The Penn State Effect

Will the breakdown of morals in State College herald a new era of responsibility?

Illustration by C.J. Burton for TIME

Moral debates are often, by their very nature, difficult, nuanced. But a key question about the allegations of sexual abuse at Penn State is neither of those. Should Mike McQueary, the young coach who said he stumbled upon a rape in progress, have called the police rather than kept the evidence of rape by longtime defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky within the university? Yes, he should have. That he was not required to do so speaks poorly of a national patchwork of reporting laws that give too many people, including former head football coach Joe Paterno, room to do the wrong thing....

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