Report: Joe Paterno Statue to Stay Standing Outside Beaver Stadium

by Sean Peick on Sun, Jul 15, 2012 at 5:59PM

It appears that not even a devastating child sex abuse scandal is enough to bring Joe Paterno down in Happy Valley.

Sources close to the situation have said that the Board of Trustees has — at least for the moment — decided to leave the statue of the iconic coach standing outside the football stadium at Penn State, according to ESPN.

An overwhelming number of people in the greater population have called for the statue to be torn down immediately, in light of the findings of the Freeh Report. But the trustees have decided not to bow to public pressure and make a quick decision on what they view as a very emotional issue.

"You can't let people stampede you into making a rash decision," one trustee said. "The statue represents the good that Joe did. It doesn't represent the bad that he did."

Some trustees reportedly are in favor of letting the statue stand forever.

While the Board is taking a wait-and-see approach, others have acted more swiftly in reaction to the report's findings. Nike announced that it was removing Paterno's name from its child development center on its Beaverton, Ore. campus, while the artist who earlier removed Jerry Sandusky from his famous Penn State mural on campus has now removed the halo from above Paterno's head.