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Though the Penn State abuse scandal

involves and surrounds members of the football

team, this is not a sports story. This is a

human interest story.

That being said, individuals are reacting

strongly to the developments over the past couple

of weeks, especially to the removal of Head

Coach Joe Paterno, 84, one of the most revered

college football coaches of all time.

Paterno was unjustly fired by Penn State’s

Board of Trustees on Nov. 9, but why?

It was a regrettable attempt to save face.

Before he was fired, Paterno issued a statement,

saying that he would retire at the end of

the football season (there was one regular-season

game remaining).

“With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had

done more,” he said about the information he

received from a teaching assistant concerning

former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky’s

alleged sexual abuse of a young boy in Penn

State’s football facilities.

But university officials couldn’t wait. They

announced later that Paterno, along with college

President Graham Spanier, were to be fired

effective immediately.

But just because Paterno wishes he could’ve

done more, doesn’t mean that he should’ve

been fired.

This particular incident (there have been as

many as eight from 1994 to 2009, according to

Bloomberg Businessweek) has been under

investigation since 2002 and Spanier knew of it

at that time.

So then why, if Paterno had really done anything

legally wrong, didn’t Penn State fire him

at that point?

Instead, officials waited until news of the

investigation went public early this month.

The college claimed that “they lost confidence

in their ability to lead,” according to the

Bloomberg article, so it makes no sense to let

him lead a nationally recognized football team

for nine years before finally taking action.

With the controversy under wraps at the

time, Penn State kept Paterno because the

administration recognized that he was the face

of the college and helped bring in millions of

dollars in revenue for the football program.

If his actions were so condemnable, why did

the Board of Trustees wait?

If that argument isn’t enough for you, consider

this: According to Pennsylvania’s Child

Protective Services law, Paterno did what he

was legally required to do.

The law states that required reporters must

immediately notify the person in charge of the

institution (Spanier) and the person in charge is

responsible and obligated to report the suspected

abuse to ChildLine (an organizational unit

of the department that handles reports of child

abuse) immediately.

For that reason, Spanier, who was notified

about the alleged abuse, definitely deserved to

be fired, because he did not fulfill his legal duty.

The same law also says that the reporter has

the option to report it to ChildLine as well, but

the text does not require him to do so.

The phrase “moral obligation,” has been

thrown around a lot during this media frenzy,

and rightfully so.

But for a coach who before November was

the highly regarded face of the Nittany Lions

for 45 years, who recognized that he should

have fulfilled his moral obligation and offered

to retire, Penn State made the situation worse,

tarnishing its own name even more, and that of

the great JoePa.

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