Happy Valley NOT so Happy! Is There any Optimism in Sight for Penn State and Joe Paterno?

Nov. 10, 2011 - PRLog -- Let’s turn the clocks back 25 years to a similar story that never made the headlines.  No names or places will be named in this account, but the basic facts of the case are true.  During the summer break when university campus buildings were being spruced up for the start of fall classes, the department chair received a report from a summer high school volunteer “hired” to learn what it was like to work in an organized setting. While on the clock, the young volunteer reported that his coworker, a 16 year old, cognitively impaired male, had been molested in the men’s bathroom by a faculty member in that department.

The department chair contacted his immediate superior, the Dean of the academic unit, and reported the incident.  The Dean and Department Chair decided the incident needed to be reported to authorities.  Both campus and local police were informed.  The investigation provided credible evidence for the validity of what had been reported.  Further, the University sent a detective cross country to another state to examine this alleged perpetrator’s employment history.  Turns out he had been let go from three other academic settings for similar allegations only one of which was prosecuted.  That one ended in a “hung jury” because, like in this case, the victim was cognitively impaired and made a poor witness on the stand.  After the investigation by police had been completed, the faculty member was arrested and charged with “assault.”

   * {Note: Twenty five years ago, the term “sexual assault” was still “hush, hush” as someone’s reputation might be unnecessarily harmed.  Note this incident preceded any of the Catholic Church revelations and problems that became public in the 1990’s.}

The Dean in consultation with his superiors placed the faculty member on administrative leave and since he had not signed a new contract for the coming year, he was essentially terminated without pay.   The public information office of the university was quite pleased because then they claimed this faculty member was not an employee of the university (you see what is happening here?).  

If I stop the story now, you might conclude justice was done or at least on its way to being done.

Well, here is the rest of the story.

This faculty member was popular among his faculty colleagues who quickly came to his defense, saying it “couldn’t be so.”  Admittedly, the “general assault” charge was vague to the public, but the university had no inclination to clarify it further.  In fact, they directed that all inquiries and public information be handled by the university legal department which essentially put a “gag” order on any release of information.

In this case the Dean (a similar place holder in the university hierarchy to Joe Paterno) did his job; the job Paterno did not.  He reported it to superiors and made the police report.  But in this 25 year old story, the Dean suddenly became the “bad guy" and the faculty member was seen as the victim of unjust administration that did not renew his contract.  One could say that because of the restraints put on release of information, most did not know the full story that the Dean and police investigators knew.

The story ended as follows: 1) The university faculty advisory committee formally investigated the Dean and even though they were informed of the full background of the story, still issued a formal reprimand to the Dean for his administrative handling of the faculty member’s employment (note: the upper level administrators above the Dean,  who advised the Dean on the course of employment action taken, never came forward to support the Dean), 2) the faculty member sued the university and settled for one year’s lost income, and 3) the victim never got his day in court because when the case finally approached the trial date some 9 months later, this cognitively impaired student’s testimony had faded significantly in detail and memory; the charges were subsequently dropped.

Was justice done?  Absolutely not!  The guy playing Paterno in this story, who did what today’s Paterno should have done, was formally reprimanded by the university.  The university did its best to distance itself from any association with the faculty member and the story.  The story got buried, the perpetrator got off with pay, and may have gone on to teach again or likely molest again, and the victim got nothing.  The “whistle blower” got the reprimand and every one else save the victim got off “Scott free.” Is there any wonder why in 2002 the Penn State administrators acted or failed to act like they did?

Fast Forward to November 2011

Where is the optimism for Penn State, Paterno, and the victims?

From what I can tell of the news reports of this case, when Paterno first heard from a graduate assistant about the rape of the ten year old by his friend Sandusky, he reported the incident up the administrative line.  In 2002, it is apparent that the institutional culture surrounding this kind of incident was the same as the 25 year old story above. There response was to quash it, see if it would die on its own, and certainly keep a distance from it.  They didn’t want the reputation of the Penn State football program or the University to be tarnished. The story died, at least for a time.

So, where is the optimism?

The optimism comes in the collective stand that has been taken by news media and law enforcement to act on behalf of the victims.  The Penn State trustees have “come on board” after the media and public outrage, and have now acted to fire Joe Paterno.  But, Joe Paterno is not the bad guy here.  Yes, he clearly could have done more.  The bad guy is not a guy at all, but an institution; organizational and societal culture that places its reputation above the welfare of a sexual assault victim.  The same institutional mentality prevailed at the university above, 25 years ago.  Now we see with the purging of the University President, Paterno himself, the Athletic Director and a Senior Vice President some beginning evidence of institutional responsibility.

If this incident serves as the death knell for institutional cover up and denial of child sexual abuse, then there is hope and optimism to be had.  Eight victims have already come forward, and there are likely to be more in my opinion.  Penn State will certainly be embroiled in major law suits and big settlements will ensue.  So, while there is hope, the optimism will only come when the hard work needed to rework institutional policies and to enforce them in a timely and responsive manner is done by every higher educational institution across the country.

Penn State will have to endure being in a dark valley for awhile.  The only way to get out will be to admit institutional responsibility, put new and responsive written policies in place, and then begin to enforce them vigorously.

Joe Paterno, will suffer for awhile, and will only regain his happiness and optimism when he is contrite about his role, and then goes so far as to take up the cause to champion the rights of victims of sexual abuse.  He might regain his optimism and his reputation rather quickly if he went so far as to thank the trustees for firing him, admitting his firing and its national attention allows for this issue to get the exposure it needs to begin to fix the problem.  Then he could set up a new foundation for this cause or give a million or more to an existing one.

The victims can find optimism in that now they are being championed and recognized as the ones in need of justice, counseling, and support.

Now, we all need to carry out the second promise of optimism:  The promise that with effort and hard work we can see our dreams hopes come true.  Now is the time to champion these victims and other similar victims by taking up and contributing to organizations that champion this population and others who have been victimized.

http://www.drrussbuss.com

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