Penn State

The NCAA handed down the punishment today. For me, it doesn't really matter what the NCAA says. For me Pennsylvania State University committed the worst foul you can commit. They looked the other way when a youth was being harmed. It doesn't matter when or how or why. It only matters that they did.


From what we seem to know is the senior leadership believed they had to cover it up to protect the image of the school.


I don't know what was said in the discussions that lead to the decision to not act on the information they had. University presidents, athletic directors, and head football coaches can be persuasive people who tend to impose their will on others to get things done. Unfortunately in this case, whoever was the most influential, had the wrong idea. They may have feared for losing their jobs because this happened on their watch. They were right because they chose not to act and lost their jobs because of it.


When the first incident happened it was an act of an individual. By not acting on the information the school made it a Penn State issue. Once they knew all they had to do was call the police. When the story broke all they had to do is to hold a press conference and say they called the police because of information that became available. That would have shown the school did not condone the activities of an individual and will act if something like this happens. That would have been the right answer.


Any organization that deals with youth has a fiduciary responsibility to protect the young people. The difficult part is until someone does something wrong there is no reason to believe they are not a stand-up person. However, once they cause harm, they must be held to task. That's where this student fell down.


A lot of bad decisions can be forgiven, I'm not sure this one can.