By Fraser P. Seitel
A friend of mine got his head handed to him on television the other day for defending Penn State’s decision not to fire the assistant coach who in 1998 allegedly observed Penn State defensive coach Jerry Sandusky raping a 10-year-old boy and then not reporting the horrendous crime to police.
After Sandusky’s arrest and the firing of Penn State’s president, CFO, athletic director and head football coach, many wondered why the university didn’t also fire the man who allegedly witnessed the despicable act and then did nothing either to intercede or notify the police.
Prevailing wisdom abroad in the land suggests that the assistant coach, at the time a 28-year-old graduate assistant and former Penn State quarterback named Mike McQueary, should be dealt with harshly for his reticence to act. Indeed, the school placed McQueary on indefinite administrative leave, after the assistant coach received “multiple threats” on his life.
Asked whether the university had considered dismissing McQueary, the interim president of Penn State hedged, saying, “There are complexities to that issue that I am not prepared to go into at this particular point.”
Mike McQueary will likely never again be on the Penn State sideline. The outpouring of public opinion against him has become that vtriolic. And that’s really too bad. Despite the lynch mob mentality – to fire them all – that has festered from the unspeakable crimes perpetrated at Penn State, Assistant Coach McQueary should be spared the public’s wrath and the university’s axe.
In retrospect, Mike McQueary made the wrong decision not to step in to try to stop his former superior’s inhuman behavior with a child. No doubt Mike McQueary will regret that inaction the rest of his life.
But in immediately reporting to his superiors what he saw in the Penn State locker room, McQueary tried to “do the right thing.” And castigating him for that response, i.e. firing him from Penn State, mostly because an outraged public is screaming for blood, would neither be justified nor fair to a young man obviously confused, disoriented and shocked by the unimaginable act he happened upon.
Put yourself in his shoes.
According to his grand jury testimony, McQueary entered the Penn State locker room late one night to deposit new sneakers in his locker. He heard noises from the shower room and checked to see the source of the commotion. What he saw, according to the grand jury transcript, so unnerved him that “the graduate assistant left immediately, distraught.”
McQueary rushed to his office and called his father, a respected local high school football coach. His father advised him to leave the building immediately and come to his parents’ home. The two then called Coach Joe Paterno and went to Paterno’s home to report what McQueary had witnessed.
In rapid succession, according to the grand jury transcript, Paterno called his boss, the athletic director, who, along with Penn State’s chief financial officer, interviewed McQueary about what he had seen. All of those in authority assured the graduate assistant that they would take the appropriate action.
Indeed, the local district attorney at the time was notified, looked into the allegations that Sandusky had sexually assaulted a young boy, and apparently decided that there wasn’t enough evidence to prosecute Sandusky. That DA, Ray Gricar, mysteriously disappeared in 2005 and hasn’t been heard from since.
Sandusky, unrestrained by the legal system, allegedly went on to commit upwards of 40 counts of sex crimes against young boys, before his arrest two weeks ago.
Those are the facts.
Mike McQueary, a 28-year-old graduate assistant in a strict hierarchy presided over by universally-respected, virtually-beatified coaches, was suddenly thrust into an impossible situation and tried to do what was right. He reported what he saw, contacted his superiors, and received assurances they would take action.
For whatever reason, the alleged fiend was still allowed to walk free for the next decade.
In hindsight, should McQueary have stopped Sandusky, gone to the police, and gone public when he saw no action being taken? No question.
The young coach will suffer with those tragic failings – with what he might have done -- for the rest of his life.
But for Penn State to succumb to the blood lust of horrified observers by punishing McQueary further – ignoring that he tried to do the right thing in confronting a confusing, unprecedented, no-win situation -- would be just another wrong and unfair consequence of this monstrous tragedy. |