STATE COLLEGE, Pa., Jan. 20 (UPI) — Penn State University’s hockey team will no longer wear 409 stickers to celebrate the restoration Joe Paterno’s vacated football victories.
The NCAA vacated 111 of Penn State’s football victories after it came out Paterno failed to turn in since-convicted child molester Jerry Sandusky while Sandusky was on Paterno’s coaching stafff. An investigation showed Paterno had knowledge of Sandusky’s activities but declined to take action. By reinstating the victories, Paterno returns to the top of college football’s all time wins list.
Penn State Athletic Director Sandy Barbour called the stickers “inappropriate and insensitive” when questioned about them on Twitter, but later apologized, saying social media was not a suitable platform to discuss issues as serious as sexual abuse.
“First of all, I want to apologize for the tweet,” Barbour said Monday when she was a guest on locally televised football roundtable Zone Coverage.
“This is far too important a subject to vet on a casual; or in social media. I’ll use my own words. It was inappropriate and insensitive of me to do that from a tweet standpoint.”
Bradour said she spoke with men’s hockey coach Gus Gadowsky, and he understands the stickers were in poor taste and won’t be seen again.
“They celebrated, and I get that, but again, once I talked to him about pausing and what are kind of all the things that have to be considered here, he was totally, totally on board … I don’t want [Gadowsky] to beat up about this. He also got killed by the advocate’s side of this, and I think just as we have to understand and be sensitive to the victim side, there also has to be some understanding of why we would celebrate.”
On Monday, David Clohessy, director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, slammed the sticker, calling Joe Paterno “a coward who refused to call police about suspected child sex crimes.”
“It’s wrong to keep honoring him and to rub even more salt into the already deep would of those assaulted by Jerry Sandusky and other child molester … The stickers may have been removed. But the harm remains. Those who publicly gloat over the restoration of Paterno’s wins are immature, misguided and heartless. Shame on them. Penn State’s administration should stop tolerating and start punishing their hurtful actions.”
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