I tried to ignore this story for a while but now I can’t ignore what I am seeing. When I first heard the words “sex scandal” and “Penn State” last weekend, I shut it off in my head. Didn’t have time to think about it, didn’t want to deal with it. Then, on Wednesday night, coming out of a week of being sick, I looked on the Chronicle website to explore topics for my next blog…and I saw that Joe Paterno had been fired. I knew then that it was time for me to deal with what I had been ignoring and deal with my reactions regarding the grand jury report, which gruesomely outlines the systematic abuse of young boys by a coach who had been celebrated for his contributions to the epic Penn State football program.
So I sat in my house watching ESPN, CNN and MSNBC and started working on sorting through the many reactions I am having.
My first reaction is anger…which it usually is when I hear of violence in college athletics. I am livid each time I hear of a different Division I football program that has covered up allegations of violence. It happens so often that it is hard not to assume that it is true across the board. Decisions are made to protect power and money as opposed to helping the victims.
Then I think of all the students who are out there rioting. (This, according to one tweet I saw on twitter, is the reason victims hesitate to come forward.)
Then I think of the young boy as he was being raped in the shower knowing that someone saw what was happening, and presumably hoping that that person would do something. None of them did anything. No one followed up with the young, traumatized, tortured boy. We still don't know who he is.
But as long as Sandusky got his locker room keys taken away, it's all fine now.
Molly Yanity, in her November 8 commentary The Stench From Penn State Permeates Big-Time College Sports in the Chronicle voices some of the same concerns I have in a much more measured, articulate way.
She writes that on the day that the scandal broke, ESPN, the “worldwide leader in sports” did not even have the story on the “ticker” at the bottom of the screen. She says that the story was swept under the rug because there was money to be made in the LSU vs. Alabama game.
When the rest of the media started to run with the story, ESPN stepped in and echoed how horrified they were. They covered the rioting that happened Wednesday night but true to media form, they found the seemingly least educated, most opinionated individuals to speak to the reporter. They yelled drunken declarations that “Joe Pa” shouldn’t have gotten fired for “something like this,” “he’s done so much for the university”…blah blah blah.
Yanity goes on to write that neither ESPN nor CBS made much of the story the day that it broke, because it was a Saturday…lots of games to cover. Then she writes:
“This is not just a scandal. It's a deal-breaker. This is not just about allegations of a man raping little boys; it's about a nation that has deeply troubling priorities. This is not about missing a story; it's about entertainment trumping the truth.
And it is all about money.”
I agree with her there.
I struggle a lot with my justice issues when it comes to Division I football. I grew up watching games every weekend, learning offensive and defensive formations from my dad, and feeling the euphoria of a last minute hail Mary pass to win the game. At the time I loved the game of football, I had no idea how evil the world can be. Now, in my disillusionment around athletics, I wish I could watch a game and love it, and feel like I did when I was a kid. But now as I think that thought, I realize that at the age I was watching football with my Dad and brother, these boys were being groomed, molested and raped. Charmed by the glamour of the game by a coach who was well-respected in his community and at Penn State.
Mostly, my justice issues go to the fact that these are institutions of higher education. In my idealism, I believe that colleges and universities should be working toward the greater good, educating and creating responsible citizens. What we have instead are athletics regimes who undermine the integrity of the ideals of education, who cover up criminal activity and cut loose any victims who would get in the way of the a sold out Saturday nationally televised game. Is this really higher education? Then maybe I am in the wrong field.
This issue is difficult. And as it unfolds I believe it will continue to be horrifying. The ripple effects of this scandal will be felt at every institution, especially a DI football school. I hope that the soul searching that happens as a result of this brings out the “sweeping changes” that the NCAA boasted a few weeks back. I am skeptical.
In this past week, I find that the reporting that most resonated with me was with Molly Yanity in the Chronicle and Jon Stewart on the Daily Show…here is what Jon Stewart has to say…
I can't say it any better than that.
So the one bad apple spoiling the bunch seems to be taking place here… The situation should not be looked at in order to review or have us start investigating all football programs. Football is not the reason why these terrible things took place. It is the person. We have seen this time and time again in almost every field from church officials to police officials. Perhaps it is more about the person in control having power or feeling like they have power over their victims. So much power that why would any victim come forward out of fear to be recognized or banished from a community? This is why people in power continue and get away with their behavior. No one calls them out. They keep doing it because they never think they are going to get caught. Once caught, then what? I am thankful someone came forward and finally is pushing for justice. It is so telling in our society that victims have no rights and not taken seriously when they do decide to come forward. Who are the winners and losers here? So they lose a football coach, or two, and a President? Really is that the biggest concern the Penn State population (or the small crowd) is worried about right now? Not the years of trauma and fear young children experienced and how they have lived for a decade trying to cope and understand? Why are people wasting time on losers (people who perpetuated the cycle of violence)? I am all for listening and looking for due process, but the preponderance of evidence is way above the 51% mark for me.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your great post, Meloni! You were much more eloquent than I in talking about the situation. I really appreciate the link to Jon Stewart, who is one of the greatest minds in this country right now. Even more, I appreciated your quote from Molly Yanity, where she said about a nation that has deeply troubling priorities.
ReplyDeleteI have felt this way about athletics for years! Yes, athletics is a way to induce school pride. Yes, athletics is a good form of entertainment. But more than that, I am deeply troubled by the emphasis that our country, and our institutions of higher ed, place on athletics. The amount of money that is poured into these programs could be so much better spent in other areas, areas that would improve education for all, and move this country forward.
