Recognizing this does not, I think, imply in any way that McQueary should not be held accountable or that he was not an utter failure as a decent human being. It does, however, demand a recognition that unless you have lived it, you do not know how you would act in his shoes.

As an aside- the voodoo thing is something my mother taught me- there’s a religious belief system there. In a sense, if you want to take seriously a Catholic’s belief in transubstantiation, you should take seriously a Vodouisants belief in Nkisi. It is not a nice nor culturally aware thing to joke about, irrespective of how “bad” it is compared to “real” death threats.

And, point taken if you don’t like my voodoo doll comment. But siding a clear use of humor and joke on twitter about wanting Spanier and Paterno fired is different than a call for violence and death threats that threaten McQueary’s life.

The only thing I can say in McQueary’s partial defense is that there is a slim chance he was deluded and/or misinformed about what Scultz’s role was (as VP of business and finance, he did oversee campus police). McQueary took it to “higher authorities”, just not the right ones. They failed him as well as the victims (he’s now getting death threats).
It’s also worth noting that Sandusky was investigated *before*, and legally nothing came of it (as far as I have been able to determine)

So anyway, my takehome message is that EVERYONE should be prepared to stop or at least report such a heinous crime, but that they should also be aware it will need to be reported again and again. It will need to be followed up. It will consume a large portion of your life. And the chances are very, very high that the cops will still do jack shit.
When you call for someone to report things to the cops, this is what you are calling for. It’s a completely reasonable expectation, given the awfulness of the crime any inconvenience to the witness is vastly outweighed by the importance of getting what justice is possible, but it is not a small thing you are asking.

All that said, there is still the matter of whether the *university* should be telling it’s students “don’t report shit to us, cause we’ll ignore you and then fire your ass”. The university (like any large institution, really) probably has an interest in doing their own investigation to see what should be done (the fact that they totally fell down on the job and if anything did the opposite- a cover up- is immaterial to the fact that *other* crimes may be committed and the university may want to have the opportunity to dismiss the accused even if the legal case isn’t successful). If they fire McQueary, they will have a much harder time getting anyone to come to them- that’s why I think it’s the wrong move.

I do think the decent thing would be for McQueary to quit, of course. But I don’t agree with threatening to kill him (or even jests about voodoo dolls).