Really people? NO?

Agreed, all remnants of the failings of PSU "leadership" need to be removed. I love PSU, but JP chose to lie and cover up this scandal, so yes, take the statue down.

Please don't discount all of the wonderful things he did over his tenure at Penn State, because he did what was required, and did not jeopardize his position by going above university policy. Also, the "opinion" just released was based on emails, etc- he was never contacted for his answers! Sad he died without being able to protect his name!

If Joe Paterno were so saintly, he would have gone above and beyond "what was required," especially since the consequences of his inaction had such devastating results. I think having the Paterno statue remain at Penn State signifies that the University condones this behavior. If Penn State chooses to let Paterno's statue remain, then the University should also erect a statue to Jerry Sandusky. The molester protector and the molester. How low can Penn State go?

In the article below I linked below Joe Paterno says the following:

"It's unbelievable to think that kind of corruption came right from the top of the power structure. The NCAA did what it had to do" in canceling SMU's 1988 football season."

http://articles.latimes.com/1987-05-17/sports/sp-774_1_joe-paterno/2

I have seen that statue and it says humanatrian, educator, and something else I can't recall. The ideals he preached were excellent. Clearly he didn't follow his own advice. Sadly a poor decision followed by more poor decisions to cover up the crimes being comitted, leave the University no choice but to remove the statue.

I voted NO -- but wish there had been a "not at this time" response. I think we need time for all information to be gathered and to gain perspective. It doesn't look good for Paterno right now ... but as things shake out our opinions of him may moderate. He gave a lot of years, he did a lot of good. His judgement on this appears to have been very bad and caused harm to innocents. We are questioning the his commitment to the values he espoused. No one is a saint ... just mortal humans ... I would say let's give it a little time before we make our final judgements of Joe Paterno and ourge everything JoePa -- And I was never a fan of his.

I can't believe anyone would vote to leave the statue up.

The statue should stay as an example of great men's failures. I don't want to denigrate Joe Paterno's accomplishments on the football field - but those wins clearly did not translate into true greatness in life. No amount of charitable work, no championship trophies, no glowing testimonials will negate his failure of leadership and courage.

Leave the statue - it's part of the story, and removing it serves only to sweep this under the rug as fast as possible. Consider it a scar on the legacy of Joe Paterno and Penn State. In time we can once again appreciate all the many good things Paterno did in his life - but that appreciation will be forever tainted by his failure when it counted the most.

Not only should it be removed, it should already be gone.

It was announced today that the'll be removing the statue - good! Just bc he was a nice old man, doesn't protect him from his obsession for power at PSU, and ultimately, selfish decisions. He should have been let go long ago.

Joepa's sin was one of ommission not commission. He reported the perpetrator. Should he have done more, probably, but penn state senior leaders AND the board bear even more blame. Joepa and his family have done many great things for many groups and individuals including thousands of Special Olympics athletes who participated in summer games at Penn State. Joepa will receive his judgement. His statue stands for the good he did, not the mistake(s) he made. Keep in mind the bible verse that only the sinless should throw the first stone.

I think an important aspect in this whole situation is the likelihood that Mr. Sandusky created other men just like himself. We have heard about the men who are damaged but are able to fight back. What about his victims out there that are now damaged in such a way that they are perpetrators themselves. Odds are that Sandusky was harmed himself at some point in his life. His behavior doesn't generally arise in a vacuum. It is ususally the result of severe damage.
Which means that Joe Pa had a hand in risking boys lives in more ways than we are talking about. He intentionally covered up Sandusky's abhorant behavior which allowed him to go on and victimize boys whom could possibly grow up to become the very same type of "monster" that we call Sandusky. He was a grown man with tremendous responsibilty to step up in this situation and he did not.

