Right Wing Granny

News behind the news. This picture is me (white spot) standing on the bridge connecting European and North American tectonic plates. It is located in the Reykjanes area of Iceland. By-the-way, this is a color picture.

Right Wing Granny

Somehow I Don’t Get The Logic In This

Yesterday AP News reported that the outdoor recreation club at Penn State will no longer go outside because it is too dangerous in the wilderness. The outdoor recreation club was established in 1920.

The article reports:

The Penn State Outing Club, originally founded in 1920, announced last week that the university will no longer allow the club to organize outdoor, student-led trips starting next semester. The hiking, camping and other outdoors-focused activities the student-led club has long engaged in are too risky, the university’s offices of Student Affairs and Risk Management determined.

 Richard Waltz, the Outing Club’s current president, said that the decision was made by an office that never consulted them.

The decision was based on a two-month review that didn’t include consultation with student leaders at any of the clubs deemed too risky, according to students.

Two other outdoor recreation clubs — the spelunking Nittany Grotto Caving Club and the Nittany Divers SCUBA Club — also have been directed to end trip offerings.

“Safety is a legitimate concern, but it wasn’t an open dialogue,” Waltz said.

So what new hazards have been added to the wilderness since 1920? Is our current crop of students so delicate that outdoors is too dangerous for them?

I suspect this move was made to protect the school from lawsuits in case someone got sunburned or got a splinter from gathering firewood, but I think it is totally ridiculous.

The article concludes:

Penn State conducted a “proactive risk assessment” not based on any previous participant injuries, according to Powers. She said Outing Club activities were rated high risk because they take place in remote environments with poor cell service and distance from emergency services.

Penn State still will offer a university-operated outdoors trip program, Powers said. The university-run program also costs much more for students, Waltz contended.

Michael Lacey, president of the Caving Club, told the Centre Daily Times he’s not surprised by the decision but says the university’s reasons for ending the club trips don’t make sense to him.

There’s a difference between going with somebody you paid to take you on a trip and going with a bunch of your friends, Lacey said.

Powers said Penn State staff members are meeting with student leaders about the transition and how the university might still support each group’s goals.

On June 29, 2014, Time posted an article with the headline, “Pentagon: 7 in 10 Youths Would Fail to Qualify for Military Service.” Do you think there might be a connection between that and not allowing a college outdoor club to go outdoors because it’s too risky?

The Problem With Scandals Is That They Grow…Fast

We have all learned more than we wanted to know about the scandal at Penn State. The real bottom line for me is that the school officials did not carry out their responsibilities to report what they had been told to police and other authorities. Because of the Penn State coaching staff’s failure to report what Mike McQueary told Joe Paterno he saw, more children fell victim to the activities of Jerry Sandusky.

The International Business Times reported yesterday that Penn State assistant coach Mike McQueary has been placed on administrative leave indefinitely. The article explains the awkward situation the school is in regarding Mr. McQueary:

Interim coach Tom Bradley said on Thursday that the decision wasn’t up to him whether McQueary would coach, but CBS Sports’ Gregg Doyel posited that Penn State might be retaining the coach in order to not open itself up to a whistleblower lawsuit. The alluded to complexities to firing McQueary are that the coach could be protected under the whistleblower laws and the school could be found liable of violating those laws if they dismissed the coach.

It seems as if a lot of people dropped the ball in this situation. Meanwhile, the Sun Gazette reported today that the Jerry Sandusky scandal may include the Keystone Central School District.

The article at the Sun Gazette reports that after a parent of a student at the Central Mountain High School reported in 2009 that her son was sexually abused by Jerry Sandusky, she was discouraged from pursuing the matter:

* Several reputable sources say the guidance office talked to the victim and his mother, then discouraged them from contacting Children and Youth.

* Those same sources said when the family questioned that outcome, they were told by a Keystone administrator (Karen Probst) that Sandusky was a “great man” and they should go home and think about it before taking further action.

* The district only took action after the family, frustrated with the school’s response, went directly to Children and Youth Services with its complaint, and after C&Y officials told the district Sandusky should be banned from contact with students and barred from school property.

Only after the family acted, did the school take any action to protect its students. That is truly sad.

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What’s Wrong With This Picture

Jonah Goldberg posted an article at the New York Post yesterday about the riots on the Penn State campus when the firing of football coach Joe Paterno was announced.

Mr. Goldberg observes:

You have to wonder what’s wrong with our society when someone can say, “Of course we’re going to riot,” but not over the coverup of pedophiliac rape. Rather, students feel it is their obvious right, perhaps even duty, to throw violent temper tantrums when a multimillionaire football coach is fired, simply because the coach is part of their “college experience.”

If the students actually knew why Coach Paterno was fired, where in the world was their compassion for the victims of Coach Sandusky? What in the world are our children learning in college?

Mr. Goldberg concludes:

Most of the time, I find campus protest culture to be shallow and predictable. But I would have cheered it this time around, if only someone rioted for the alleged victims of Jerry Sandusky.

I linked to the Grand Jury testimony in a previous article (rightwinggranny). It is difficult to read the testimony. Coach Sandusky was caught in the act of raping a child and everyone in charge looked the other way–oh, wait, they didn’t look the other way–they told him he could no longer bring children into the athletic facility. Coach Sandusky’s activities continued for another ten years. There are some serious legal issues here–authorities of the school were required to report the incident to the police when it occurred–no one seems to have done that. Because the school was aware of the incident, I would think that children (now young adults) who were molested after the incident that was discovered could very easily sue to school. I hope they do. I won’t bring healing, but it might teach people in charge to fulfill their legal reporting obligations.

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I Don’t Follow College Football–But This Is Disturbing

Number 12, Penn State quarterback Michael Robi...

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John Ondrasik of Five for Fighting writes a column for Sports Illustrated. His latest column was about the scandal in the Penn State football program involving Jerry Sandusky.  The article features a link to the Grand Jury report on Jerry Sandusky.

After reading the Grand Jury report, I would like to see the football program at Penn State suspended for at least ten years–that is how long the sexual abuse of young men was allowed to continue.

It is inappropriate to allow those who covered up the activities of Coach Sandusky continue in their current positions. There needs to be a total housecleaning of those who have overseen the football program for the past ten years and a suspension of the program for the next ten years.

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