Should Joe Paterno have gone to the campus police immediately and broken the chain of command?

When a child's welfare is on the line there is no "chain of command" . The police should have been called immediately and whether a person is "famous" or not there is no excuse for inaction. Neither football, or "hero"worship should not more important than the welfare and protection of our children.

If it is then our society has failed the most vulnerable among us and shame on us.

When a child is being raped or for that matter when any serious crime is being committed the police should be called first and then notify your people on your chain of command. They are all secondary at that point. The poor boys that were being raped over and over again needed help and nobody stood up like a man and helped them.

That child predator that was getting his jollies off on the little boys is very lucky that it was not me that caught him in the act. The police would have been secondary after he met the wrath of me coming down on him. Paterno dropped the ball on his responsibility as a coach, as a man, as a decent human being.

He is lucky that he is only fired and charges are not being pressed. People need to have some responsibility, especially when in a position of leading others. This is what happens when people are idolized.

They ignore conflicts, they ignore scandals, and they shrug responsibility because they don't want to get off of their high horse for anyone. They expect other people to take care of the problems. Yes, he should have called the police the very minute he heard about it and he should have demanded that the creep should have been arrested right away!

I as a parent and a decent human being is outraged by this whole incident!

This has been going on for 10 years or more! I think when we get to the bottom of this there are going to be more than two or three guilty of keeping this little secret, but the worst thing is for them to let that man go on with this, knowing what he was doing. I mean these are like Ted Bundy cheerleaders if you ask me and then all those kids protesting and destructing!

Sounds like some sick air at Penn State.

No, somebody should have gone to the law. I've read that horrid indictment and time after time, when someone should have viewed this as a crime, real action was never follow through. Now everyone who had a hand in that chance to do right but didn't is falling like dominoes and rightly so.

And why is the assistant being threatened for what he saw? Why is the campus wigging out over Paterno? This is merely re-victimizing these people who were abused.

Let's not lose sight of the real issue here.

Yes - Yes - Yes absolutely, unequivocally yes...when a child is being abused in any manner - but especially when a child is being raped and it is seen by any type of responsible human being it should reported to the police immediately. Although, to me, immediately would be right after I got the child out of that circumstance in any way possible! To not have done anything but report it to a superior is criminal.

Any one in education at any level knows if you even suspect a child is being harmed in any way, you must report it to the police - not your supervisor. It is beyond me that someone could witness a child being raped and not stop it or at the very least, call the police. Report it to your boss the next day?Unbelieveable.

Absolutely! When he didn't see anything done about it, he should have gone directly to the top and to the police.

Paterno witnessed nothing. Someone else came to him with the accusation. Why is Paterno taking the fall for that man's inaction?

He witnessed it and should have gone to the police himself... or at least to the school administration. Paterno can not go to the police with nothing more than hearsay.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.