Jacques asked for my response to the student riot at Penn State.
A number of bloggers have suggested that the Penn State students’ priorities are misplaced and characterized the young men and women as being more interested in football than the quality of their education, the reputation of their university, or the fate and health of the boys who are characterized as Victims 1-8 in the grand jury presentment. Here are a few of my observations.
The riot reflects poorly on Penn State. In an attempt to demonstrate loyalty, the students unfortunately portrayed themselves as being part of the Penn State “bubble:" indifferent to the well-being of the children at the heart of the crisis, unable to distinguish the human dignity harms here and evaluate them against the terminations of Spanier and Paterno, incapable of dealing with difficult information in a healthy manner, and profoundly unaware of the potential civil-liability issues--and the financial impacts of those issues on the campus.
But, let’s be clear--that was not the full campus rioting. It was a cohort of students who do not to my understanding represent the full Penn State student body. I am more curious about the student government’s response as technically it speaks for the student body. It might have gone a longer way to hold a candle-light vigil, but that takes organizing and rioting doesn’t--you just show up.
But here is the statement from the student government and it is thoughtful.
As I reflected on the riot, and the overturning of a news van and leveling of lamp posts, the similarities between many campus riots occurred to me, but one in particular stood out. This semester, I am teaching Education Law, and a very useful tool, I think is the Eyes On The Prize series. It’s a great set of documentaries that brilliantly capture U.S. culture during the civil-rights movement. One of the videos: Fighting Back (1957-1962) highlights the integration of Central High School in Little Rock. The cameras simply film the crowds, events, etc. There are interviews too. In that same video, there is news footage of James Meredith attempting to integrate the University of Mississippi. What one notices is the bitterness, anger, violence, and vitriol of the crowds that come to gather at both schools to protest the few students being integrated.
In Little Rock, hundreds if not thousands gathered to angrily protest the admission of nine students. It is quite difficult to watch. But, the “Ole Miss” footage is really very interesting in the context of Penn State’s recent trauma. At the University of Mississippi, students become very heated when they think James Meredith‘s effort to enroll at the university will interfere with the football game against Kentucky. The students are very supportive of then governor, Ross Barnett, who is a staunch segregationist and refer to him in a very affectionate, fatherly way--not unlike how students embrace Paterno. Eventually, there was a riot, a reporter was killed, and Ross Barnett was regarded as a sympathetic hero to the rioters--and not so to Kennedy, the NAACP, and much of the country.
Times are different, and yet the psychology of loyalty and being “part of the team” is worth thinking about here. Even in the face of damning information, loyalty is often quite fixed--and not only for young people. The students who rioted see themselves as part of a community (team)--or multiple Penn State communities. A strike against Joe Paterno is a strike against them (their school, their football team, their culture, their stature), or so I think their logic goes. At the University of Mississippi, the students took up Barnett’s cause, particularly as he allowed himself to be framed as the victim of an overreaching federal court and the federal government.
Finally, students’ fear seemed apparent to me as they rioted in Happy Valley. And though fear can be covered in aggression as it was last night, it can’t be overlooked. I think the students were afraid of what comes next. In some ways, so is the rest of the country. Many people hope that the worst has been alleged and revealed and that nothing more will tumble from the closet.