At What Price?

Unless you live under a rock, you have read or heard the horrible news surrounding Penn State and their football program. I read an article today, really an editorial, about how the writer felt about the actions of the coaches and administration concerning the rape and molestation of children at the hands of one of their own. The author took the approach of writing a manual of how to deal with this situation. At first glance, if the reader knew nothing of the scandal, they would think that the one who penned this piece was stating the obvious, common sense. Surely no one needs to have these steps written down to know to do them, and that was just the point. The "rules" of what to do when witnessing or being told of an act as unspeakable as this, a crime, certainly do not need to be in print for one to know what to do. Yet, not one, but several people, looked the other way. Oh, they did "enough" to ease their conscience. They all played "Pilate" in this scenario and their hands were clean. They did what they were supposed to do, so the abuser should have been arrested immediately, right? WRONG! He was not arrested, and the abuse continued with 14 other young boys. I'm sure you're thinking that can't be possible! How could he not be arrested? One reason, he was never reported to the police. This amazes me. Two different people witnessed firsthand what was going on, and not only did they not try to stop it right then, they did not call the police. In a comment listed in response to the editorial said something that haunted me, in regards to the boy who was victimized, "I wonder if he heard the door and thought he was saved, only to hear the door open and close again." Imagine if you were that boy. Why wasn't it stopped? Why wasn't something done? Only those men can answer to that. I can only speculate that it was out of  selfish fear of losing what was important to them, but at what price? Unfortunately much too high a price for 15 young boys.