It was the quiet before the storm on a normal Wednesday night in State College, Pennsylvania before the initial smack of reality hit every Penn State student that late evening. At around 11 o’clock PM on that Wednesday night an emergency press conference was held to determine the punishments for the allegations against children who were abused by prior Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky. That night the press conference confirmed that not only the President of Penn State was fired, but also the head coach of the football team record holder Joe Paterno would never coach another football game at Penn State. I could only imagine what was going through every students head; we would do everything in our power to stop this from happening and we would go down with a fight. This was war.
My three roommates and I quickly made our way to Old Main where the peaceful protest began. Little did we know this protest would not stay peaceful for very long. The police gathered at the Old Main building and began forcing students back with minimal force. At this point in the evening it was around 12 AM when the students rushed to Beaver Ave. downtown State College. At this point the peaceful protest was no more when police formed into lines with riot gear and began to mace students at will in order to break up the peaceful mob. At this point the students decided to fight back instead of run from this unbeatable force. I witnessed many students bring down light poles, throw rocks and other objects at the police, and it even got to the point of flipping news vans. We never thought that this is what we had in store for this night.
When the initial mace attack began students began to retreat and flee back to Old Main. It was at this point when the mob was moving as one the police were relentlessly using mace on students at will. At this point I was maced in my eyes, mouth, face, and arms. I cannot begin to tell you how painful this was, but all I could think about was finding water. One of my roommates and me raced to the HUB where I can’t my eyes under a sink for 45 minutes until the pain finally died away. At this point the police had called in for back up using the radios in their cars and radios they were wearing at the time, while the remaining students amassed on College Ave. At this point the riot became worse and cars began to be flipped. I figured it was time to leave at this point and I am very glad I did. As we were driving home we saw a total of 7 cop cars racing down Atherton Street to the final wave of the riot. When we got home we watched students on the television being maced with no warning. I was glad the night had finally come to an end.
This is the video online now that was on the news that night interviewing students during the riot and seeing what they had to say:
This was a crazy night for all Penn State students and I’m glad I made it out safe.
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