"Race to judgement?", "no one is a saint?", "bad" judgement? caused "harm"?
Everyone, please, lets stop and really think about this..…..just take a second in support of all child victims: nobody wants to-, and it takes courage…but do it for them…..
... imagine your son/daughter raped by an adult who has power over him/her. Take a second: think of the child hurting , the sounds and smell --they cannot stop the person. Do not know when it will end…..CANT tell anyone…(because they are threatened about what will happen if they do…)
….Imagine if you knew when it was happening, and that it was going to keep happening, and it was going to happen to your friend's children………

Then think of NOT stopping it ………saying something to ease your guilt, and then letting it continue>>>>>Seriously-the "in the moment damage" to your child, and the way sexual abuse damages the brain, personality, future choices, life path, spouse choices, sexuality….of that child……

Its not "just a bad choice"- Think about it.

I am torn over this issue. I would like to see the emails (unedited!) before I make a rock solid decision. PSU was JoePa's life, and nothing can change that. The more I read about this case, the more It appears it's all aboutPaterno, not the others involved, and that's not right. Joe was low man on the totem pole. What about McQueary? Spanier? Corbett? They should all be mentioned in this. Remember, it takes a village.... let's talk about that village a little more before we condemn the words in those emails from Joe. Let's also see the emails from the others. Fair is fair.

Instead of making choices for the victims once again, why don't they ask THEM what they want to do regarding the Statue. No one cares about the victims, the ones that really mattered, not a Statue, a library, a football program, but THE VICTIMS. Isn't that what you are complaining JoePa, McQuerry, Spanier, Corbett, Sandusky of doing, not caring of the victims and only themselves. You are only doing the same thing.

Aleen, to be fair, he did not rape those children..Sandusky did!! Paterno reported what he knew, and did not cover it up. People who were in a higher position to stop this did NOTHING, and that includes Corbett!! Why isn't he being fired from his job as Governor?! It's NOT fair to blame 1 person when 6 others were involved!

Paterno EMPOWERED a Child Rapist!...if he were still alive he'd belong in jail!

Wow 29 votes to keep the statue, I am shocked and offended by my community. Disgusting! Absolutely Disgusting!

All I can add is, if the facts show he had known what is alleged in his emails and or conversations back then, the statue should be removed. Just for not going directly to the police personally, no.

Sometimes we are guilty by association. We can continue to debate each other, but in the end, he made a mistake. Not just by himself, but along with others. That association collaborated to conceal a horrific crime. A crime again young children. Whether or not the statue should stay or go, I think that unfortunately, the statue needs to b e removed. As much as we love JP for the wonderful things he brought to the community and to the University, unfortunately, when we make mistakes, we need to take the ramifications from it.

All you people make me sick, I for one will no longer contribute to penn state should the statue be removed. Frankly I wish there were a way to punish them for being so dumb as to remove it, by asking for all of my previous donations back. Alas, I vote no!

He has contributed greatly, however the cover up has erased his "halo". The statue should be removed or at least moved to a less prominent place.

Why MUST you be right about defending this man, or any of the other people who looked the other way. NOW YOU ARE ALSO looking the other way. STOP!

Dont AVOID the issue. Children are being raped. Adults are suposed to protect children. That is their job.

We need to set our needs aside, and stop letting this happen.

Castz. Your anger is misplaced. Did something happen when you where a young lad?
Stop projecting on Joe.

It should be relocated, to some place inside the athletic department, but definitely out of the path of stadium patrons.

Wow!!! I still can't believe it has come to this. I have been a die hard Penn State fan since the 70's. Even during the "Joe Must Go" era, I still had Joe's back. But if the evidence they have against him is even remotely accurate, then Penn State has to reverse it's view, that Joe Paterno is Penn State and remove every facet of anything that honor's him. If the allegations are true this is a man that placed his rep, the school's rep, and maybe even friendship with a man that is so despicable that even Satan would not want to be in his presence, far above the safety of children. Such a man should not be honored by anything. Instead he should be gone and and forgotten. Loved you Joe, but you failed as a man.

are the students who support Joe-perv , a bunch of morons. Do you not have any sympathy for the kids affected by his turning his back to perversion. They should pick up the statue with a helicopter, fly it up high and release it. Hopefully it will break into a thousand pieces. I bet if it were your kid who was molested and raped you would not support this selfish lying sack of *&^*(

