Joe Paterno and the Rest of the Penn State Staff Should Pay

One issue that has not been addressed by the mainstream media is the fact that all of these people allegedly involved in this worst example of dereliction of duty are public employees.  They are not employed by a company or private school.  The amount of arrogance shown by everyone involved has only been overshadowed by the horror of what has been alleged to have happened.

How does a public university head coach who is the highest paid employee of the taxpayers in the state have the arrogance to tell the Penn State Board of Trustees what to consider or not consider in their investigations into the allegations?   The regents are appointed by elected officials to be the stewards of the public money that pays the salaries of everyone in the university.

How does any public official expect to keep their job for a day—let alone a month or more—after they have been accused of involvement in a cover up of child abuse?  The clear answer is that they should not.

Granted, Paterno has been the most powerful person at Penn State for decades.  Presidents and athletic directors have come and gone in the 46 years that Paterno has been the head coach of the football team.  He has run a program that has been devoid of any NCAA violations which is commendable.  

However, Paterno, Pres. Spanier and everyone in between those men have been accused of covering up one of the most vile and despicable violations of basic human decency and the breaking of fundamental laws of society—the sexual violation of multiple children, over more than a decade!

There will undoubtedly be lawsuits resulting from these allegations.  The university, and thus the taxpayers, should not pay one dime in either legal fees or reparations to the victims of these
alleged crimes. 

Every dollar should come first from the retirement funds and pockets of those either found to be directly involved criminally or to have been found guilty of participating in a cover up of it. 

Those that were involved in either the acts or the cover up should have to give everything they own to the victims.

That will clearly not be enough money, based on the number of children that may have suffered abuse.  Beyond that, the boosters that have shown such support for Paterno should pony up the rest.  There have been demonstrations in support of the coach. 

This is not a sin by the taxpayers that finance the university.  Let those that were cheering for their coach to stay be the ones to pay.

That is what I think.  Tell us what you think. 

Bill Smith is a former coach of several semi-pro teams, has officiated both football and basketball, done color on radio for college football and basketball and has scouted talent.
 He hosts News, Notes and Rumors, and Internet Sports show Monday through Thursday at 6 PM EST on  http://mooheadradio.com/2.0/ and edits http://fryingpansports.com.  He has also published several novels on http://www.eBooks-Library.com/Contemporary/
and a non-fiction work at http://www.merriam-press.com/.