One of America’s largest youth sports organizations said Tuesday it will require its coaches and volunteers to undergo criminal background checks as part of a 42-point plan to protect children from sexual and other types of abuse.
The Amateur Athletic Union’s moves – which also include requiring everyone involved in the group to report to authorities if they suspect abuse – come after a six-month policy review that followed November’s dismissal of its CEO, who was publicly accused of, but never charged with, sexually abusing boys in the 1980s.
The review also came at a time when other child sexual abuse accusations were being made against high-profile sports figures not connected to the organization, including former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.
“This is about changing our culture. It’s about bringing the AAU into a new era of accountability ... strength and, most importantly, trust,” operations director James Parker said at a news conference at the group’s headquarters in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.
At the recommendation of two task forces, the Amateur Athletic Union has hired LexisNexis to conduct criminal background checks of all AAU coaches, volunteers and staff members when they apply for membership yearly. The checks will begin in mid-August as associates register for the new membership year, which begins September 1.
The checks will be done on everyone regardless of how long they’ve been associated with the AAU, the group said.
The Amateur Athletic Union said it will check backgrounds for anything that causes concern for the safety of children, including convictions in child sex abuse and drug cases. AAU officials will consider the information and determine the group’s response, which could include banning an offender from the group, officials said.
“We know this won’t be a catch-all solution, but we strongly believe it will be a deterrent ... to keep (offenders) at bay,” said Henry Forest, chairman of the group's compliance committee.
The group also expects everyone associated with the AAU – including volunteers, staff, parents and athletes – to report suspicious behavior. Anyone accused of any type of abuse will be immediately suspended, task force member Ron Book said.
Other steps include:
– Stipulating an adult should not be with an athlete in a room by themselves;
– Implementing a zero-tolerance policy on hazing;
– Requiring separate accommodations for youths and adults, when possible;
– Requiring that discipline be constructive, and not done one-on-one;
– Establishing a hotline to which parents can report suspicions of abuse;
– Giving “youth protection training,” including information about AAU policies, to volunteers;
– Providing parents and athletes information about how to prevent and report abuse;
– And creating a “youth protection committee” that will ensure policies are consistent and updated when necessary.
The review came after the Amateur Athletic Union dismissed Robert “Bobby” Dodd, its longtime CEO and president, in November. The dismissal came after two men told ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” program that he sexually abused them when they were boys in the 1980s, when Dodd was a YMCA basketball coach in Memphis, Tennessee.
The AAU said that before the ESPN report aired, it launched an investigation of Dodd after it received anonymous messages accusing him of inappropriate behavior.
In January, Memphis police said no criminal charges would be filed after its investigation into the allegations, adding that one of the accusers who talked to ESPN said he didn’t plan to file a criminal offense report.
The other accuser chose to remain anonymous, and no one else filed a complaint since the allegations broke, Memphis police said. Both accusers had told ESPN the well-publicized, separate accusations against former Penn State coach Sandusky had prompted them to come forward.
Steve Farese, Dodd's attorney, told ESPN in December, "It didn't happen. All of this is fantasy."
Dodd is not directly related to the late Georgia Tech football coach of the same name.
On Tuesday, AAU President Louis Stout said the group’s new policies were made “not because we suspect anyone of wrongdoing, but because we expect everyone to do their part to create a strong, new culture of safety.”
Asked what he would say to any criticism that the background checks and other measures are too strict, Stout said he’s “not concerned about how tough it is.”
‘It’s not really tough; it’s comprehensive,” Stout said. “Hopefully it will be a catalyst to what other (organizations) will do.”
The group said it has more than 500,000 participants in more than 30 sports programs.
CNN's Jason Hanna, Vivian Kuo, George Howell and Meridith Edwards contributed to this report.
© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Honestly?
I think every person coming in constant contact with children should be thouroughly vetted...no matter who they are.
This is a great decision!
Who is going to check the checkers ????
Certain groups generally cover for their own kind, unless a catfight breaks out.
All youth orgs. and schools should require for all volunteers and worker!
So, here we have another step in the left's war on sports. I'll grant them that it is much more subtle than their wars on religion and dissenting opinions in academia, but not so much more that it is not noticeable.
Josh? Are you concerned with having your background checked??
Child abuse isn't a partisan thing, Joshua! What is WRONG with you, anyway?
The BSA has been doing this for a while almost 10 years. Our local youth progams have already adopted this policy for about 5 years. This policy will ONLY identify individuals that have been reported, it DOESNOT identify individuals that have NOT been reported. Parents who use these programs as a 'baby sitting' alternative need to pay more attention to how their children interact with adults. So parents, get involved.
