I Didn’t Know What to Do

With the passing of Joe Paterno, I had second thoughts about sending this email. Yet, in the flurry of media coverage following the interviews with the Board of Trustees about their decision to fire Coach Paterno, and what turned out to be  his last interview with the Washington Post, there are still questions to be answered.

In some ways I hate to read any more about the scandal and abuse; and yet, we need to. We need to determine if there are any clues about how this could have happened. About how so many people could have missed, covered up, denied, or ignored such grievous sins by one of their own?

I’m glad I kept reading, because I came across this quote from the late coach that spoke volumes about the situation.

“I didn’t know exactly how to handle it and I was afraid to do something that might jeopardize university procedure. So I backed away….”

Whether you believe Coach Paterno  or not is beside the point (and being hotly debated by some). What matters is his ability to make this claim. Was he truly ignorant of university procedure? Of what the law required of him in this situation?

We may never know the truth for certain, but one thing is clear. We must never be guilty of this sort of reasoning. We need to know how to respond should we ever face this situation; and our volunteers do, too. Not only do we need to know what steps to take, we need to know what is required by law.

I challenge you today, if your church has gaps in its safety and screening procedures, please call us. Let us help you get the proper procedures in place so that no one in your church will every be able to say, I didn’t know what to do.