Happy Valley

May 03 2018

Published by enestor3

Happy Valley

On every Saturday, from August until January, almost twenty-six million people watch college football. At Penn State University, all 98,000 students show up to Beaver Stadium to cheer on their D1 football team. In the film,Happy Valley, it shows you how important Penn State football is and what people will do to keep up the reputation that the school had. It takes us through Jerry Sandusky trial and how many things were hidden during his time as the Assistant Coach at Penn State. During this time, Jerry Sandusky was working under the legendary Penn State Coach, Joe Paterno. The film Happy Valley takes you through how Penn State football changed forever.

Penn State loves their college football, especially when the team was led by Joe Paterno. Joe Paterno started coaching at Penn State in 1966, becoming one of the most successful coaches in college football. Paterno led Penn State to many undefeated seasons, getting his team to 37 bowl games, winning 24 of them. Joe was considered a hero, he wanted to make his team not just better on the field, but better in life. He made it his mission to make sure that all of his players had the best chance at having a better future. Joe made it about the team and not the players, which is why his career was so successful. Joe did not put names on the back of his players jerseys because it wasn’t about what name was on the back of the jersey, but on the front. He also made sure that his team knew that education was the most important thing. During the period that Paterno was coaching his team had a graduation rate of about 84 percent. This was another reason why everybody loved Paterno and why he was the best. Joe Paterno was Penn State football. But, all of Joe Paterno’s success and fame ended when Jerry Sandusky was accused of sexually assaulting young boys.

Jerry Sandusky was an assistant coach at Penn State from 1969 to 1999. On the outside Jerry Sandusky was a very kind and giving man. He started Second-Mile, which is a charity he ran for at risk children. It was a summer camp where kids could go and play with other kids who were in the same situation as them. Almost 400 kids attend this camp in the summer. Jerry Sandusky was seen as a positive figure in the community. It was not until 1998 when people found out who Sandusky really was. In 1998 authorities became suspicious that Sandusky was having inappropriate relationships with under-age kids. During this time, they continued to investigate Sandusky because a young boy had went home after spending the day with Sandusky and told his mother that he had showered with him and he touched the kid inappropriately. After this, in 1999, Sandusky retired from Penn State. This came to a shock to many people because both Joe and Jerry ran the town and no one would have every thought that they would leave.

After retiring he still had access to the Penn State’s facilities, where he brought some boys from second mile. There were two separate times when Sandusky was caught sexually assaulting little boys once in 2000 and the other in 2002. In 2002, a football graduate assistant reported that he saw Sandusky attacking a boy in the locker room. After reporting the issue to the head coach, Joe Paterno, Paterno told the athletic director, which is what Paterno was told to do if something like this were to come up. But throughout this time the authorities were not contacted, so Paterno was then penalized for knowing but not doing anything.

When the story became bigger and more of Sandusky’s victims came out Paterno got punished. Sandusky was going to court with 52 counts of sexual assault. After the news broke everybody was shocked, and the town thought they were going to lose their prize possession, Joe Paterno. A few days after the scandal was released, Penn State called Paterno informing him that he has been let go. He was fired because they felt like he did not report Sandusky in the way that was best. They say that he should have continued to check in on what the university was doing to handle the problem or, he should have went straight to the authorities. In the film you see what an impact that one call had on the whole town. A few days after Joe got the call he was diagnosed with cancer, which made everyone in the town more upset.

After Joe was fired riots began at the University. Students and other community members were furious with the universities decision. Students gathered downtown to show their frustration and anger. They chanted Joe Paterno’s name making sure that people knew that they were standing with Paterno. They were also chanting against Sandusky to show him and the victims that what he did was not okay. Students were so angry that they started to tear down light poles. They also flipped a news van over, blaming the firing of Paterno on the media. The students felt like the media overemphasized Paterno’s role in reporting Sandusky, putting more of the blame on him.

When Sandusky was first arrested in 2011 he went in with 40 charges, with the assault of eight young boys. During this time Sandusky denied all of the charges against him stating that he was not a pedophile and did not harm any of those boys. Sandusky’s trial started in June of 2012 and by that time many more victims came out about what Sandusky had done to them. His charges then grew to 52 counts of sexual assault. On June 22nd the jury had made their decision. Jerry Sandusky was found guilty with 45 out of the 48 charges. Then in October of that year he was sentenced to serve 30 to 60 years in prison. Now Jerry Sandusky is serving his sixth year in prison and the Penn State football team ended their 2017 football season with 11 wins and 2 loses.