Paterno was fired for one main reason - to protect the school from Lawsuits

[LynneSin]

He still had to go. He knew what Sandusky was doing for over a decade and kept silent. Now I've read where Paterno may have known what Sandusky was doing back in 1999. That's now 12 years of knowledge and not once doing something about it (and that goes for Curley and Spanier too).

I strongly suspect that there will be a lawsuit against Penn State and the men who knew but never report the crime. If that was your kid that was molested and you found out that several people KNEW that the guy was a pedophile and did nothing - you're gonna want to make someone pay.

If PSU Board of Trustees didn't fire everyone involved they could be held liable too.

[Nostradammit]

1. Ayup.

And every one of those jerks needs to be sued into oblivion. How in the hell do you go to
work everyday with someone you know to be raping children at work?


How the hell do they sleep at night?


Has the world gone mad?

[Fumesucker]

2. Closing the barn door..

But the livestock has long since bolted..

Not going to make a bit of difference, this is probably gonna end up at least in the millions and possibly tens of millions.

[PoliticAverse]

4. Yeah a little late for lawsuit prevention... it's face saving now. n/t

[n2doc]

10. +1 n/t

[HubertHeaver]

3. The PSU Board of Trustees didn't fire everyone involved...yet.

There are allegations that date back to the early '90s. The entire football program needs to be taken down. I would go so far as to say they should forfeit the remainder of this season.

[backwoodsbob]

5. why should they punish kids who werent even there?

the current players have nothing to do with this...why punish the?

[HubertHeaver]

8. Its not to punish the current players. Shut down the football

program now to get the attention of the administrators so the problem will be fully addressed. That also sends a message to other institutions that such "covering" behaviors will not be tolerated.

[gratuitous]

14. The NCAA could allow them to transfer without penalty

Give the seniors another year of eligibility. They'll just wear a different colored uniform on Saturdays and play in a different stadium.

As to the original point, the University will not be avoiding any lawsuits. But their action might ameliorate some of the monetary damages that are going to be awarded. I don't know Joe Paterno, but I'm confident he would say that he is not greater than Pennsylvania State University; the folks who think otherwise are simply wrong. The university trustees may not have acted as swiftly as they should have, but they acted correctly when they finally did act.

[SidDithers]

9. Mike McQueary, the graduate student who saw Sandusky in the shower in 2002...

and reported it to Paterno, is still an assistant coach at Penn State. As far as I'm concerned, he's involved in the cover-up - he was a witness to a crime and reported it to the school instead of the police - and should also be fired.

The fact that he's now a credible witness to the Grand Jury is immaterial. He helped cover up a sexual assault 10 years ago.

Sid

[no_hypocrisy]

6. B-I-N-G-O!!

[Downwinder]

7. The police knew about it in 1998, are not they as culpable?

[Catherine Vincent]

11. Imo, it's too late

Penn State can get ready. Lawsuits are forthcoming.

[TBF]

12. Yes - at this point it is simply damage control. nt

[LynneSin]

13. Trust me, they'll be dragged into all of this too

But they have to have some kind of defense. The Board of Trustees are basically going to plead that they didn't know but when they did they took immediate action in firing anyone who did know.

Maybe they won't have to pay out as much.

[hifiguy]

15. The lawsuits are going to come fast and furious

anyway. And the plaintiffs are going to get massive settlements. No way that Penn State is EVER gonna let these actions go to trial. No freaking way.

The one question that occurs to my legally trained mind in this is: What did McQueary (sp?) actually tell Paterno that he saw? Not that, given the other evidence, it lets Paterno off the hook whatsoever, but some degree of Paterno'a culpability by silence does go to the question of what he was told about the "shower incident."

[Aerows]

16. They can't stop it now

They KNEW. Higher ups, including the President of Penn State KNEW. They covered it up, and thought it would go away. Sandusky was caught two different times with boys in the shower by two different people right in the middle of assaulting them. A wrestling coach caught him with a little boy at another place and banned him from the school just on the basis that it looked inappropriate.

Heck, the POLICE listened in on a phone call between the mother of one victim and Sandusky and he ADMITTED that what he did with her son was inappropriate - at least in that case, the boy didn't get raped, he just got a nasty old pervert rubbing his naked body against him.

This was covered up, and there is no way to stop it now.