DLA-Penn State Scandal

While this scandal has been all over the news, it took a breakdown from my 332I class to understand exactly what was going on and exactly who was involved; and now it seems this is all anybody ca talk about. First of all it was a set of horrible crimes that were committed against young children, but it was followed but a second, also disturbing act of cover up by members of the Athletic Department at Penn State. I find this scandal disgusting because these men were put in positions of power and they abused it against the most innocent members of our society. Now only Sandusky committed rape and molestation but the other people involved failed to act and protect the children involved. Social media has played a huge part in the delivering of news to people, especially via sites like Twitter, Facebook, blogs, etcetera. People all over the web have added their opinions. However, the social media is focusing on things like the Penn State students being upset and petitioning, and honestly, who cares? I bet not one of those students petitioning was ever molested by Sandusky. The thing that social media needs to be focusing on is justice, and standing up for the rights of these children, because if this were any other group of men, aside from the athletic department from Penn State, everyone would be outraged. Again, these men were in positions of power and abused that power (as a form of deviance) because they did not want to bring a scandal on to the Penn State University, even though now its the biggest scandal of the decade thus far. As a way of overconforming, people did not report to the authorities but did the minimum as far as what they thought was right. Media has now come in
and blown this scandal was up. I think from a interactionist framework one might look at this scandal and say that it is not that these individuals lack a moral code, but we need to look at the biggest picture and understand that they may have been overconforming to protect the institution. Now, this is not to say that this is right, or any one of these men are not to blame, but it is saying that all the blame does not fall on these individual's moral compasses. Instead, it is the dynamics and structure of the organization they have at Penn State, and the fact that that entire organization failed. As for Sandusky, he abused the power he had, and abused the relationships he had developed with these children. He has tainted their self-image, and probably ruined the meaning they had put in to sports.