Penn State Scandal

The recent child abuse scandal at Penn State University is disgusting on so many levels. First, a respected assistant coach, Sandusky, allegedly raped over 40 victims- all young boys who will probably be forever scarred from such traumatic events.

Maybe more distressing is the fact that I don't know what's worse: the fact that at least 40 young boys were raped by a trusted male role model, or the fact that the witnesses, the famed head coach Joe Paterno, the athletic director-all supposedly respected men- all did NOTHING. Maybe the worst is neither of those. Maybe the worst is that according to a circulating tweet, a man from Arizona says that Penn State officials had "ignored similar claims of abuse" in the past, indeed, several others are saying that the administration actually enabled the pervert to commit these crimes by continuing the football camp and allowing him to run it, despite reports that the camp was a way for him to recruit new victims.

And it just keeps getting worse. Sandusky was not only unpunished and enabled, but his despicable crimes were covered up by the administration at least, and probably local police and news outlets- which strengthens the support for social media venues like Twitter. Inquisitive members can read articles and information surrounding the situation that they deem important, and not be relegated to just the spin on the story the main stream media outlets spew. Unbelievably, ESPN and many others continue to focus on the tragedy of Paterno's ruined reputation rather than report on Sandusky's sickening acts.

So while the witnesses were probably trying to save their jobs by keeping quiet, and the PSU officials attempted to keep the face of their beloved football program clean, as least we know the severity of the situation to a greater degree. Other media outlets could have easily made the situation out to be a case of an unknown "bad egg" at a good university, but I think Twitter has been important in providing tweets from various people, informing everyone that many were complicit in these crimes, and all of them need to be punished. This was no accidental discovery of some new issue, this was a calculated cover up and it just goes to show that reputation really means nothing.

Ivy C.

KIN 338 sec 6