Yourish.com

Several thousand Penn State students rioted last night over the firing of long-time football coach Joe Paterno.

Thousands of enraged Penn State students tore through the streets of State College, Pa., overnight to protest the firing of Joe Paterno after the longtime head football coach was removed from his position effective immediately.

Amid chants of “We want JoePa,” “One more game” and “F*** the media!,” rioting students flipped over a television van, knocked a lamppost onto a car, threw toilet tissue and rocks at police and set off fireworks.

Police met the rioting crowds with tear gas as it became clear that the army of officers, who were out in riot gear, were far outnumbered by students. Every local police department in the county contributed officers to the effort to control the crowd, along with state police and the county sheriff’s department.

You would think that the students would be fine with the man being fired. He wasn’t fired because his team is losing. He wasn’t fired arbitrarily or because yesterday was Wednesday.

He was fired for his role in covering up one of his coaches sexual attacks on minor boys in the Penn State locker room, as was the president of the college and two other administrators who did nothing. They have yet to fire Mike McQeary, who reported the attack, and then accepted a full-time position with Penn State afterward while nobody reported the crime to the police. And lest you think that it was not a crime, the child was ten years old, and the then 28-year-old graduate assistant saw Jerry Sandusky raping the boy in the shower. He did not stop the attack. He did not call the police. He told his father. Because after all, it’s far more important not to impugn the reputation of a famous football coach even after you’ve seen him raping a ten-year-old boy.

Prosecutors allege the administrators ignored a 2002 report from a graduate assistant — identified by sources as Mike McQueary — that he saw Sandusky having sex with a young boy in a shower.

McQueary, now an assistant coach for the Nittany Lions football team, went to his father first, then to coach Joe Paterno.

Here’s hoping that he gets fired, too. In nine years, Sandusky attacked even more children.

The three-year investigation eventually ended with a grand jury finding that Sandusky had eight victims — two of them had long-term relationships with Sandusky and six involved shared showers in Lasch Building at Penn State, which houses the football program.

That’s why Paterno was fired. You can say he followed the letter of the law, perhaps. I don’t know the laws about not reporting a child rape. But by not following through, by not speaking out when he knew that Sandusky was still free, and still involved in the charity that brought him into contact with underprivileged children–his victims–Paterno failed in a moral and ethical sense.

The selfish children who rioted last night remind me of their compatriots camping out in cities throughout the country who are covering up sex attacks in their midst because it makes the Occupy movement look bad. But for thousands of students to ignore the fact that children were raped–that’s despicable. Their behavior is disgusting. They should be ashamed of themselves.

The saddest thing about all of this? They’re not.