This Is Too Serious to Even Make Fun of the Penn State Alumni

Penn State and its alumni are a frequent target of my humorous barbs on this site. Not today. This time I am calling for Joe Paterno's resignation not because he's a senile, old fool but because of his lack of action after very serious allegations were made against former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky.



Sandusky, 67, was a longtime Paterno assistant until he retired in 1999. Even after his retirement he was given unfettered access to university facilities. Sandusky used his position as a Penn State coach to lure young boys whom he originally met through his charity, called Second Mile.

Sandusky started the charity to help troubled boys. According to the grand jury's indictment, he molested them. 8 victims are named over a period of several years.

Sandusky invited victims to his home, they slept over, he gave them tickets to Penn State games and drove them to Eagles games. And he often gave boys a tour of the Penn State facilities, culminating in showing them the shower.

Victim #1 started sleeping over at Sandusky's house in 2005 and 2006 when he was in 6th or 7th grade, so roughly 11 or 12 years old. Sandusky would come down to the basement where the boy was sleeping and "crack" the boy's back. It became a bedtime ritual. Then Sandusky moved on to rubbing the boy's butt, then blowing on his bare stomach, then sucking his dick. The boy claims Sandusky performed oral sex on him 20 times. And he did it to Sandusky once.

Victim #4 says Sandusky rubbed his genitals on his face and even put his dick in the boy's mouth. And ejaculating! He said Sandusky also tried to put his finger and his penis in the boy's ass.

The other victims claims fall short of those, mostly that he showered with them, touched them, and made them uncomfortable. Perhaps if they didn't resist he would have done more to them.

This is right out of the child molester's handbook written by Michael Jackson. Pick on underprivileged boys from bad family situations. Start slowly, so those that object right away don't have real charges. And most importantly, you need to have people who will cover up for you.



And that's where victim #2 comes in. Graduate assistant and former QB Mike McQueary went to put sneakers in his locker at 9:30 one night. He saw the lights and the showers on, and heard what sounded like people have sex. He saw a naked boy, who looked to be about 10, with his hands on the wall, being anally violated by Sandusky.

Doing the right thing, McQueary told Coach Paterno the next day. The matter was never reported to police. Paterno, AD Tim Curley and another university VP Gary Schultz all claim McQueary only told them of inappropriate behavior, not sexual activity explicitly.

Even so, they decided taking away Sandusky's keys to the locker room was sufficient punishment.

Curley and Schultz have resigned, they are charged with crimes. Paterno, who was not charged, should resign too.

This is not just an embarrassment. This is a trusted member of the coaching staff using his positions, and the university's facilities to systematically engage in sexual molestation of young boys. And it's clear university officials including Joe Paterno allowed this to happen.