Should Joe Paterno do jail time?

Well said, JB.

Nick needs to be cautious about how he runs, and lets people post, on “his” message board.

We are living in a litigious society, where corruption and law-stretching thrives. Attorneys are everywhere, licking their chops.

There is legal and there is illegal and there is right and there is wrong. They don’t always go hand in hand.

Bushart is once again shading the truth. :roll:

A member posted a photo of the results of an abortion of a baby near term during a heated discussion about so called abortion rights.

I know of no one here who did not find it offensive.

That was the very intent of the posting it.

In posting it the reality that is abortion was laid bare.

Jim know this and yet persists in distorting the truth.

Now please explain why his telling a partial truth is nothing but a lie?

At least I can agree with Jim on this. There is no excuse.

I fully agree.

Assistant McQueary is now on “administrative leave”. He is the one who blew the whistle. This is a cluster.

http://www.nbcactionnews.com/dpp/news/national/psu%3A-mcqueary-put-on-administrative-leave

I have daughters aged 13 and 14

I have no tolerance for Predators
in any shape, size, form or economic bracket…
Those that assist in facilitation are just as Guilty as the Predator…

Paterno is reaping what he has sown…
for those students
defending his actions,
they are merely examples
where our education system
has gone wrong…

I want to know if it was reported, and who too. The administrators and board members may be as guilty if they had knowledge , Bottom line was the coaching staff was successful in bringing in money Sad part things can be overlooked for the almighty buck. Micheal what is your thought on the** Law **Protecting Kids on this? Would the Board members be responsible I mean the same ones that did the firing?

Wayne, I my opinion the entire program at Penn state is now tarnished because it is almost certain there will be much more revealed.

It is truly ugly.

Odd how the District attorney that handled accusations against Sardusky in 198 and did not bring charges went missing in 2005.

Something stinks very badly.

Good grief, the Penn book store is still selling Sardusky’s book “Touched”

Who cares what the school’s policies and procedures were? That’s as ridiculous as catholic cardinals referring to canon law.

If you know about an on-going child rape operation… run to the police (or if you have a terminal disease, run to your gun safe)… and stop them!

I’m not questioning that Nick.

But this may go much deeper within the culture at Penn.

There is no excuse for anyone who knew what was going on to let it slide.

They are just as guilty as the child abuser.

Agreed.

I have stayed out of the discussion so far and I may have missed it of someone else said it, but if I walked in on someone sodomizing a young boy (or girl) they would wake up next lying on the floor begging me not to hit them anymore until the police arrived. I would not wait to report it to my boss, wait for the “system” to take care of it. At that second in time the witnesses should have stepped up and done the right thing, that being knocking the hound dog**** out of the offender and protecting that child and daring the said offender to get back up so I could knock him on his *** again. I suspect he was more worried about keeping his job. THAT is pathetic and criminal! Anyone that had any knowledge of this odious behavior and did not follow up on making sure the POLICE got immediately involved is guilty as hell and should be held accountable. Would it have been any different if he walked in on him murdering the child? This whole affair disgusts me. When money and football becomes more important than the protection of a single child we as a society have hit bottom. Those in charge of things tried to sweep this under the carpet plain and simple and made light of it in their discussions subsequent of the events. Trying to console themselves by couching the conduct in less offensive terms (sodomy is NOT “horseplaying”). In times past all of them would be taken out by the men of the community and been horsewhipped and run out of town as a minimum. We have allowed these perverts and vermin to co-exists among us for far too long. They go to jail, see a shrink for a few years, they declare them healed and turn them back on society to prey on children.

Exactly my point.

Much like the home inspector who … because the message board rules allowed him to … chose to publish a video depicting the torture and death of an animal that is still accessible for viewing on our message board by children, it didn’t make it right. Frequent statements of racial and religious hatred and intolerance, though commonly allowed by the interpretation of NACHI message board rules, is still wrong under any circumstances. Simply because it is within the “law” of the message board … it is still wrong.

Nor should a policy at a college requiring anyone to report an observed act of child abuse to their supervisor relieve them from the duty and responsibility of stepping in and stopping the abuse until the police arrived as a result of their call.

Your question at the top of the thread regarding “jail time”, however, will be determined by the “law”, not by what was right…unfortunately.

Penn State and NACHI are both good institutions and have reputations that are vulnerable to the actions of its members. In this regard, their (the institutions’) standards should be high (perhaps even higher than what they are) to ensure that things that are commonly perceived as being morally wrong cannot be mistakenly accepted as “legal”.

