It totally could, the rioting at least. Imagine if Ford:Sandusky::Smith:Paterno. And I know some of Ford's falls off the wagon were brushed under the carpet. Comparing Paterno to Smith helped me understand, just a little, the feeling of betrayal (but let me be clear that the rioting students are failing at human decency, I just mean the sense of betrayal in a beloved icon).
smonster, I was JUST saying this EXACT SAME THING to N. at work and almost posted it here. We are psychic twins, as always. Imagine if Dean Smith hadn't retired, and was still coaching, and if this had come to light about Phil Ford. I can totally see students rioting, sadly. And what's worse, I can't even
imagine
it. That's how much I idolize Dean Smith. And I'm not even that rabid a sports fan. One of my good friends named her dog after him, and the guy across the hall here at work named his son after him. It just doesn't compute that he would sweep something like that under the rug, but it could happen. We don't call it the Carolina Mafia half-jokingly for nothing.
Part of what I think is going on is that the students just can't believe it. I'm not excusing their behavior, it disgusts and horrifies me, but I can see it happening here, and that makes me sad and sick.
Part of what I think is going on is that the students just can't believe it.
Yeah, I've seen a number of comments about how (a) these are just allegations; and (b) we don't know what Paterno knew.
And it's true that a Grand Jury report isn't a judge's sentence, and the standard of proof isn't beyond a reasonable doubt, but it's not like this shit was made up out of whole cloth! People just don't want to believe it.
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.
Because it needs to be said over and over, though it damn well shouldn't
HAVE
to be.
I've seen speculation that McQueary may have been abused by Sandusky himself as a child. That seems a long shot, but he did grow up in State College and went to school with Sandusky's kids, and I can see someone with that background walking in on the legendary and honored defensive coach he's known since he was 6 raping a little kid and being so stunned he'd question his own sanity. Like, "Can this even be? Did I just have some kind of evil hallucination?"
But, you know, probably then you decide omg this is real and call the cops.
Just finished grading some quizzes. Unsurprisingly, my students seem to have done very little studying this week. (Almost all of them got the material we covered last week correct, and the material we covered this week looked like they'd never seen it before.)
And what's worse, I can't even imagine it. That's how much I idolize Dean Smith.
Yeah, and I'm less of a b-ball fan than you, and I feel the same way. Dean worship is just so woven into the Carolina cloth. It's the warp to the K-hate woof.
Jessica, my mother thinks she went to college with your aunt. Bryn Mawr 1971? And my mother says my grandparents knew "the Ransohoffs" (which, not sure) well.
Nike has no plans to change the name of the Joe Paterno Center, a child day care facility on the World Headquarters Campus near Beaverton, in response to a sexual abuse scandal involving one of Paterno's former Penn State University assistants, a Nike spokeswoman said this evening.
[link]
Steph, for REALS? I know it's real; I believe you. But I am drop-jawed with disbelief. WTSweetFF? Jesus, the stupid, it burns with the heat of a supernova. DAMN.
I can't really speak about Penn State because my rage is so off the charts.
Yep.
When I was a college admin, I wasn't a mandated reporter. I worked mainly with students on academic issues, and as an instructor, I taught. That said, I made a lot of suggestions to seek guidance for emotional issues from campus psych services for various issues, and mandated-reporter at that job or no, my boss was amazing, and if I'd reported to her something similar, she and I would have been balls to the wall screaming our bloody heads off about it, hush-hush be damned.
God bless her progressive, hella smart, ex-hippie assertive heart.
