Isnt school supposed to be the place where you worry about spelling rather than sports?

On November 7, Pennsylvania state police Commissioner Frank Noonan said that Paterno fulfilled his legal obligation to report suspected abuse, although "somebody has to question about what I would consider the moral requirements for a human being that knows of sexual things that are taking place with a child," and that, "I think you have the moral responsibility, anyone. Not whether you're a football coach or a university president or the guy sweeping the building. I think you have a moral responsibility to call us."[/quote]
this pretty much sums up my thoughts. Joe Paterno is arguably not in the wrong, but given his position and the crimes he was made aware of he had a responsibility to take more action if he didn't want it to reflect badly on him and the school. Keeping statutory rape on school grounds by a school employee under wraps for 9 years is going to get you in trouble.

Question is, why are they taking action now,

Probably because the article says they were young. Most likely young kids that are in that situation don't want to talk about/are more embarassed than an adult might be. Even girls get raped and feel embarassed to come out about it.[/quote]
Well it's more like the grand jury just delivered the indictments so this is the first time the public as a whole got to know about it. As for why it took this long for things to work through the legal system, the police weren't notified until years later and then the district attorney in charge of the case became a missing person in 2005 (and is currently legally dead even though the body hasn't been found), and apparently it took a while for the investigation to complete after it restarted.

edit: actually, I double checked and the DA who went missing closed the case for insufficient evidence about a year before he disappeared.

My folks met at Penn State. They attended the football games and rooted for the team when I was young. As Miami came and went, as Notre Dame hired liars, as Pete Carroll paid his players then fled, as SMU died, as Nick Saban turned tail... for 61 years Joe Paterno ran a clean program. He focused on education and making his charges better people as a university should. He's helped thousands of students, and went above and beyond in support of the institution, despite better football offers; despite better monetary offers because teaching students to become better men was more important than either.

61 years of devotion. Countless decisions he had to make, many that were morally difficult. Losing out on prospects, losing in general because Penn State would not stoop where the competition stooped. 61 years of good decisions, but one mistake somehow invalidates that?

I am disgusted by Penn State for firing Joe Paterno. I am embarrassed by the culture in America where dedicated employees become numbers in Peoplesoft and are fired to save shareholders a few cents. I am embarrassed by CEOs making mistakes and getting millions of dollars, corrupt investors literally stealing from the government getting bailouts because they lost that money... What employee will show any shred of dedication when even JoePa got canned?

I am shamed by the flood op-ed stories by cowards who scream for blood due to one horrible decision a decade ago while ignoring the 6 decades of good decisions. How can we function as a country when we choose to crucify someone who has done so much good when so many have done so little?