In the wake of the growing sex abuse scandal gripping Penn State University -- a topic I wrote about yesterday -- legendary football coach Joe Paterno announced his resignation effective at the end of this season. In my mind's eye, that isn't soon enough; he either needs to resign immediately or be fired!
Paterno's sin was in not following up on a matter of great concern. Upon learning that his former longtime assistant coach Jerry Sandusky had been caught sodomizing a young boy in the showers of the football complex, Paterno merely contacted his superiors 24 hours later and then washed his hands of the incident. By all accounts, he returned to the business of being a high-profile college football coach.
Joe's failure in this case does not mean he is a reprobate. It does not mean that is not a loving and generous man. It doesn't mean that he has not touched countless lives in a positive way. But the omission of caring for the safety and well-being of the defenseless victim in this one instance should be enough to mean that he can no longer represent the university and that his tenure must end immediately.
I don't write these words as an armchair quarterback. As I have written about before in this space, I was fired as a Child Abuse Investigator by the State of Arkansas after a child who I did not remove from the custody of his parents was later killed at the hands of those parents. Though not given as an official reason for my termination, I deserved to be fired for a similar reason that Paterno now deserves to be fired: lack of appropriate follow-up.
As with Paterno's situation, I didn't break any laws and I was under no professional obligation or regulations to follow-up on the case once it left my hands. My job was to perform child abuse investigations and to hand off the case to others once each investigation was completed.
But I knew that our county office was being mismanaged and that other cases had fallen through the cracks before. I had strong suspicions that the family of the abused child would not follow through with their mandated treatment program. And I knew that, due to budget cuts, our office was grossly understaffed and my colleagues were carrying too many cases per worker.
Knowing all this information and more, I had a moral obligation to ensure this specific case was being handled properly and that the safety and well-being of the abused child was being attended to.
I didn't do it! I moved on to the numerous other investigations piled high on my desk. I swept away this specific case and rarely gave it a second thought. In doing so, I morally failed this child. I did not protect him and my lapse of compassion played a role in his subsequent death.
While I did not kill him, I recognize that his innocent blood forever stains my hands. It clings to my heart and it's a pain that never goes away. I had the power to save him from his fate, but I didn't. For that reason alone, I deserved to be fired and it's the sole reason I did not fight my termination.
What's even worse is that the state shouldn't have needed to fire me in the first place; I should have resigned. That's the least I could have done to signify I acknowledged my moral failing.
Joe Paterno could have made a tremendous difference in the lives of young boys who were abused from 2002 - 2009 by following up on the incident in 2002. All he had to do was to make sure that someone took the report seriously to stop this predator before he could abuse again.
He didn't and now there are even more destroyed and shattered lives strewn around him. He failed each and every one of those young boys. For that reason, Joe needs to go NOW.
Paterno's sin was in not following up on a matter of great concern. Upon learning that his former longtime assistant coach Jerry Sandusky had been caught sodomizing a young boy in the showers of the football complex, Paterno merely contacted his superiors 24 hours later and then washed his hands of the incident. By all accounts, he returned to the business of being a high-profile college football coach.
Joe's failure in this case does not mean he is a reprobate. It does not mean that is not a loving and generous man. It doesn't mean that he has not touched countless lives in a positive way. But the omission of caring for the safety and well-being of the defenseless victim in this one instance should be enough to mean that he can no longer represent the university and that his tenure must end immediately.
I don't write these words as an armchair quarterback. As I have written about before in this space, I was fired as a Child Abuse Investigator by the State of Arkansas after a child who I did not remove from the custody of his parents was later killed at the hands of those parents. Though not given as an official reason for my termination, I deserved to be fired for a similar reason that Paterno now deserves to be fired: lack of appropriate follow-up.
As with Paterno's situation, I didn't break any laws and I was under no professional obligation or regulations to follow-up on the case once it left my hands. My job was to perform child abuse investigations and to hand off the case to others once each investigation was completed.
But I knew that our county office was being mismanaged and that other cases had fallen through the cracks before. I had strong suspicions that the family of the abused child would not follow through with their mandated treatment program. And I knew that, due to budget cuts, our office was grossly understaffed and my colleagues were carrying too many cases per worker.
Knowing all this information and more, I had a moral obligation to ensure this specific case was being handled properly and that the safety and well-being of the abused child was being attended to.
I didn't do it! I moved on to the numerous other investigations piled high on my desk. I swept away this specific case and rarely gave it a second thought. In doing so, I morally failed this child. I did not protect him and my lapse of compassion played a role in his subsequent death.
While I did not kill him, I recognize that his innocent blood forever stains my hands. It clings to my heart and it's a pain that never goes away. I had the power to save him from his fate, but I didn't. For that reason alone, I deserved to be fired and it's the sole reason I did not fight my termination.
What's even worse is that the state shouldn't have needed to fire me in the first place; I should have resigned. That's the least I could have done to signify I acknowledged my moral failing.
Joe Paterno could have made a tremendous difference in the lives of young boys who were abused from 2002 - 2009 by following up on the incident in 2002. All he had to do was to make sure that someone took the report seriously to stop this predator before he could abuse again.
He didn't and now there are even more destroyed and shattered lives strewn around him. He failed each and every one of those young boys. For that reason, Joe needs to go NOW.
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