It’s hard to hear about the Penn State University child sex abuse scandal without wondering what you would do if you witnessed wrongdoing by a respected public figure.
Would you confront the alleged perpetrator?
Would you report the behavior to police?
Would you rationalize the act, deciding that the cost of reporting it was too great?
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The Rev. Harlan Gillespie, St. Paul's United Methodist Church, Cedar Rapids
“Until you’re actually in this situation, it’s hard to know what we would do,” said the Rev. Harlan Gillespie, pastor of St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in Cedar Rapids.
Penn State trustees on Wednesday fired head football coach Joe Paterno and Graham Spanier, university president, as the nation reacted to a 23-page grand jury report detailing how PSU employees — from janitors to administrators — failed to report multiple cases of child sex abuse by longtime assistant coach Jerry Sandusky.
How we view moral obligation depends on our values, upbringing and personal experience. How we act on that obligation can be swayed by organizational structure, fear of reprisal and a “somebody-else-will-do-it” mentality.
“Most of us are driven toward a sense of cognitive consistency. We want our beliefs (about someone) to be supported by their behaviors,” said University of Iowa education professor Debora Liddell.
When we see something shocking — something that doesn’t match what we know about a person — we may experience cognitive dissonance until we either change our beliefs about that person or rationalize the behavior, she said.
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Debora Liddell, UI education professor
Among the allegations against Sandusky, who coached with Paterno for 30 years, is that a graduate assistant saw him sexually assaulting a boy in a shower in a Penn State practice facility in 2002.
Instead of calling police, that grad assistant — Mike McQueary, then 28 — called his dad. McQueary told Paterno the next day. McQueary’s response has garnered hostility from people who wonder why he didn’t bust into the shower and stop the abuse.
“This grad student, if he saw it happen out on the street, it’s a no-brainer,” said Steve Hitlin, an associate UI sociology professor.
Because McQueary was at the bottom of the Penn State football power structure — which he hoped to climb — he reacted differently to the alleged abuse, Hitlin said.
“This kid did what he was probably supposed to do — send it up the ladder,” he said. “No one took responsibility.”
McQueary was placed on administrative leave Friday afternoon.
The two major reasons people give for not reporting abuse are that it’s not their business and they fear retribution by the abuser, said Roger Munns, spokesman for the Iowa Department of Human Services.
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Roger Munns, Iowa Department of Human Services
“The mandatory reporting laws were created decades ago to make sure people don’t turn the other way,” Munns said.
Coaches, teachers, child care employees, social workers, doctors and police are among professionals required to report abuse in Iowa – within 24 hours.
Diffusion of responsibility can come into play when people consider whether to take action on something they have witnessed, Hitlin said. Research shows that the more people who witness something or who know about it, the less likely one of them will take responsibility for it.
That’s why CPR trainers often teach their students to point at one bystander and say, “YOU call 911,” rather than shout, “Somebody call 911!”
Losing friends, alienating family members or getting fired are other risks of blowing the whistle on wrongdoing.
The Penn State grand jury report includes the account of a janitor who saw Sandusky performing a sex act on a boy in 2000. The janitor, a Korean War veteran who was visibly shaken by what he had seen in the showers, told other janitors and a supervisor but never made an official report. He and other janitors were worried about losing their jobs.
This is where courage comes in, St. Paul’s Gillespie said.
“We have to train ourselves to trust those people who are equipped to investigate,” he said.
People who report wrongdoing make a leap of faith that the authorities will listen and do something about the allegations, said the Rev. Zuiko Redding, a Buddhist nun with the Cedar Rapids Zen Center.
“We all need courage here to make the inquiries in the face of our own fears,” Redding said, “and to face whatever answers we receive, trusting that, whatever happens, we will have done a thing that leads to health and harmony for all things.”
Gillespie hopes people will consider how similar things could happen in their own lives — not just abuse, but unethical behavior, theft or harassment.
“What’s our higher moral standard? How do we make changes in our daily behavior?” he said. “No one is a casual observer.”
Report it
- The state’s toll-free hot line for reporting abuse is 1-(800) 362-2178.
- If you witness child abuse happening, however, call local police immediately.
Related articles
- You: Mike McQueary: Assistant Coach Doesn’t Deserve Protection from Penn State (bleacherreport.com)
- Has Mike McQueary Not Been Fired Yet Because He’s A Protected Whistleblower? (businessinsider.com)
- Penn State Scandal: Mike McQueary Won’t Coach Due to ‘Multiple Threats’ (newsfeed.time.com)
