Mike McQueary: Penn State Assistant Placed on Administrative Leave

According to the Associated Press, Penn State Assistant Coach Mike McQueary was placed on an administrative leave from the university. 

McQueary was a key person in the grand jury report in the Jerry Sandusky child abuse case. In the report it states that, McQueary, then a graduate assistant on the Penn State coaching staff, walked in on Sandusky in a shower with a child. McQueary conflicted on what to do and ultimately called his father, who told him to go to Coach Paterno and report what happened. 

McQueary went to Paterno, telling the coach about what he allegedly saw in the shower . However, what McQueary reported never got past the university president. 

McQueary went on to rise up the Penn State coaching ladder, as he was promoted from a graduate assistant, to Wide Receivers Coach and an assistant on the Paterno staff. 

As the Board of Trustees met to decide the fate of Paterno and everyone involved in the Sandusky report, they decided to fire everyone except McQueary. 

Furthermore, when Penn State’s new head coach Tom Bradley had his first press conference, he announced that McQueary would still be on staff and would be at the game on Saturday. 

However, after a public out cry and reports of “death threats” to McQueary, the decision was made on Thursday to not have McQueary coach on Saturday. 

Now, news is coming out that the receivers coach is on a paid administrative leave from the university. 

The paid administrative leave is just another way that they can keep someone that is involved in this case on staff, without punishing the person who originally made the first report. 

McQueary must have been confused as to what he may or may not have saw. Regardless of what happened, it must have been confusing and scary, making it difficult to know what to do. That’s why he called the person whom he could trust the most, in his father. 

However, from there McQueary should have gone to an authority to help stop the situation. 

The administrative leave from Penn State keeps McQueary with the program, without being out in the public light. It will be interesting to see where this goes, and whether the coach is kept on, or if he resigns due to the weight of public pressure. 

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