J. J. in Phila
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The whole response was an exercise in bureaucratic paralysis. All the discussion about contacting "his organizaton" and maybe the "other organization." It's maddening. Like a nightmare out of a Kafka novel. Why didn't they attempt to find the child, immediately?
It wasn't bureaucratic paralysis, though Penn State is a bureaucracy. They began to look at this on the same day it was reported. I'm not convinced that they, initially, thought this was any different that the 1998 incident, except it wasn't the parent or child complaining. That changed when they heard from McQueary.
Instead, Schultz took 10 days to research the 98 case and devise a 3 point plan to handle McQueary's allegation. When he learned that Spanier, Curley, and "Joe" were not comfortable with his plan, he folded like a lawn chair. He was non-confrontational and passive, which is the "Penn State way" according to Vicky Triponey.
(The woman who stood up to Joe Paterno http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/15/us/triponey-paterno-penn-state/index.html)
The plan was three days after talking to McQueary. I can understand, based on the 1998 experience, why they thought this was nothing too serious, just Sandusky "horsing around," prior to that.
And yes, I can understand not trying to find the identity of the child, and saying, *We should let DPW handle that part. They are the experts.* (Okay, DPW screwed up badly.) If they actually followed the 2/25/01 plan, I wouldn't be too upset. It is a bit slow, but it still gets everything over to the proper authorities, even if a fortnight later.
And even if Paterno was not behind the plan, Curley certainly attempted to give the impression that Paterno was behind it in order to give his alternative plan more authority. That says a lot about how things worked at Penn State, I think.
The change in the plan originated either with Curley, giving the impression that Paterno was in favor of it, or with Paterno. Even if the former, Paterno had to know that there wasn't an investigation, because no investigator talked with him, and he was part of that reporting chain.