The scandal unfolding at Penn State has potential legal consequences for the University and a number of its current and former employees.  But ultimately, the legal issues are dwarfed by the utter lack of ethics displayed by individuals from whom more was expected.  
Mike McQueary, currently an assistant coach for the Nittany Lions, testified before a grand jury that in 2002, while he was a 28-year old graduate assistant, he saw Jerry Sandusky, the former defensive coordinator, perform anal sex on a young boy in the football team’s locker room.  The next day, McQueary told head coach Joe Paterno what he had seen.  However, neither McQueary nor Paterno reported the incident to the police.  
A day after meeting with McQueary, Paterno told his immediate supervisor, Athletic Director Tim Curley, who is one of Paterno’s former players, what the grad assistant had told him.  Curley told his supervisor, senior vice president for business and finance Gary Schultz, who in turn told Penn State President Graham Spanier.        
But no Penn State administrator – not Curley, Schultz, or Spanier – reported what they were told to law enforcement officials.
Pennsylvania’s Child Protection Services Law details who must report suspicions of child abuse to the authorities.  At the time of the incident that led to what will go down as the biggest scandal in the history of college sports, it is possible that a number of the above named individuals, including Paterno, were not legally obligated to report suspicions of child abuse.  And even if they were, lawyers earn a handsome living for arguing the subtleties and inconsistencies in the law.  
Law can be defined as a codified version of how society expects a person to act, for the failure of which there are proscribed penalties.  If we are charged with a violation of law, we can hire a lawyer to represent us.  However, the scandal at Penn State isn’t really about the law, it’s about ethics.  Ethics is defined as an informal set of principles that a person should live by and is sometimes referred to as simply “doing the right thing.”  For a breach of ethics, we are judged in the court of public opinion and must live with our conscience.    
The utter lack of ethical behavior displayed by virtually all the principles in this sordid affair is as reprehensible as Sandusky’s conduct.  McQueary, Paterno, Curley, Schultz and Spanier were all adults at the time they became aware that a child had been sexually abused.  Not some child in a far away state or country, but a young boy right under their noses, on their campus, who they were responsible for.  
And yet none of them lifted a hand or spoke a word to help that child.  They did not display even the minimal ethical conduct one would expect of a human being.  Sandusky is a serial abuser, a fact the grand jury report suggests was known to all except McQueary in 2002.  The failure of these men to take appropriate action effectively sentenced additional victims to a life of hell.  
The most disturbing aspect of the lack of ethics demonstrated here is that it occurred on a university campus.  Penn State and its employees have a responsibility to their past, current and future students, not to mention society as a whole, to act in a legal and ethical manner.  We aren’t talking about a business, where the lust for money can sometimes obscure right from wrong.  Penn State isn’t the federal government where the “truth” is whatever politicians and bureaucrats choose to disclose or what they want us to believe.  Educational institutions and their employees should hold themselves to a higher standard than business or government.  
Mike McQueary was understandably concerned for his GA position and his future career.  He went on to become a receivers coach on Paterno’s staff, whether based on merit or as compensation for his silence we don’t know.  Paterno may have been trying to protect his legacy and his team.  Curley, Schultz and Spanier were concerned for the University’s brand, not to mention their own reputations from the consequences of a report of child sexual abuse on campus.  
Each individual elected to protect themselves and/or their institution at the expense of vulnerable and defenseless children.  By not acting ethically, they sacrificed both.

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