It is, of course, possible that he didn't intervene because it wasn't a rape. 
Sandusky claims that they were just "horsing around". The media have clearly 
convicted the coach but I prefer to wait for the court to make a determination. 

-Don.

----- Original Message -----
From: Beth Benoit <[email protected]>
Date: Tuesday, November 15, 2011 10:27 am
Subject: Re: [tips] Penn State abuse...not bystander apathy
To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" <[email protected]>

> (Note that I changed the subject heading!)
> 
> Even if someone were required to report to a legal authority 
> doesn't excuse
> - or perhaps have much bearing on - why a person who observed 
> the rape
> didn't intervene at the time it was happening.
> 
> Beth Benoit
> Granite State College
> Plymouth State University
> New Hampshire
> 
> On Tue, Nov 15, 2011 at 1:06 PM, Brandon, Paul K 
> <[email protected]>wrote:
> > 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
> >
> >
> >
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Don Allen
Retired professor
Langara College



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