A 2004 report mandated by Congress found that 4.5 million public school students are s@xually abused by teachers by the time they reach 12th grade. That is almost 10 percent of public school students. The report also found that 30 percent of those students are boys s@xually abused by women:
A 2004 report mandated by Congress estimated that 4.5 million, or 9.6 percent, of America’s public-school students are victims of educator s@xual misconduct by the time they reach 12th grade. Of those cases, 30 percent are boys abused by women working in schools, according report author and Virginia Commonwealth University professor Charol Shakeshaft, the nation’s leading researcher in what she calls “educator s@xual misconduct.”
“That would indicate a fairly large group of female teachers have s@xually abused their students,” Shakeshaft said. “We didn’t really realize that because very few of those are reported.”
“I can’t tell you if it is increasing because there is nothing to compare it to,” Shakeshaft said. “Studies take funding, and nobody seems willing to fund it,” she said.
The results are hardly surprising. Plenty of studies show that women commit more s@xual violence than people suspect. However, because there is so little research about female s@x offenders, we have no way of knowing how frequently it actually occurs. As Shakesshaft notes, we cannot even tell if we are seeing an increase in abuse or an increase in reporting because no one wants to fund or conduct the studies to find out.
This leaves us in total ignorance about this problem, and people do not help by the way they respond to news about female teachers rayping their students. As Shakeshaft and Terri Miller state in the article, the media focuses on the attractive female teachers, turning the situation into a farce or a rite of passage. That undermines the trauma that boys feel as a result of the abuse, making them less likely to tell anyone.
Yet the other dynamic at play is likely worse, and unfortunately both Miller and Shakeshaft fall prey to it:
Boys who are abused are more likely to abuse alcohol and drugs, drop out of school and commit suicide, Miller said. Male victims often overcompensate for being dominated by a woman at a very young age, Miller said, and can become violent toward women as adults.
I disagree. Boys who were abused as childre grow up to abuse children. This is a classic pattern of behavior. Just as boys who witness their mother being beaten up as a child is more likely to grow up to beat their own wives.
Women who target high school boys tend to be emotionally immature, show bad judgment and exhibit a lack of boundary control, Shakeshaft said.
While many female predators are married and sometimes have children of their own, she said they are often recent college graduates who are in their 20s.
“They are reliving their high school experiences and more likely to think of it as a romance – not as a s@xual act,” she said.
Saying that these women are emotionally immature and that abused boys will become abusers plays into the women as perpetual victims meme. Many people who abuse children are emotionally immature, but that does not stop them from understanding that their actions are wrong. We do not excuse men who are emotionally immature who prey on children, so we should not give women that excuse.
Likewise, most abused boys never abuse anyone. To focus on the off-chance that a few of them might abuse women implies that the reason we should help these boys is so that they do not hurt women, not that they do not hurt or kill themselves, which is far more likely.
Abuse women? No. Abuse and ra pe children? YES!!! Gimme a break!
Setting aside, Miller makes a broader point about the lack of social networking boundaries between teachers and students:
Miller thinks technology has helped blur the line of the relationship between student and teacher.
“It has given bad teachers access to their target 24-7,” Miller said of technological advancements in communication. “There is absolutely no reason to be exchanging cell phone numbers or friending on Facebook.”
She said teacher-student communications should be limited to school-district operated computer networks that can easily be monitored by administrators.
While it is likely that technology aids in abusers gaining greater contact with their victims, this is nothing new. Plenty of teachers have given out their phone numbers for decades. Sometimes it helps because a student in trouble might be more willing to call their teacher than call their parents.
It is not the technology that is the problem; it is the people who use it.
Limiting teacher-student communications to school-operated networks can help in some instances, but it is unlikely that it will stop teachers intent on abusing a kid from giving out their phone number or email address. There are easy ways to get around any school district restrictions. The focus should be on paying attention to the relationships teachers have with students.
It is impossible to prevent every case of abuse. However, it is not impossible to learn more about how frequently teacher abuse happens. We can study the rate women s@xually abuse boys and girls… if we want to. If we can set aside the politics and just worry about preventing abuse, we can understand the extent of this problem. We can also change the social narrative about women’s s @xual violence against boys by challenging people who make light of it. There is no reason to let people treat this problem as anything but serious. We just have to step up and do it.
On a side note, it is ironically unfortunate, yet nonetheless humorous, that the researcher talking about the s@xual abuse of boys is named Shakeshaft.