Jim, is that animal thread not in “Not for Everyone” forum? If the thread you are referencing is in the open forums, email me the thread link and I’ll get rid of it.

No. It is in the “Miscellaneous” forum right along with this thread. I will email it to you. Thanks for deleting it.

If you know about a murder and don’t tell the police, isn’t that a crime?

In nearly all justice systems, the main firepower is reserved for the lead offender in a crime; however, those who help that person escape punishment by concealing facts are not forgotten. Under the American system, failure to report a crime can amount to an offense in itself, depending on the circumstances. Certain professional employees, such as counselors, day care and social workers or teachers, are held to a higher standard if they fail to report abuse or neglect. Doctors and nurses must report unusual behavior, such as when a wounded person requires emergency](http://www.ehow.com/about_5558578_penalty-not-reporting-crime.html#) care. In drawing these distinctions, the system seeks to protect the public and hold passive participants accountable, too.

Accessory After the Fact

  • One of the most basic reporting charges is accessory after the fact, broadly defined as someone who helps or hides a criminal trying to avoid getting caught. A Tennessee attorney learned this lesson the hard way–when he was caught coaching a witness to lie on behalf of a client charged in a robbery that also involved a vicious dog attack. According to “The Legal Profession” blog, the attorney ended up having his license suspended.

Different Degrees of Concealment

  • There are different degrees of concealment, depending on how the charge is defined.

Active concealment–formally known as misprision–is typically the key variable for prosecutors looking to make an accessory charge stick. As a discussion on the ExpertLaw.com legal board indicates, most state laws focus on such words as “attempt,” “complicity” and “conspiracy” to establish that mere knowledge of a crime is not enough by itself to warrant prosecution.

Confidentiality Laws

  • Counseling and medical professionals generally fall most affirmatively into mandatory reporting laws, designed to reach vulnerable populations–such as battered women or child sex abuse victims, for example–who would not come forward otherwise. In some instances, these laws may be designed to target specific issues–such as in Massachusetts, which imposes a $1,000 fine for failure to report fraternity hazing and requires universities to file annual compliance reports.

Obstruction of Justice

  • Another key concept, obstruction of justice, applies more directly to public officials, who may be charged for perverting justice through jury or witness tampering to shield their own culpability. President Richard Nixon’s downfall is the best-known example, in which he was forced to resign for his role in suppressing knowledge of his associates’ activities–including the infamous Watergate hotel break-in.

Perjury

  • Perjury exemplifies the basic legal standard that may come into play for not reporting a crime–whether by omission or lying under oath in a court; however, that logic may yield unintended consequences for defendants, according to the essay “Inferences in Perjury Cases” by Georgetown University linguistics professor Roger Shuy.

The essay cited a 1983 case of a union official charged with perjury in testifying about the actions of two business agents who picketed a contractor who allegedly paid non-union rates. A jury convicted the official, who apparently failed to understand a key question–whether the agents could recruit contractors. By trying to explain his actions, the official made his conviction easier–an ironic turn, Shuy observes, for someone trying to be so helpful.

Read more: Penalty for Not Reporting a Crime | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/about_5558578_penalty-not-reporting-crime.html#ixzz1dXn1wDpj

As far as I can tell…Knowing and NOT reporting ANY crime…is a crime, all depends on the District Attorney I guess…

Most states have laws on the books regarding teachers reporting potential child abuse to the authorities, (police or child protective services) not your boss. As Penn State is an educational institution, albeit one that is normally for those over 18, there are many students in most universities that are under that age and would fit within the law. The point is, educators, administrators and staff have a responsibility beyond the normal citizen. Here is the section from our state law. I would be surprised if most states don’t have something similar.

(1)(a) When any practitioner, county coroner or medical examiner, law enforcement officer, professional school personnel, registered or licensed nurse, social service counselor, psychologist, pharmacist, employee of the department of early learning, licensed or certified child care providers or their employees, employee of the department, juvenile probation officer, placement and liaison specialist, responsible living skills program staff, HOPE center staff, or state family and children’s ombudsman or any volunteer in the ombudsman’s office has reasonable cause to believe that a child has suffered abuse or neglect, he or she shall report such incident, or cause a report to be made, to the proper law enforcement agency or to the department as provided in RCW 26.44.040.