Elizabeth Moon on Penn State

It is amazing - and heartbreaking that this needs to be said. [Link]

And finally...one of the things emphasized in good military training is doing the right thing when you see it needs doing.  Initiative aimed in the right direction.   Ritual disclaimers about nobody and no system being perfect.  Bad apples in every warehouse.  Still...athletic training is often said to produce character.  But the evidence here is that it doesn't.   Instead, it inculcates hero-worship and reputation-worship.   Putting "the team" above everything means defending wrong if done by someone on the team.  Why did the young, fit, strong young man who saw Sandusky anally raping the boy "panic" instead of intervening?   Probably for the same reason given by a young sportscaster who, as a teenager, had known Sandusky as a Penn State coach and admired him--had stayed in touch with him, who revered him--a man who admitted he would have run away (but thinks he would have contacted the police later.)    How do you confront a legend, even when the legend has morphed into a horror?

First you have to have the moral understanding that what you're seeing is abuse and needs to be stopped.  Not just reported--stopped.  He's hurting a child.  You're the person who sees it.  It's up to you to stop it.   That's your mission: stop the rape, rescue the child.  From here it's all  straight out of training.   Fast tactical assessment: one adult raping one child.  No weapons.  Empty room.   Go for it.  You're not going to miss the target; he's not prepared to fight an adult; you've got advantage in surprise, commitment, being fully clothed, and (if you know anything at all) skill.  Chances are high that you'll be able to disable the rapist at least temporarily and get the child out and then to safety and medical attention and legal investigation.  Had that been done in 2000, the 2002 and 2008 attacks would not have occurred.  Had charges been filed in 1998, the next three (and possibly more, unknown) attacks would not have occurred.

The men who saw Sandusky abusing children--the two janitors and the graduate assistant, two different victims--all knew something bad was going on.   They understood it was sexual abuse of a child.  One of the janitors and the graduate assistant knew it should be reported.  But they didn't think of stopping it cold, right then.  And they did not commit to reporting it to the proper authorities themselves.  It may be that many young men (or older men) do not know what they should do or how to do it.   Maybe no one ever told them "If you see a rape in progress, stop it; if you can't stop it (many assailants), report it at once."   It's time we told them, from boyhood.  It's time that rapists--of children or adults--came to expect  that other men won't ignore, won't walk on by, won't panic...but will intervene to rescue the victim.  Will call the cops on them.   I know plenty of women who would have charged into that shower room and gotten those kids out if they'd been in the position of those janitors and that graduate student.  It's time for men to, as they say, man up.