ION, if I have a bad cold I should probably reschedule tomorrow's dentist appointment, right?

I would say yes. You could be contagious and your breathing is probably already impaired from your cold.

I think they'd probably send you home even if you went, tommy.

Cool. Now I can reschedule without feeling guilty.

I want to live in a world where you don't have to be "state mandated" to report an adult raping a child to the police. Where every adult feels the same responsibility to protect kids, or anyone being abused.

Me too.

I want to live in a world where you don't have to be "state mandated" to report an adult raping a child to the police. Where every adult feels the same responsibility to protect kids, or anyone being abused.

This.

Thing is, I am faculty in higher education and I am not around children on campus very much. When I am, the kids are related to my students or colleagues. I am one of the people who is unlikely to witness such abuse first hand.

So I think it probably wouldn't make sense to designate us as mandatory reporters, but my point earlier and raised again in this thread is that we should not have to be designated "mandatory" in order to call the cops and make sure a complaint is filed.

I call 911 if I see a car smoking on the side of the freeway. I have called 911 when I drove behind a suspected DUI. I believe in alerting authorities when I think a major crime has been committed or people are in danger. I sure as fuck would call 911 if a child was being abused.

I rescinded an offer of admission to a prospective student who sexually harassed a current student during a visitation weekend.

I don't have to be a mandatory reporter to do all of these things.

In the comments sections of local newspapers, there are people saying that Paterno had "no standing" to call 911. Since when do people think you need some kind of legal standing to call 911? Legal standing comes in much later.

A car was driving the wrong direction down a freeway after a multi-car accident. I called 911. Should I not have?

I was not involved in the accident.

People's stupidity kills me.

I think calling 911 would have been beside the point, by the time he found out, which was, I assume, not moments after it was witnessed.

McQueary should have called 911. AFTER he pulled Sandusky off the kid and beat the shit out of him.

You know, it's not even about getting Sandusky into police hands as much as it would have been about making sure that kid was okay. Who knows if he was ever examined? How many ten-year-old boys go home and tell their parents they were raped?

The new football coach is giving a press conference. Pretty much, "We've got to understand that this team has put a lot of hard work in … they deserve to have this day" on questions about the game on Saturday, and "no comment" or "that was not my decision" on everything else.