For the last several days, I have followed with great interest – and great disgust – the unfolding revelations surrounding the Penn St. football program. For those of you who are not sports fans or who have somehow been living on an island without media coverage the past few days, you can check out espn.com or any number of other places to catch up. The basic story is this: allegations have surfaced of a former longtime Penn St. coach sexually abusing numerous boys, and leaders within the football program and the university administration – at the very least – did little to address the situation. More probably, emerging details seem to indicate an institutional culture complicit in covering up these horrible crimes, which may have resulted in further abuse that could have been prevented…
Before I go any further, I should acknowledge that at this point, these are just allegations. What has been made known publicly is based on limited grand jury testimony from particular individuals. So there is much more that needs to come out, and there are many others who still need to share their side of the story…
That being said, I think it’s very important that we are clear on the core moral issue here. Children were being sexually abused, and adults in a position to intervene did little to stop it. It simply doesn’t matter how many games a coach has won or how generous he has been to the university. It doesn’t matter how good of a friend the predator is or how precious an institution is that you want to protect from scandal. It doesn’t matter how many millions of dollars a football program makes or how “important” a team is in the lives of its fans. Students and others who are rallying in support of Joe Pa or their school or people already thinking in terms of “managing fallout” for the football program in its recruiting of athletes and search for a new coach….please, please take a pause and confront the reality here. Children… were… being…raped….
Incredible negligence. Deeply disturbing. Profoundly sad. Gut-wrenching anger over all of this…
At the very least, details seem to point to negligent and incompetent leadership who didn’t handle a very serious situation with any sense or urgency. I think what is more probable is that people – both consciously and unconsciously – were protecting themselves, their friends, and their institution from allegations involving poor and troubled kids who were easy for a predator to take advantage of and easy for others to devalue and ignore. We will see as more information comes out. But I think this story is going to get much, much uglier…
In a larger sense, it is simply heart-breaking how little our world seems to value children….and how deeply our world can traumatize them. In some parts of the world, they are kidnapped and brutally beaten and forced to carry automatic weapons to terrorize and kill others. In many parts of the world – including the U.S. – children are exploited through human trafficking, child pornography, and sex tourism industries. They become playthings for our most deviant desires. In many of our own neighborhoods and communities, kids are beaten and abused and abandoned, right under our noses. And you and me and the world often do so little…
Abuse destroys the spirits and lives of children. It maims their futures and cripples their souls….
I work at a university. I am in a leadership role that is responsible for shaping young adults into men and women. It is simply unthinkable to me that people serving in such an environment with such a mission could presume to do the work of character formation of young men and women while turning a blind eye to the evil in their midst. Talk about a lack of integrity…
On a related note, it would be remiss of me as a Christian minister to not at least acknowledge the striking parallels between what is happening and the recent scandals involving pedofile priests in the Catholic Church. Someone could have written the previous paragraph about the Church…and been absolutely right. We who are supposed to be a light in the darkness, we who are supposed to have the moral authority to speak to corrupt institutions and speak in meaningful ways about terrible acts such as these…we seem so utterly compromised ourselves. At least Penn State has started firing people…
I’ve been distracted all week by this story. The whole thing makes me sick to my stomach. So I guess I want to end with a plea…
If you witness abuse, intervene…
If you suspect abuse, tell someone…
If you are an abuser, stop it…come clean….get help…
If you are a parent, step up to the plate and take the responsibility to love and care for your child…
If you are a human being, then speak up for and protect those who cannot protect themselves…
We discussed this, as well as Herman Cain, at a Commercially Sexually Exploited Children (CSEC aka sex trafficking or “Underage Prostitution”) training I’ve been attending for work. I’m amazed that how well one performs as a coach or how well one performs as a businessman/politician can be considered a reasonable defense for a sex crime. Of course the Cain issue is a whole other ball of wax, but it’s all upsetting.