Mike McQuearyMike McQueary may be an assistant football coach at Penn State, but what he is most famous for right now is being the man who saw a young boy being raped and sodomized and did nothing. I don't care how powerful your boss is, if you see him raping a child, you do something. And now, McQueary claims we are all wrong, that he, in fact, did do something. 

A source told The Morning Call of Allentown, Pennsylvania that McQueary sent an email dated November 8, saying: "I did stop it, not physically, but made sure it was stopped when I left that locker room." He also claims he called the police. Never mind that he didn't mention his heroics in the grand jury testimony. Maybe it's true. But a more likely scenario is this: He has been so vilified and raked over the coals, he will say anything to look better.

In the email McQueary also wrote that he "is getting hammered for handling this the right way or what I thought at the time was right." I kind of get that (sort of), but I also kind of think if you see a child getting raped, you don't stay at the same school for years, especially if you are aware of the cover-up.

Maybe we could give him the benefit of the doubt (big maybe) and maybe we could say he was afraid of losing his job, of being un-hireable, of the horror of what he saw. Maybe we can give him those things. But it's awfully hard to give him the benefit of the doubt when he stayed at the school where he saw those awful things for 10 more years.

Consider this: If you knew that a person in your midst had committed such egregious, filthy acts and your superiors handled it by sweeping it under the rug, would you want to stay? Personally, I may not be able to answer what I might do in the moment if I walked in on what McQueary walked in on. I may have frozen and been unable to move. I'd like to think I would scream for help or dial 9-1-1 or, if I felt strong, I might try to physically get involved. But I know I would have left that school as quick as I could.

McQueary did none of those things. No matter how much his story changes, one thing is clear: He knew and he did nothing in the long run. He has been persecuted plenty and certainly he isn't the person who abused those children. But he didn't save them. What did that poor boy think when he saw McQueary? Did he think he would get justice? Did he think someone had come to save him?

If that boy gets any justice, it will not be because McQueary did the right thing. It will be because others did. And that means no matter what story he tells, he still looks terrible.

Do you think McQueary is just trying to save his hide?

 

Image via Chris Gardner/Getty