Joe Paterno and the Myth of the Innocent Bystander

Imagine, if you would, the one person you love most in the world. This might be your husband, wife, girlfriend, boyfriend, kids, mother, father, sibling, grandparent or best friend. It can be anyone you like – hold their image in your head.

Now imagine that person is in some kind of danger. They are somewhere that is unsafe, they are in harm’s way, or maybe there is someone who wants to harm them. The person you love most in the world is in some kind of danger, possibly fatal danger, and you can’t help them.

You can’t help them, but there are people who can help them. There are people who see that the one person you love most in the world is in danger, and they can help. They might even be able to stop it.

But they don’t. The person who can help or save your most loved person chooses not to. They chose to walk away, they chose to turn away. They say things like, “I’m not getting involved in that,” or “I don’t know that person,” or “Maybe that’s not that big of a deal,” or “Someone else will help.” There are people who know that your loved one is going to be hurt, but they don’t step in.

The emotion you are feeling right now probably ranges from confusion to anger to frustration, disappointment, and even powerlessness. If we know someone is going to be hurt, or may even be killed, why wouldn’t we intervene?

The Penn State sex scandal has been building in the news lately, and came to a head just a few days ago when long time Coach Joe Paterno was fired. Outrage has ensued. Paterno was fired because he was aware of the fact that his assistant coach Jerry Sandusky had sexually assaulted young boys, and at least on one occasion in the Penn State locker room. Paterno was told of this incident in particular by a graduate assistant who walked in on the rape by Jerry Sandusky of a 10 year-old boy in the showers. All of this information is in the grand jury report.

Rather than calling the police immediately, the graduate assistant left the building and later went to Paterno’s house, with his father, to tell the head coach. Paterno also did not call the police. Instead, he called university officials, who also did not call the police. Their only response? Taking away Sandusky’s keys to the locker room.

That 10 year-old boy was someone’s most loved person in the world. There were people who knew he was being sexually assaulted, and they did nothing to intervene. They turned away, they walked away, and they opted not to get involved. They opted to assume that someone else would help. Someone else would take the responsibility for stopping Sundusky and his predatory behavior. They chose a powerful and successful football program over the well-being of vulnerable children who were being raped.

One might think that Sandusky would have stopped this sexual violence after such a close call. However, it continued. No doubt Sandusky was empowered to continue it, perhaps even increase it -- after all, he had the Penn State head coach and administration covering up his crimes. What more sanction could he ask for? So he no longer had access the locker room, Penn State had taken that away. However, this is a man who started a non-profit to help underprivileged kids, and now it seems clear that he really started the non-profit to help gain access to underprivileged kids for sexual abuse. Not having access to one place would not have deterred his perpetration.

And what of Paterno, and his graduate assistant? They did the right thing by reaching out to their bosses at the University, correct? No. What was witnessed by the one person and heard by another was not an “incident” that involved Sandusky, it was a crime. It should have been reported to the police immediately. What Paterno did to intervene was the equivalent of offering a band aid to a shotgun victim. Did Paterno followup with the Penn State official? Did he demand stronger action, maybe even suggest that Sandusky should be fired? Apparently not.

There is no such thing as an innocent bystander. In your own mind, when you imagined that the one person you love most in the world was going to be hurt, did you excuse the people who didn’t intervene by saying, “well, after all, they’re just innocent bystanders. I don’t expect them to do anything.” When it is someone we love who is in harm’s way, we want people to do something. Paterno and the graduate assistant did something, but it wasn’t the right something. Sexual assault is a crime. The real crime, however, is that children’s safety was sacrificed for the safety and name of the Penn State football program. That means that everything Penn State and the Nittany Lions stands for, and all that Paterno worked hard for during his 46 year career, means nothing when a 10 year-old boy, someone’s loved one, wasn’t helped at a dangerous time.