Ethics and the Law

Ethics and the Law

The news everyone is talking about in the Media is the scandal that is going on at Penn State University. Everyone is talking about the firing of Joe Paterno, the former head coach at Penn State. The story of how Jerry Sandusky molested the boys in the boy's locker room at Penn State is horrifying. Jerry is a criminal. Jerry's situation would deal more with Criminal Law. The reason I have chosen to talk about this situation and ethics is because I want to focus more on Joe Paterno and Graham Spanier (former President at Penn State). I want to tie together how ethical and the law directly relates to each other. Joe Paterno wrote in his autobiography about the influence of coaches on their players. He wrote, "coaches have the same obligation as all teachers, except that we may have more moral and life-shaping influence over our players than anyone else outside of their families (Gregory, 2011)." According to Paterno, it is important to make ethical and moral decisions. These decisions influences the future leaders of the world. His words and action are very conflicting. Joe Paterno and Graham Spanier are two public figures whose involvement in the scandal has caused them to lose their jobs and destory their names. The big question is, were these men in the wrong in the scandal?" Did they react in an ethical manner when allegations about child molestation came to their attention? Were they directly responsible for the fact that Jerry Sandusky kept molesting boys years after being notified of the situation? My position in this controversy is both Joe Paterno and Graham Spanier were unethical by not reporting Sandusky to the police, therefore legal actions should be taken.

The Penn State Scandal

Lets start by giving a little background on the scandal. Jerry Sandusky was the defensive coordination for Penn State football. The scandal started when he opened Second Mile, a group foster home for boys. Jerry would soon meet numerous little boys through this program and molest them. Jerry has been accused on a numerous occasions of touching, showering, and having anal sex with these boy, yet no one took action. The molestation of the boys lasted years. It started in 1994 and Sandusky did not go to jail until 2009. The big question is, "why did this last so long?" Jerry has been reported on numerous occasions, but ultimately nothing was done to stop the abuse. Joe Paterno is a target because his assistant found Sandusky and a boy in the stadium shower engaged in physical contact. According to the graduate assistant, they were engaging in anal sex. The assistant reported this information to Paterno. Paterno then passes the information to the athletic director. There is then a meeting, in which Paterno does not attend, and the graduate assistant tells what he witnessed. The result of this is Sandusky has his keys taken away. No report to the police department was made. Spanier later approves a decision that Sandusky can't bring boys to the Stadium locker room anymore.

Relationship between Ethics and Morals

A person may ask, "what is the difference between ethics and morals?" According to our text, "both ethics and morals are concerned with standard of right and wrong. Ethics takes a more philosophical approach, examining what is good or bad. Morals are concerned with behavior as judged by society (Liuzzo, 2010, pg. 19)". The question in this paper was Joe Paterno and Graham Spanier ethical in the scandal. If we break the question down even farther we get, "was Joe Paterno and Graham Spanier right or wrong for not reporting the situation to the police?" Another question to consider is, "did Joe Paterno and Graham Spanier break a law by not reporting the allegations to the police or child protective services?" In my research, the question came up during the case, "didn't he have a moral responsibility, if not a legal one, to pursue the matter more vigorously (Monitor's, 2011, pg. N.PAG)"? Before we explore the answers to these questions lets compare other unethical business decisions that lead people to prison.

Relationship of Ethics and the Law

Another big case that landed in the news was the Martha Stewart scandal. Martha Stewart went to prison because she was unethical. How does ethics and law relates to each other? Think about this, the foundation of a law is based on what is right and wrong. Laws are meant to protect people from wrongdoing. As discussed earlier, ethics is "the philosophical study of what is right and wrong, good and bad." Ethics and the law are directly related. Chances are, if you are unethical in a business setting, then you broke the law. The Martha Stewart case started with allegations of insider trade. Later on according to research, "federal prosecutors were pursuing the claim that Stewart and Bacanovic lied about the trade and faked evidence turned over to prosecutors (Thottam, 2003)." Fraud in a business is very unethical, also insider trade is wrong. Martha Stewart went to prison as a result of this for 10 months. Ethics and the law are directly related. Martha Stewart was unethical in her business decisions, therefore, she ended up in prison.

Legal Issues

The legal issue in the Penn State scandal with respect to Joe Paterno and Graham Spanier was the act that no one reported the situation to the police. According to my research, "Paterno was informed in 2002 of one of the alleged acts of sexual assault by former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky, and authorities concluded that he fulfilled his legal obligation by reporting the incident to Penn State athletics director Tim Curley. But Curley and other superiors never alerted a law or child-protection agency (Steve)." Prosecutors says they are in breach of state law. As far as the legal issues concern with Paterno, Curry, and Sandusky, the fact they didn't report the issue to the police is the only law broken. In many businesses, a code of ethics is established. Areas covered in the code of ethics includes:

"Fundamental honesty and adherence to the law

Product safety and quality

Health and safety in the workplace

Possible conflicts of interest

Employment