Days after a smoldering child sex scandal exploded onto the front pages of the nation’s newspapers, Penn State’s legendary football coach Joe Paterno, 84, announced he would retire at the end of the season.
But that wasn’t soon enough for outraged parents who believe Paterno turned a blind eye to a culture of rampant child sex abuse that was covered up by university officials for years.
Yesterday, Paterno and Penn State president Graham Spanier were fired in phone calls by the board of trustees.
Paterno’s firing touched off riots on the campus, with angry students overturning a TV satellite truck.
“Right now, I’m not the football coach. And I’ve got to get used to that. After 61 years, I’ve got to get used to it,” said 84-year-old Paterno, speaking to hundreds of weeping students outside his home in the shadow of the storied university.
The only remaining question is what will become of Mike McQueary, the former quarterback for the Penn State Nittany Lions, and now the recruiting coordinator and receivers coach for Penn State. (He is pictured at right with Paterno.)
On March 1, 2002, McQueary, then a 28-year-old graduate assistant for Joe Paterno, walked into the team showers and witnessed a horrific scene that would shake Penn State to its core nine years later.
As the graduate assistant, it was McQueary’s job to flick off the lights and lock the doors every night. According to the Grand Jury report, McQueary testified that he heard “rhythmic, slapping sounds”, which he believed to be sexual activity. He peered into the showers and saw former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky having anal intercourse with a 10-year-old boy.
In his grand jury testimony, McQueary, said he was shocked that Sandusky and the young boy spotted him. He said he “left immediately, distraught.” But instead of calling campus police, he called his father that night, then Paterno, the next day.
In his statement released Sunday, Paterno said the grad assistant “was distraught … but he at no time relayed to me the very specific actions contained in the grand jury report.”
Sandusky, 67, who retired from his job in 1999, continued to use Penn State’s sports facilities to give tours to underprivileged boys in his Second Mile children’s charity that he founded. After the allegations were made against him in 2002, Penn State athletic director Tim Curley ordered Sandusky not to bring any more boys to the campus.
Sandusky was arrested Saturday, Nov. 5, and indicted on 40 counts of sexually abusing eight boys over 15 years. Curley and senior vice president for finance and business Gary Schultz have also been charged for failure to report suspected child abuse.
Sandusky is currently free on $100,000 bail pending trial. He faces life in prison if convicted. Sandusky is married and has six adopted children, as well as foster children he took in over the years.
In 2002, a meeting was held with Paterno, McQueary and his dad. Sometime later, McQueary was given the plum jobs of recruiting coordinator and receivers coach for Penn State, which he still holds.
Critics argue that McQueary’s salary was hush money to silence him over the years.
McQueary’s father John told USA Today about his son: “He’s a good kid and a tough kid. He did what he was supposed to do, and all of this has been very hard on him.
