scandal at Penn State

But not in the Philosophy Department.

HERE.

[ADDENDUM: I just saw a poll where 54% of respondents think that Joe Paterno should resign as Penn State football coach over this. Normally I’m all in favor of leaders resigning from positions during huge scandals, but in the present case I don’t quite get it, based on what we know now.

Paterno claims this came as a surprise to him when he was first told about an incident in 2002. Sandusky had already retired as his assistant in 1999, and Paterno says he reported the incident he heard about to the university administration. Assuming Paterno is telling the truth, I don’t see how he’s responsible for an ex-assistant coach sexually abusing boys, unless you think he should have immediately gone to the police as well, but then the same could be said of the assistant coach who told Paterno. (And now that I think of it, this probably should have gone to the police directly, but they don’t seem to be complaining that he didn’t, at least not yet.) But there could still be more to the story than meets the eye. People always start by claiming they did everything by the book, and sometimes it turns out not to be true. That said, two administrators were named in the perjury complaint, and Paterno was not. I think we should take Paterno’s word for what he did until we hear evidence that requires otherwise.]