Last night, students of this university exploited the recently uncovered rape of 20 boys as an opportunity to chant “USA! USA! USA!” on Beaver Avenue. These were not protesters, they were not patriots—they were jackasses.

This ordeal is not about any one of us. It’s not about having fun; it’s not appropriate to take to the streets in some effort to prove Penn State is a crazy party school. This is about the innocence taken from 20 boys. This is about the wild dereliction and suspected perjury by the nation’s third most profitable football program. This is not Belfast or Benghazi. These would-be “rioters” carried no cause, they stood for nothing but “fun.”

These times are somber. No event occurring subsequent to the Sandusky Grand Jury report has been fun for anyone. Not for the eight victims in the report, not the twelve victims to come forth since the news broke. As a community, we should be remarking at how quiet our streets are as students reflect; not shaking our heads at how loud are the chants of “WE WON’T GO,” cheers which end quickly as crowds disperse minutes later.

If you want to show support for these victims, do so with tact. Send a donation to a charity; attend the candlelight vigil on Friday. Show your dismay with the abhorrent mishandling of this entire ordeal by protesting peacefully outside of Old Main. Do not run across campus chanting like wild packs of dogs. These events are hardly suitable for celebration. Do not mar this school’s reputation any more than Jerry Sandusky and our administration’s cowardice already has.

Saturday was a terrible day for Penn State—a member of our family was exposed as a true monster and our leaders’ decision-making exposed as corrupt and disgusting. Tuesday night, rather than establish a new tradition of Penn State pride, members of this community brought us only more shame.