We would be remiss if, in light of our previous editorial about the mass tantrum thrown in the streets of State College over the firing of Penn State's football coach, we did not mention the yang to the yin of that event.
Last Friday evening, several more thousand students gathered for a peaceful candlelight vigil to express their sadness at the termination of their beloved coach and the unfortunate culmination of an iconic career.
Clearly, calmer heads prevailed at some point between the Wednesday night riot and the Friday evening observance.
While the majority of the student body has apparently collected its wits, there are serious questions that remain about the whole affair leading up to the catharsis in Happy Valley.
First among these is why no action has been taken by the University with regard to Mike McQueary, the assistant coach who was a graduate assistant in 2002 and apparently the only eye-witness to the abuse allegedly perpetrated against at least one minor youth.
Governor and former attorney general Tom Corbett said late last week that McQueary had apparently satisfied the minumum requirement but not the moral obligation by handing off his report to his immediate superior and then walking away, it was just such a distinction action that cost Paterno his job. Reportedly the University has given McQueary a bye because he was only a graduate assistant at the time and he will be testifying at the trial of the alleged perpetrator, Jerry Sandusky.
In his statement last week Corbett draws a line between the minimum legal obligations of a head coach and a graduate assistant, but the action taken by the University's Board of Trustees transcended the legal obligation and was based on the moral obligation. We don't disagree with that notion, but we also think that the board stopped short.