The floodgates have been opened ~ and those floodgates are exposing significant horrifics ~ while background checks should be mandatory, those screenings rely on legal records and often do not turn up "tendencies" or "rumors" ~  ~ Sooz

Sex abuse claims prompt look at youth sports culture
By Reuters
Monday, December 12, 2011

BOSTON (Reuters) – Millions of children are lacing up sneakers and skates, donning swimsuits and grabbing rackets to join the ranks of youth sports teams and leagues across the country, often with minimal parental supervision.

But accusations of abuse last week against a major figure in amateur athletics have renewed concerns that the dynamics of youth sports could provide predators easy access to children in an environment where abuse could go undetected.

Young athletes may spend significant amounts of time with coaches or team volunteers on the playing field or traveling to tournaments or taking part in camps. Rarely does this happen with close parental supervision.

“You don't necessarily know a lot about these people except they know how to coach basketball,â€

Perpetrators use any opportunity to gain access to potential victims. Perpetrators groom parents to trust them with their children. It isn't just youth sports- you will find a simialr percentage in any arena where there is access to children- the Catholic or any other church, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, foster care, day care, pediatrics, dentistry, summer camps. Most of them do background checks, many of them do fingerprinting but a perp often had hundreds of victims before gettiing a criminal record.

Just like with any adult rape victim, if a kid speaks out their own world is turned upside down.

Sometimes it is right before our eyes and we just let it go on. In high school we all knew one of the teachers was sleeping with students- everybody knew but no one had proof and we all heard you can't say that about people unless you can prove it. We had a teacher that would always try to get near female students and look down their shirts- everyone knew- everyone talked about it.

Even as an adult, there was a family friend who was always trying to brush up against me. I told my family, but they kept inviting this guy around and maintained their friendship. It wasn't something I could really report to the police- no one saw it, my family would be angry with me. because I was an adult, I could just keep myself out of that situation.

Increased scrutiny taken to the level of stupid will just keep good volunteers out of the sport and will not deter perpetrators. Small hoops to jump through in order to gain access to victims.

Good points, queenie ~ I'm curious tho how you suggest protecting kids while not offending/scaring "good volunteers" [my emphasis/bolding above] ~ not very many parents have the time/ability to attend all practices, especially after-school practices if the parent is working ~

Sooz

  

What needs to be done is to find a way to stop re-victimizing the victims.

Yes! Make is safe, easy and confidential for them to report it or for an adult to report it on their behalf. Believe them! Make sure they know that they are believed and that the perp will be investigated. Whoever is responsible for taking the report should follow up on the case and keep the victim informed. 

  

sooz, we haven't been able to solve this problem in hundreds of years. The victim's life is turned upside down when they report. Until society really statrs to take this problems seriously, it won't change. The war on women and current attitudes toward victims of anything are not conducive to changes in the attitudes that allow this to happen. It's always someone's fault, but never the fault of the perpetrator. We blame parents, lack of background checks, victims didn't speak up, or enough, or loudly. People didn't report it. Children lie. Liberals and homosexuals and women are to blame. In hindsight it was everyone's failure to recognize it, not the perpetrator's fault for doing it, grooming us, using our attitudes against us and to hide behind. We respond to everything by "tightening security" until it stangles us and takes away all of our freedoms and our ability to act as we choose.