Unfortunately, it is my opinion that athletics has become all about the money. And because of our greed, some were willing to keep quiet about a monster in their midst, and allow him to continue to rape young boys...all in the name of money.
I meant to post this political cartoon in my original post, but forgot, so here is the link:
http://www.denverpost.com/keefe/ci_19310950
This seems to be an issue we cannot get away from right now. Although athletics seems to be taking the blame for the problem right now, I am going to have echo some of what Katee said. This instance in involving a college athletic department, but somehow it does not seem to the fact that is a college football coach who is accused that bothers us so much; it is which college football coach is accused and which one allegedly knew about it that causes our visceral reaction.
ReplyDeleteFor many, an ugly truth has been revealed about something that they have highly regarded and deemed immune to the dark side of humanity. This immortalization of Penn State football may have caused this issue to become a viscous cycle. When reports were first heard over a decade ago, it is presumable that those who heard did not want to hear the worst of someone they had believed was a part of the best; leading to what we are now calling a cover up.
While Penn State seemed to emulate all that was right with college athletics, it is important for us to remember no one is perfect; that way the next time someone suggests that their is a problem it can be dealt with instead of covering it up.
Meloni- I too have been sorting out my own emotions about this whole story. I think the thing that is hardest for me is, how is what Joe Paterno did as a football coach any different than what I do as a supervisor of students? We both work to better college students, I hope we both tried to be good role models, build teams, teach character, and impact people.
ReplyDeleteI am a mandatory reporter. I would have passed on the same information. How many times in the past have I reported things that could have gone further than my boss? When has my moral compass spoke up? When has it not? When have I been supported from a supervisor to follow that moral compass and when have I not?
These are all the questions I've been playing over and over and over again in my head. I think in hopes that I want to believe I would have done something more than this program, than this person or people.
I think about the many women who have sat in my office sharing horror stories of actions being done to them and friends and I would ask over and over again do you want to call the police? And they would say no over and over again. Should I have done more? (no men have ever shared with me stories of sexual abuse or rape)
And then I think about these students rioting, half of them drunk, and not critically thinking about what they are doing and what they rioting actions are standing against rather than for? I think about our colleagues at Penn State who have the job of trying to teach moral development in this whole situation. How would I talk with my own students?
(I did have the brief researcher thought that someone should get an IRB fast because this would be a fascinating time to look at moral development in college students around athletics. I hope that does not sound insensitive to the victims.)
So yeah, I have no answers to these questions. All I know is that this story has been so emotional for me.
This has been a topic of discussion on campus recently, and there have been some fairly honest conversations between people posing the question "what would you do"? It's been uncomfortable, but at least people are talking about such an important topic.
ReplyDeleteAs I read the grand jury report, I felt queasy and angry at the same time. There were so many people who could have stepped in. If there is anyone who doesn't really see a problem with how the people involved have handled this, I would just ask...what if one of the boys was your son, brother, or nephew?
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ReplyDeleteMel, your post sparked a lot of things for me. I'm really not sure where to begin. The comments that have come out since the arrest by Sandusky are astounding to me. Reminds me a lot of the students that we work with, where something "smaller" is admitted to in hopes that it "makes up for" the larger thing. Who admits to touching young boys on the leg in a nonsexual way? Are we as the general public supposed to believe that this makes him innocent? In my mind, it confirms all the details that have already come out in the grand jury report and in the media. I love Jon Stewart's approach: stop it and call the cops or call the cops to come stop it.
ReplyDeleteI applaud the custodian and a graduate assistant who overrode our society's strong, compelling pull toward being a bystander. What I can't understand is exactly what you posted about-how are our nation's priorities so incredibly messed up to the point where we don't care about victims but instead care about is athletics and dollars?
Meloni, thank you for your post. The Penn State situation really sparked a lot of emotion in me as well and it has been difficult to formulate all the feelings I have. The 1st one, of course, is that the reaction to Joe Paterno's firing by 2000 or so students is ridiculous. I mean, really, he knew about this and did nothing. Then of course I wrote a blog about it and found out that Penn State has 40,000 students attending so 2000 is really quite small in comparison to the overall population. However, it is still 2,000 students who think protesting on behalf of Joe is okay. To top it off, we start thinking about the Penn State student affairs professionals who have to wrap their hands around this and try to comfort everyone. What a mess!
ReplyDeleteWhat really gets me are the things you pointed to in your blog. As a nation, we have completely sensationalized football (or any sports). Clearly not just pro football. We continue to allow famous sports stars to be forgiven for things like drunk driving, illegal weapons, sexual assault, animal cruelty, etc. I mean, how long has it been since Vick has been back in the game and no one talks about the horrible things he did against those dogs any more. As long as we continue down this path with sports, I think we will continue to see things like what has happened at Penn State.
I can't help but think Sandusky would have done much the same whether he was a coach or not. With that being said I do believe the staff and hierarchy at the school need to be held accountable as they did not appropriately address the issue when it was first reported however those students who are honorable should not be punished.
ReplyDeleteUltimately, what needs to change is the climate and culture of college sports. Ethics, accountability and even morality need to reemerge as a focus. This will take introspection on a wide scale however it is doable.
As for professional sports... for every Michael Vick there is a Drew Breez or a Tim Tebow. We as a society need to reinforce the positive things these men have done and are doing. We as an economic community need to let the owners and unions of professional teams know we will not support their teams as long as a Michael Vick is associated with them and throw our weight behind those teams and players who seek to have a positive influence through not only their words but through their actions as well.