Bonne Viviante

Penn State and the state of higher education.

Being a resident of the state of Pennsylvania, the terribly sad Penn State situation is inescapable. I can understand that alum and students of the university are having a hard time dealing with this situation, particularly because Penn State is know for having incredibly loyal fanbase, but I really can’t believe some of the responses I have seen!

Most people are freaking out because JoePa was fired last night. While I absolutely believe that the media has used JoePa in a way to further sensationalize this (instead of focusing more on say, Sandusky, the alleged perpetrator of the crimes), he absolutely should have been fired. Because guess what? Educators are MANDATORY REPORTERS of child abuse. That means it is against the law to not report crimes against children.

It is argued that the coaching staff did report at least one of the incidents to the university president, however, the incident was never reported to the university police, the PA state police, or the PA dept of public welfare. Mandatory reporting does not mean you tell your boss and then wash your hands of the situation. The point of reporting the incident is to ensure that the crimes do not continue. None of the administration at Penn State did what they should have done. This becomes a moral failing more so than a legal failing. It was a systematic cover up designed to protect the university’s football legacy. Not to generalize, but usually when people engage in a cover up, they know what they are doing is wrong. (see the grand jury indictment: http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/Presentment.pdf)

Using a charitable organization designed to help at-risk youth as a means of choosing your victims of sexual assault is about the most evil thing I can imagine. Being complicit and/or taking the absolute bare minimum action required when possessing knowledge of the rape of young children is also evil. Allowing the person accused of the crimes to continue to be associated with your football program is just stupid. Aside from the main issue here, which is obviously the sexual assault of minors, I think it is awful that universities engage in these kinds of cover ups to protect their cash cow sports programs. Unfortunately, this kind of behavior is all too common.

In my mind, universities are first and foremost institutions of higher education, but sometimes learning seems to take a back seat to other university activities. The institution of education is horrendously flawed, and it’s only going to get worse as education budgets continue to be slashed (notice that among the first things to go are research funding!) and schools need to find ways to close these funding gaps. I find this to be incredibly frustrating.

And to all the Penn State students rioting (seriously?)…you look so dumb right now.