Wiston Papers

Punishing Penn State or Protecting Our Children?

What price can you pay to compensate young boys and girls for the type of betrayal they suffer at the hands of a sexual predator?  

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) announced yesterday that it was $60-million.  That was the monetary punishment levied against Penn State following the conviction of former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky of 45 counts of child sexual abuse.

In addition, Penn State’s football program won’t be able to play in post-season bowl games for four years, looses scholarships for its players, and 111 football victories dating back to 1998 are  wiped from its record.

None of this, of course, can ever ease the pain inflicted on the young boys who trusted a man whose serial abuse was long ignored by Penn State coaches and administrators.  Everyone who allowed this to happen during their tenure is culpable of complicity.

I don’t care about the penalties imposed on the university.  I don’t care that Head Coach Joe Paterno’s legacy has been forever tarnished.  And I don’t care how many years Jerry Sandusky spends behind bars.

What I do care about is the countless young people who will continue to bear the emotional scars from this deplorable history.  Add to the Penn State cover up the equally unconscionable evil perpetrated by Catholic priests against young people and you have a shameful pattern of criminal, immoral violations against fellow human beings by the very persons who should be their protectors.

We can never fully compensate the victims.  The only hope is that we can learn from these despicable events and try to identify and stop future predators.

It will take people who are courageous enough to speak up for the children.  There can never be any excuse for failure to act on behalf of our children--the most vulnerable members of our society.

I'm afraid that there will be too much analysis in the days and weeks ahead about the impact that the NCAA  penalty with have on the future of football at Penn State.  Instead the discussion should focus how we can make sure this sexual abuse never happens again---anywhere.

Steve Coon

July 24, 2012