Quote:
Originally Posted by mikeod
That is not quite the case here. I think that if the graduate assistant had called the police immediately that night it would have been consistent with the school policy. (Assuming it is similar to those I have encountered at several institutions and corporations.) All policies I have seen do not restrict the ability to call the police when a crime is ongoing. But they do require notification of administration when police need to be contacted about something that happened in the past. Since Coach Paterno and subsequently the AD and others were notified of that abuse 24-48 hours later, there was no immediate need for a police presence at the school. The perpetrator and the victim were long gone. Therefore, it fell on the administration to notify the police, per policy, and get an investigation started. Whether they failed in that duty or not will be determined.
There may be a coverup in this case. But if it is determined that a cover-up did occur, I don't believe the policy caused it, rather the failure of people to do their jobs. Obviously, anyone who decided to bury this affair to protect the university's reputation failed miserably when you look at the result.
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Hi Mike,
These are all good points. I can see why mgmt would want a heads up. Not sure I agree though that police should not be notified after the fact as soon as possible so they could come on campus to investigate. They could interview the witness while his memory was fresh, talk to others who were around to ascertain whether they might unknowingly have heard or seen anything relevent and, perhaps even recovered evidence at the alleged crime scene, all less likely the later they are contacted.