Finally!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnrojKZ2Q3M&feature=youtube_gdata_player

so magic666 guess you suport pedofiles. Guess with 666 in your name , it is not a surprise. he is a perv cause he knew it was happening and allowed it. he doid nothing to stop it when he could have. So if you support kids getting raped you are a sick mother fucker

I am encouraged to see how many people here are demanding accountability for Joe Paterno's moral failure, and I hope you will join me in ensuring that we as a nation stop celebrating the legacies of those whose craven moral failures similarly deserve our contempt rather than our admiration.

We should begin by tearing down the Washington Monument, which is nothing more than a phallic symbol of oppression!

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/tear-down-the-washington-monument/

How can we celebrate the legacy of a man who enslaved others? No matter what else he accomplished, it can never undo or wash away the suffering he inflicted on the men, women and children whose very humanity he denied by holding them in bondage.

While we're at it, we should also destroy the Jefferson Memorial. Not only was he a slave-owner, we are certain that he raped at least one of the woman he enslaved.

These are just two examples of the countless monuments to monsters that are scattered throughout our land. Until we recognize these monsters for who they are and stop celebrating their accomplishments, we'll all have blood on our hands.

Finally intelligent minds prevailed and the action was swift. Thank you. I am still dumbfounded by the amount of supporters that were adamant to keep that statute up. Reminds me of Confederate flag issue, some see this as a reminder of slavery and to others a reminder how the south was so grand and overlooking the obvious.

Yea I think there was every bit of a few hundred of men, women & children caught up in that historic slavery thing and tearing down the Washington Monument might seem like equal justice for you but the subject right now is removing the JP statue and that's a good start to "leveling the field" of an enabler or someone who didn't have enough smarts to "do the right thing" at the time. Instead Joe choose to look in the direction of his self interest and the pot of gold. I think JP's wife just collected some tens of millions of dollars from JP retirement. Its kind of like hush money but there's no hush. Thank god someone eventually came forward.......Can you imagine living off JP retirement money knowing that its tainted by this?

"NO" to the first question, "YES" to the second question. The board of directors and the new president signed off on the Freeh report so after you convince them to change there mind then come back and change mine. Man your really stretching to come up with a comparison when you have to dig up George Washington. Child abuse is not accept even if your JP. Whew...Your not a priest are you?

Sadly, we cannot go back in history and correct all wrongs. But we can move forward and do so. Below I pasted another example of the same.
In this case the person who covered up the sexual abuse is going to prison.
Note how the "monsigneur" said: "I did not intend harm". Yet by not acting harm IS done. Turning a blind eye to crime, is a crime.
Bless the children who have had to suffer for society to finally begin to see this, and to act on it.

Associated Press writer JoAnn Loviglio in Philadelphia contributed to this report.
PHILADELPHIA - July 24, 2012 (WPVI) -- A Roman Catholic monsignor who became the first U.S. church official branded a felon for covering up sex abuse claims against priests was sentenced Tuesday to three to six years in prison by a judge who said he "enabled monsters in clerical garb ... to destroy the souls of children." "
The monsignor said Tuesday: "I did not intend any harm to come to (Avery's victim). My best was not good enough to stop that harm.""

To have his statue there in the first place is a reflection of mindset of PennState: Football (or sports in general) is everything!!! For all those who defend Paterno, you said he is not a saint. So, then why does he deserve a Statue? I am not asking him to be a saint, he is not, he is only a football coach! That's it! No more, no less.

Meanwhile. let's talk about this culture of "sports is everything". This toxic culture has infested to every level including GV schools. Look at how many complaints we got when SD started cutting sports programs or asking parents to pay to play. Look at these parents who think their kids are top athletes and can get scholarships by playing sports. It doesn't bother them if their kids get a broken leg, arm or concussion.

Pathetic. PennState is the nature result of these pathetic culture.