Penn State Scandal

I’m sure most of you have heard about the latest Penn State scandal that has caused quite a ruckus. NCAA has found one of its biggest scandals to be at Penn State, a university that has had barely any controversy. Since 1994 Jerry Sandusky, a major voice in Penn State football, has been investigated for inappropriate conduct with young boys. Now, 8 years later he is finally being charged with 40 counts of child sexual abuse, which 21 of them are felonies. This includes eight boys in a 15 year span. Before retiring 12 years ago, Jerry Sandusky was the defensive coordinator under the former head coach Joe Paterno. He was a beloved football coach whose name any Penn State football fan would know. According to USA Today, the punishment for each felony ranges from seven to 20 years in prison and $15,000-$25,000 in fines, and for the 19 misdemeanors, two to five years in prison and $5,000-$10,000 in fines. Along with all of this, Joe Paterno, Penn State’s head football coach for 46 years was fired over the phone by Penn State trustees. Sources have said that Paterno along with Penn State University officials knew about Sandusky’s disgusting actions from as early as 1998. There is much controversy regarding the firing of Paterno. Students are fans are outraged at the dismissing of the legendary coach. I keep hearing people who are on both sides of the story. Some say that Paterno did not know and he shouldn’t have been fired because he was going to retire at the end of the season anyways. Others say that he did know, but he reported to the Penn State officials rather than the police; he put it in their hands. Personally I think if Joe Paterno did know about these horrible actions he should definitely be fired no matter if he was going to retire at the end of the season. Any person in their right mind would do anything and everything in their power to prevent these kinds of actions to ever happen to any child. Students at Penn State went to the extreme of protesting by even flipping media vans out of rage. They lost a football coach due to the fact that he did indeed knew that a coach, who was under him, was taking part in disgusting and inappropriate acts on young boys for over 15 years. It blows my mind how something so disgusting can cause such an outrage to students my age. I feel as though if it were anyone else who was being charged in relations to a scandal like this, this story would not have gotten so much attention and students wouldn’t have reacted the way they have been. My only hope is that people realize that although he is a legandary football coach, he is just like any other person and when he knows about such horrible acts have been committed and keeps his silence, he just have to suffer the consequences, just like everyone else.

Holly Payne