Video: Joe Paterno’s statue removed from Penn State’s Beaver Stadium
Photo via Getty Images
Work crews removed the 7-foot tall, 900-pound bronze statue of former Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno Sunday morning. It took just 40 minutes.
Kevin Berkon, 23, of Washington, D.C., and Mike Elliott, 23, of Lancaster, camped out at the statue since Tuesday. They were some of the only Penn State students at the scene.
“I’m extremely disappointed with how they are doing it,” Berkon told the Centre Daily Times. “JoePa means the world to a lot of students, and they should have a right to be here.”
Bystanders took photos, video and tweeted descriptions of the scene.
Susan Lamey, of State College was visibly upset. She said Paterno did not deserve to be the scapegoat of the Sandusky scandal.
“It’s just another crime being committed,” Lamey said. “It’s just like what they want to do with the football team. They keep punishing the innocent. This is not solving the problem. This doesn’t fix anything.”
Penn State President Rodney Erickson made the decision to remove the statue and released the following statement:
“I now believe that, contrary to its original intention, Coach Paterno’s statue has become a source of division and an obstacle to healing in our University and beyond,” Erickson said. “For that reason, I have decided that it is in the best interest of our university and public safety to remove the statue and store it in a secure location. I believe that, were it to remain, the statue will be a recurring wound to the multitude of individuals across the nation and beyond who have been the victims of child abuse.”
Erickson’s decision to remove the statue comes in the wake of an investigative report by former FBI Director Louis Freeh.
Freeh determined that the late coach and three top Penn State administrators, concealed the abuse claims against former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky more than a decade ago in order to shield the university and its football program from negative publicity.
That allegation of a cover-up by Paterno, ex-President Graham Spanier, Athletic Director Tim Curley and Vice President Gary Schultz, allowed Sandusky to continue molesting young boys. Sandusky was convicted last month of 45 counts of sexually abusing 10 boys.
The Paterno family issued a statement a few hours after the statue was removed.
“Tearing down the statue of Joe Paterno does not serve the victims of Jerry Sandusky’s horrible crimes or help heal the Penn State Community,” Paterno’s family said. “We believe the only way to help the victims is to uncover the full truth. The Freeh report, though it has been accepted by the media as the definitive conclusion on the Sandusky scandal, is the equivalent of an indictment —a charging document written by a prosecutor — and an incomplete and unofficial one at that.”
Meantime, Erickson said Paterno’s name will remain on the campus library because it “symbolizes the substantial and lasting contributions to the academic life and educational excellence that the Paterno family has made to Penn State University.”
Hundreds of people visited the statue Saturday. They posed for pictures by it knowing it might be the last time they saw it standing.
The NCAA will announce “unprecedented penalties” against Penn State during a news conference Monday morning.
As far as I’m concerned, Penn. State has got this all wrong, the guilty party is in jail forever, and you people are disgracing the memory of a legend over a scumb bag! As far as I am concerned, Penn State is dead to me. Oh, and what are they going to do about the library, tear that down too. Get really Penn. State, sixty years of coaching there!
Instead of paying 6 million dollars to Freeh for a bunch of vague e-mails, the money should have gone to a charity for abused children. Out of 76 bullets in the Freeh report – Joe Paterno’s name was mentiond 12 times. None of those twelve bullets suggest covering up a scandal. In fact, one says “Coach wants to know what’s going on”. You assume the coach is Joe Paterno (I do too), but how many other people on PSU’s campus are called “Coach”? I looked at it as he was concerned about what was happening. I bet he was told by Spanier, Curley, and Shultz that everything was taken care of! Joe reported what he knew. He also is the only one that showed any remorse by saying “I wish I had done more”. I do not believe that Joe should be taking the brunt of this horrific scandal. He is in the loop, but not the main problem. Who continued to let Sandusky have access to the locker room? Why didn’t the janitor report what he saw way back then? Is he not as responsible for covering up this filth as the rest of them? He actually witnessed something! I should tell you that I did not go to Penn State and I do not live in, nor am I from Pennsylvania. I do not have stars in my eyes for Joe Paterno,but I do not believe that a man that has donated to charity and helped countless of young people for most of his life, is the monster that people are making him out to be. There are more facts out there. I am going to see what those facts are before I jump on the media bandwagon! Taking down a statue does not take away what happened, nor does it negate all of the good that Joe Paterno did for that university.Just my opinion.