penn State focused on undergraduate education and extension. Enrollment surpassed 5,000 in 1936, by which time the college had become the Commonwealth's largest source of baccalaureate degrees. Also in the 1930s, the administration of President Ralph Hetzel fashioned a series of branch campuses throughout Pennsylvania for students who, because of Depression-era economics, could not afford to leave home to attend college. The centers offered the first year or two of undergraduate studies and were the predecessors of today's system of 24 Penn State campuses located throughout the Commonwealth (with the University Park campus remaining the administrative hub).
Extension work was primarily agricultural. Penn State pioneered in correspondence courses, disseminating scientific knowledge to farmers eager to find more efficient ways of growing crops and raising livestock. The college also worked with local and federal governments to implement a statewide system of agricultural and home economics agents who advised on issues as diverse as family life, nutrition, and food preservation. By the 1930s, Penn State had also launched outreach programs in the liberal arts, engineering, and the sciences.
Although research -- the third element of Penn State's tripartite mission -- developed more slowly, Penn State by 1950 had won distinction for investigations in dairy science, building insulation, diesel engines, and other specialized fields. To show that the institution had come of age, President Milton Eisenhower changed its name in 1953 to The Pennsylvania State University and established a campus post office designated University Park.
Research thrived under Eisenhower's successor, engineer and scientist Dr. Eric Walker, who headed Penn State from 1956 to 1970. "Space race," "brain drain," and other catch phrases reflected intense national concern for education, and public funds were plentiful. The physical plant tripled in value, and hundreds of acres of farm and forest land were added to give the central campus room to grow (land now occupied, for example, by the Blue Golf Course, the Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel, and the Russell Larson Agricultural Research Center at Rock Springs.) Total enrollment at all locations climbed from 14,000 to 40,000 during the Walker years. The Hershey Medical Center -- a college of medicine and teaching hospital -- was established in 1967 with a $50 million gift from the charitable trusts of chocolate magnate Milton S. Hershey.
Penn State has continued to respond to Pennsylvania's changing economic and social needs. In 1989 the Pennsylvania College of Technology in Williamsport became an affiliate of the University. In 1997, Penn State and the Dickinson School of Law joined ranks. And Penn State's new World Campus, which graduated its first students in 2000, uses the Internet and other new technologies to offer instruction on an "anywhere, anytime" basis.
To help meet the increasing demands placed on it, Penn State has looked to philanthropy for additional resources. President Bryce Jordan in 1984 launched a six-year effort that raised $352 million in private gifts to the University. This initiative enabled Penn State to attract world-class teachers and researchers, and assist thousands of financially needy and academically talented students. The Grand Destiny campaign (1996-2003) raised $1.37 billion, further strengthening academic programs and broadening the University's service to the Commonwealth and beyond.
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
My guess is, this is why they are quick to write this law. This whole case might fall apart because Curly and Schultz do not meet the classification of "first responder" as Pennsylvania law is written(and my guess is, neither is NYS law).
Quoted Text
As I see it, this is where Kelly not only has gone off the tracks, but also has acted destructively. According to Pennsylvania law, neither Curly nor Schultz are what the law calls "first responders," people who are required to report any claim or alleged incident of child abuse or neglect. For example, as a college professor, if any of my students even make an offhand claim about being abused, I must report that claim to the police, or I can be charged with a crime myself.
Curly and Schultz, however, did not fit into this legal category. Furthermore, according to the law under which they were indicted, the statute of limitations had passed. To make things even more complicated, the alleged victim in this incident is not even an accuser and no one knows who he is, nor has he "come forward," despite pleas from Kelly’s office.
Thus, what Kelly did was to secure indictments against people who did not break the law and even if they did, knowing that the statute of limitations had passed. To make things worse, she made inflammatory comments about them in a press release, declaring:
Those officials, to whom it was reported, did not report the incident to law enforcement or any child protective agency, and their inaction likely allowed a child predator to continue to victimize children for many more years.
My guess is, this is why they are quick to write this law. This whole case might fall apart because Curly and Schultz do not meet the classification of "first responder" as Pennsylvania law is written(and my guess is, neither is NYS law).
yep......people have wondered why Mike McQueary wasn't let go, and apparently he may fall under the state's whistle blower law and can't be fired.........I don't see him staying though....sad,sad,sad
I was gonna post a couple of articles from the Boston Globe, but you have to register to read the whole article so I didn't, Bob Ryan and Dan Shaughnessy did write a couple of columns about it, both felt the house needed to be cleaned........Shaughnessy wanted them to cancel the rest of their season.......I wouldn't go that far though
Again....and at the least....what the hell was this 'man' doing in the shower with these kids? In today's day and age, what was he thinking??????
And how does anyone dare discredit the accusations/allegations from 'how many kids'?
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
How many ? you might want to double check and to see if there are any-
That's 'my' question.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
When did Penn State fire DVOR? I thought he left because of health issues.
"While Foreign Terrorists were plotting to murder and maim using homemade bombs in Boston, Democrap officials in Washington DC, Albany and here were busy watching ME and other law abiding American Citizens who are gun owners and taxpayers, in an effort to blame the nation's lack of security on US so that they could have a political scapegoat."
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