Ever since I read his biography as a teenager, I have admired Joe Paterno. That is until about a week ago when like just about everybody outside apparently most Penn State students and alumni I became completely disgusted.
Last evening as my mind wandered off during a "leadership" retreat, I tried to figure out why the hell Paterno or the graduate assistant, who witnessed the rape, didn't go to the police. Then I thought about my experiences in "quality assurance" in the hospital both before and after joining administration.
I along with every doctor in my hospital are restrained by a gag order against publicly commenting on anything. I am not sure whether that includes calling the police, however if I was a junior doctor with a career ahead of me, I might just want to go through what I was told were the appropriate channels. Had a gone through the appropriate channels I know exactly what would have happened. Faster than I could blink, the risk management people would have been all over the case.
"Is that really what you saw?",
"What is this going to do for the hospital's reputation"
"Can we get sued for a wrongful accusation?"
"Let's investigate more"
"Don't go to the police until we tell you."
I suspect this is exactly what went on at Penn State years ago.
On the other hand Paterno could just be a senile old bastard who put his friendship with a pervert ahead of protecting children.
I'm sort of leaning that way.
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