Should Joe Paterno's Statue Be Taken Down?

News
By Mack Rawden
published

Joe Paterno might be dead and Jerry Sandusky might be in prison, but the Penn State scandal is still far from over. In the coming months and years, judges and juries will decide how much the defensive coordinator’s victims should be paid for their pain and suffering. The NCAA will decide whether to strip the football program of its right to exist and Tim Curley and Gary Schulz will stand in a courtroom and answer for their failure to report the sexual abuse.

All of those decisions will come from the outside. The Penn State community will have no say on any of those matters, but there is one course of action entirely within the school’s control. Outside the football stadium, there sits a statue of Joe Paterno. For more than sixty years, the coach with the funny glasses worked for the university in some capacity. He oversaw winning seasons, national champions and thousands of graduates. As a thank you, he was given his own statue, assumedly to stand as a reminder of all he accomplished. Unfortunately, that reputation is now tarnished and will never be fully repaired. When it came time for the coach to stand up and do the right thing, he failed, letting a predator walk free and more innocent boys be molested.

Over the past several months, an argument has raged inside and outside the Penn State community as to whether Paterno’s statue should remain. According to ESPN, the trustees have decided it will stay for now, and its fate will be reevaluated in the future. Many in positions of power have publically stated they would like to see it stay up as a memento for all the good Paterno accomplished. Others, not surprisingly, see it a symbol for the stunning breaches in trust that happened under the coach’s watch.

We likely won’t get an answer for months or even years, but that won’t stop people from arguing. What do you think? Should Paterno’s statue be taken down? Let us know your thoughts by voting in the poll below…

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Mack Rawden
Mack Rawden
Editor In Chief

Mack Rawden is the Editor-In-Chief of CinemaBlend. He first started working at the publication as a writer back in 2007 and has held various jobs at the site in the time since including Managing Editor, Pop Culture Editor and Staff Writer. He now splits his time between working on CinemaBlend’s user experience, helping to plan the site’s editorial direction and writing passionate articles about niche entertainment topics he’s into. He graduated from Indiana University with a degree in English (go Hoosiers!) and has been interviewed and quoted in a variety of publications including Digiday. Enthusiastic about Clue, case-of-the-week mysteries, a great wrestling promo and cookies at Disney World. Less enthusiastic about the pricing structure of cable, loud noises and Tuesdays.