McQueary's position at time of alleged incident may protect his job with Penn State

[Cali_Democrat]

Coach may have whistle-blower status
McQueary's position at time of alleged incident may protect his job with Penn State

By Wayne Drehs
ESPN.com

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- One of the puzzling questions in the ever-evolving Penn State sexual abuse scandal is why trustees removed Joe Paterno as head coach late Wednesday but, for the time being, assistant coach Mike McQueary is still employed.

Penn State officials announced late Thursday that McQueary would not be at Saturday's game against Nebraska because of "multiple threats" made against him. But they didn't say that he had been fired or resigned.

How is McQueary hanging on? One theory is that the Penn State receivers coach and recruiting coordinator may hold whistle-blower protection status under Pennsylvania state law. McQueary was a 28-year-old graduate assistant in 2002 when, according to his grand jury testimony, he witnessed Jerry Sandusky committing sexual assault on a young boy in the showers of the Lasch Football Building. Horrified, McQueary said he left the building, called his father and the next day told Paterno what he saw.

Mike McQueary
Zuma Press/Icon SMIMcQueary

McQueary, a former Penn State quarterback, has faced immense criticism this week for not calling police, interrupting the act or, in the nine years since he was an eyewitness, demanding answers about why Sandusky was never charged. But Stephen Kohn, the executive director of the National Whistleblowers Center in Washington, D.C., believes reporting the incident to Paterno alone could be enough to protect McQueary under the state's whistle-blower law.

Read more: http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/7219659/penn-state-assistant-coach-whistleblower-protection-reporting-sandusky-alleged-incident

[sinkingfeeling]

1. Well, that sucks!

[Angry Dragon]

2. I believe his dad is a doctor

a pediatrician

[fishwax]

3. I think he's a physician's assistant and an executive, rather than a pediatrician

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/10/sports/ncaafootball/aspiring-coach-in-middle-of-colleges-scandal.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1

"McQueary’s parents, John and Anne, moved the family to State College when Mike was 6 and immediately bought season tickets for Nittany Lions football games. A former medical corpsman with the Navy’s special warfare operations, John became a physician assistant, and later, the chief operating officer of a large medical and surgical group in State College. He was also a renowned coach in the State College area himself in youth sports."

[Angry Dragon]

6. thanks

[maddezmom]

4. he may be protected legally but as an adult with any sense of morals he should have put this child

above his own job and called the appropriate authorities.

[Bennyboy]

5. IF he stays The University can control the message (Contract)

By contract, any and all communication has to be okay'd by the University when taking to the press (Standard for all coaches). And he is the one that has yet to tell his story. EVERYONE ELSE has been telling his story for him, in a well crafted press releases. And the University has made him the scapegoat. he is probably more villified than Sandusky now.

If tehy fire him, then he is no longer under contract and will then tell his sotry. And I have a feeling that it will be quite explosive. And different from the one you hear now.

[JVS]

7. Has Paterno told his story? I thought the university was stifling him.

[WinkyDink]

16. There is no story. He's said all he's going to: The McQ's came to see him; he was told it was

"horseplay;" he told one of the 3 Administrative Stooges.

And for about a decade he said no more, just smiling as he observed JS bring unrelated pre-teen boys to Bowl games, etc.

[Atman]

8. This is nonsense. This is not what "whistleblowing" is about!

He witnessed an individual committing a heinous crime. He didn't blow the whistle on ANYBODY, he went home and told daddy. He didn't, as an employee, go to the authorities and reports crimes his employer was committing. HE DID NOTHING. Nothing. Whistleblower status protects employees from retribution by their employers, but in this case Penn State was his employer, not Sandusky. He had a moral and legal obligation to report what he had witnessed.

.

[DURHAM D]

17. Yep - I have never seen a more convoluted use of whistle blowing protections.

Its absolute drivel.

[KamaAina]

9. "and recruiting coordinator"?!

:wtf:

[LanternWaste]

10. Public opinion will most likely dictate he's gone by the end of next week.

I'm guessing that public opinion will most likely dictate he's gone by the end of next week.

[russspeakeasy]

11. I think you are correct.

[LanternWaste]

15. I'm also beginning to think

I'm also beginning to think that by the end of the season, Penn will follow in the footsteps of Baylor University in 1986...

[pnwmom]

12. "The last thing you want to do is create an environment where people don't even tell the supervisor.

Good point.

Also, this from the link:

Stephen Kohn, the executive director of the National Whistleblowers Center in Washington, D.C., believes reporting the incident to Paterno alone could be enough to protect McQueary under the state's whistle-blower law.

"If they were to fire him because he made the disclosure and reported it, then he would be protected," Kohn said. "Just because he's unpopular, just because people blame him for having the head coach dismissed, he can't be fired for any of that."

That might help explain why Paterno spent Thursday on a couch in his home and McQueary was still at the practice facility helping players prepare for Nebraska. As Kohn explained it, even though McQueary was the actual witness, the level of reporting responsibility for a then-28-year-old graduate assistant and a legendary head coach is far different.

"You have to look at where the employee is on the totem pole," Kohn said. "There are different expectations at different levels. A manager versus an employee. A student versus a teacher. It's just how it goes. The last thing you want to do is create an environment where people don't even tell the supervisor."

According to the Ethics Resource Center, six in 10 employees who viewed misconduct reported it in 2010. Seventy-five percent of those told their direct manager or another supervisor. Ellen Dannin, a Penn State law professor who specializes in labor and employment law, was unsure whether McQueary would be protected as a whistle-blower but agreed that he would be held to a different standard than Paterno, even though he witnessed the act.

http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/7219659/penn-state-assistant-coach-whistleblower-protection-reporting-sandusky-alleged-incident

[WinkyDink]

13. I highly doubt this will be upheld. What repercussions did McQ fear, for himself?

Oh, wait; maybe he wouldn't get the Head Coaching job in 2025.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989The Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989 is a United States federal law that protects federal whistleblowers who work for the government and report agency misconduct. A federal agency violates the Whistleblower Protection Act if agency authorities take (or threaten to take) retaliatory personnel action against any employee or applicant because of disclosure of information by that employee or applicant. Whistleblowers may file complaints that they believe reasonably evidences a violation of a law, rule or regulation; gross mismanagement; gross waste of funds; an abuse of authority; or a substantial and specific danger to public health or safety.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

SANDUSKEY WAS NOT EMPLOYED AS HIS BOSS OR BY PSU AT ALL AT THE TIME. MCQ WAS NOT, THEREFORE, A "WHISTLE-BLOWER".

What he IS, clearly, is a through-and-through MORAL coward, then and now, still trying to pretend he had no responsibility to that child, that child being raped, a rape that could have been stopped (which stoppage no-one knows the timing of), trying to portray himself as somehow the WHITE KNIGHT HERE!

OMG. McQeary is despicable.

BTW: McQ once broke up a campus knife-fight, so he wasn't afraid of JS.

[Freddie Stubbs]

14. Maybe not. He has now been put on administrative leave:

http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-penn-state-trustees-meeting-20111111,0,2231822.story