What do you think?

            Recently, I went to see a play at the Pavilion Theatre. It was called We Are? “A Student Perspective of the Sandusky Scandal”. When I heard the title, I immediately wanted to go check it out. My family is huge Penn State fans and my brother is a senior here, so even before I came here, I knew a lot about the scandal. I was interested to see what other students thought about it, so I grabbed one of my friends and took her with me to see it. I wasn’t quite sure what I was expecting. I thought it would possibly just be students acting out all the events of the past year. I was not exactly expecting what I saw. The cast was made up of all students and instead of actually acting out what had happened, they told the story through personal accounts of all of the events. People were talking about how they felt when the story broke, at the riots, football games, and how they feel about it now. It was really interesting to hear how each story was different, but also had the same underlying emotions. Everyone was hurt, scared, or angry. As a freshman, I heard about all of these events but was not a part of them. It was really cool to hear people telling their stories of the riots and the entire atmosphere of Penn State at the time. In a way, I was glad that I was at home where the story didn’t hit me quite as hard. I was not an actual part of Penn State yet, and I was from New Jersey, so although it was big news, not many people cared as much as if I lived around here. On the other hand, I wish I could have been here for it. I wish I could have been part of this community in a time of turmoil. I wish I could have seen how passionate people were about their school and how willing they were to fight for it. I wish I could have been at the candlelight vigil for Joe Paterno. But in all reality, I wish none of this had ever happened.

            As we were leaving the play, my friend and I started to discuss the scandal and how we felt about it. We have had this discussion many times before, but we felt like it needed to happen again after seeing that. Some people may focus on the legal aspects such as who was to blame, if enough was done to stop it, or if it was a cover-up. However, I focus on the unfair treatment that the students got throughout this. Headlines in the media bashed all of Penn State calling it the “Penn State Scandal”. I will never in my life call it that; I will always refer to it as the “Sandusky Scandal”, because it was not by the fault of anyone at Penn State. The administrators are the only ones to blame with affiliation to Penn State, not the students. The students were looked at as a bunch of disgusting, barbaric, in-bred, child rapists, who were obsessed with football. In reality, they were just young adults who were proud of their school, and especially proud of a great man: Joe Paterno. They didn’t deserve to get the bad name that they did. All of the students who are here now receiving the punishments were not even here when the events occurred. The NCAA is punishing the wrong people. We had nothing to do with the scandal so we should not have to endure the consequences associated with it.

I was choosing what college to come to as these events were unfolding. I could say that they did not cross my mind when picking my school, but they did. My thoughts were that I wanted to prove people wrong. I wanted to show people that no matter what happened, I would be going to this school because it was a great academic opportunity for me. I decided to come here because no matter what, I still loved Penn State football and couldn’t imagine myself at any other school. When people asked me what college I would be going to in the fall, I proudly said, “Penn State”. I got the same looks and responses from everyone: “Oh, not such a good school anymore” or “You still want to go there after everything that happened?” And every time, I looked them straight in the eyes and said “Yes, I still want to go there, and actually it is still a very good school.”  Everything that happened only made me want to come here more. I saw the way the school came together as one big family and I wanted more than anything to be a part of that. I didn’t care what people said to me or what they thought of me. I bleed blue and white. I am a Nittany Lion. I am a Penn Stater and I will be for the rest of my life.