Penn State coaches, administrators had moral duty to come forward, UVU prof says

SALT LAKE CITY — Sordid details emerging from the Penn State child sex abuse scandal brought a notion from a Shakespeare play to Elaine Englehardt's mind: "Somewhere near the beginning, I should have stopped this."

Englehardt, a Utah Valley University distinguished professor of ethics, says those involved had a moral obligation to act on the things they saw or were told.

"I can't imagine they didn't realize this was wrong, wrong, wrong, and something that needed to be taken care of immediately," she said.

"To have it happen at a place like Penn State, maybe you just get so wrapped up in the good things that happen that you just want to push a moral problem, a criminal problem under the mat, but you just can't."

Penn State fired legendary football coach Joe Paterno and longtime university President Graham Spanier on Wednesday in the wake of criminal sex abuse charges against a former Paterno assistant. Jerry Sandusky is accused of sexually assaulting eight boys over a 15-year period.

Graduate assistant coach Mike McQueary told Paterno in March 2002 that he saw a former senior assistant coach molesting a young boy in the football building's showers. Paterno shared the information with the school's athletic director, who also informed the university administration. No one told police.

The Pennsylvania state police commissioner told reporters this week that Paterno had a "moral responsibility" to call authorities.

Under Utah law, anyone failing to report child abuse could be charged with a crime.

A witness to child abuse or neglect must "immediately notify the nearest" police officer or agency or the state Division of Child and Family Services, according to state law. Not doing so could result in being charged with a class B misdemeanor. The statute of limitations on class B misdemeanors is two years, but in the case of failing to report child abuse it is four years, said Davis County Attorney Troy Rawlings.

At the University of Utah, suspected criminal activity, whether sexual or not, that comes to the administration's attention is reported to campus police, said U. spokesman Remi Barron.

"It's always been that way," Barron said.

What McQueary walked in on is one of those situations no one expects, Englehardt said.

"We just think they're never going to happen to us. We don't ever think we're going to walk into a shower room and see something like that going on," she said.