Problem is that the connection to Penn State was tangential -- while it involved a Penn State Athletic Department employee, most of the contact was in the context of the private foundation that he set up to connect with young boys. One or more of the incidents happened on university property, which is how they became involved.
The problem was that everyone from McQueary on up to the president met the minimum legal requirement in Pennsylvania of reporting the event to his superior. It got bumped all the way up to the president, who did not take adequate action, so the buck stopped there. Parenthetically, in Minnesota McQueary would have been legally required to make a report directly to a legal authority (varies by county); he would not have been able to simple pass the report on up. Such is our Federal system. On Nov 15, 2011, at 10:27 AM, Beth Benoit wrote: This take on the horrible story about child abuse at UPenn troubled me, since the story of the coach who observed the little boy being raped in the shower is NOT a very good example of "bystander apathy." It doesn't really fit what we know about bystander apathy, particularly the most important concept: that the more people there are, the less likely one will step forward. With only one observer, it's more likely that that one person will feel responsible. Of course there are other parts to the "bystander effect," and "lack of knowledge" might loosely fit here - that is, Coach McQueary may have been a little unsure what he should do, but that doesn't really seem relevant either. But I hate to see this story dubbed an example of the bystander effect. http://healthland.time.com/2011/11/11/bystander-psychology-why-some-witnesses-to-crime-do-nothing/?xid=gonewsedit Beth Benoit Granite State College Plymouth State University New Hampshire --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=14184 or send a blank email to leave-14184-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
