Boy there are a lot of misconceptions out there because the incident involved children.
1. How can there be a cover-up when no one has been convicted of a crime? You must have a crime to have a cover-up.
2. Joe Paterno did not witness any crime. That's important to understand and remember, Joe at no time saw any improper behavior between the former coach and a child .
3. A graduate student after witnessing improper behavior between an adult and a child reported the incident to Joe Paterno. At the time the student told Joe about the crime the incident was not in progress. The only information Joe had would be considered hearsay evidence in court.
4. Why didn't the witness to the crime call the police? And why is no one upset about that? This will be important later on.
5. The incident took place in 2002, the coach in question retired from Penn State in 1999.
6. Joe received information from a student about a Penn State retiree, the man no longer worked for Joe, not witnessing the crime himself, he reported it immediately to the Athletic Director for investigation. As far as Joe was concerned the incident was out of his hands and he had followed proper University procedure.
7. Realize that if Joe had reported the "crime" to the police, as everyone is saying he should have they would not have had jurisdiction unless called in by the campus police. Their first question would have been did you notify the Campus Police? If the report had turned out to be false, Joe would have been open to a False reporting charge and a lawsuit from the coach in question since Joe never witnessed a crime.
8. The graduate student only told Joe that he witnessed "improper activity" between the former coach and a young boy, it was not until this year 2011 in the Grand Jury Room that Joe found out the improper activity was sodomy.
9. Now here is the kicker in the whole incident, the assistant coach who is taking over the team from Joe Paterno is same grad student who witnessed the incident and did not call the police. Again, why is no one down on him?
Joe did nothing wrong. This is another example of journalists with an agenda destroying the reputation of a man that did a lot of good. Ask yourself, would you report a crime you did not witness on the word of someone else, knowing that if it was not true you would be open to criminal charges and a lawsuit?