I've lost a few friends with this debate but I want to know your opinion on it.
Here's the basics: At least one or two members of the football staff had done some rather inappropriate things to children, and because some people decided not to report it, several of those staff members, including highly-revered head coach Joe Paterno, were removed.
Last weekend, Ohio State (my favorite team) played Penn State. Ohio State lost, and my exact Facebook post was this: "Ohio State may have lost on the scoreboard, but Penn State lost morally. BIG TIME."
Ohio State had been involved in a scandal of their own before the summer months started, where merchandise was the big headline, causing Jim Tressel (head coach of Ohio State at the time) to leave.
My friends began DEFENDING PENN STATE. Outraged, I continued to put the actions of the staff of Penn State and those affected by said actions over the actions of Ohio State. Eventually they just gave up and unfriended me. A friend who studies politics eventually tried to resolve it, but couldn't.
I'm sorry for this extremely long post, but I needed to share how that affected me as well...
With no hard facts and no prior knowledge of this (I'm as ignorant of professional sports as I am of music, and my knowledge of music extends to knowing the term "a-minor" and row-row-row-your-boat) I can't really give an opinion. I'll go off of what you listed though.
At least one or two members of the football staff had done some rather inappropriate things to children, and because some people decided not to report it,
I can guess what inappropriate things, but "some people" who didn't decide to report it is too vague. Were all the people who didn't report it removed? Or were some of them players as well?
My friends began DEFENDING PENN STATE.
What sort of arguments did they use? Again, I need some details if I'm to weigh in on this. I don't feel like googling it myself. I'm sure that a search for, "Penn state scandal" would bring up a whole lot more than one incident.
So, if all the people who were removed/fire/whatever because they didn't report it, I fail to see the problem. If there were students who did not tell, then depending upon the circumstances they should be punished in some way. I still do not know the extent of the "inappropriate things" done to "some children" so I can't really say anymore.
These weren't students of the school. If I am remembering right, the coach (the one in big trouble) had some sort of youth center group. Underprivileged kids would come and he'd have them play basketball and let off steam and teach them various moral values. Apparently after they were done for the day he'd have them go to the showers and he'd join them. Joining in is a problem in and of itself, but then he'd touch them and do other inappropriate things to them. I guess one of the other coaches knew this was going on and didn't report it.
That's about as much as I know. I watch the news, but there are some parts of this that seem to make a little less sense than others. Like why these kids didn't come forth before now. This has been going on for at least a decade...
Ugh my only opinion on the matter is that it's absolutely sick that the media would target JoePa instead of Sandusky.
Very true. Sandusky was the one who molested the kids. Someone told Joe Paterno about it, and he told his bosses. I also heard that amoung those people was the chief of police for one of the stations around there. But for some reason, this entire situation was his fault, and everyone hates him for not doing enough.
