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11
Much has been said and written about the rare abuse of kids who are participating in sports. Most “solutions” favor some form of “screening.”
I’ve read that some leagues require sex offender background checks for every manager, coach, and volunteer who routinely deals with players.
Now there is a decision from a bunch of folks who have never gotten slivers on a bench. What’s the effect? It will discourage volunteers. We want all the parents involved, but we must first put them all through background checks? It will be very costly. Who wants to go through the hassle? It will have exactly the wrong effect. It will discourage parental involvement.
I once listened to a radio talk show where folks were talking about how to prevent perverts from getting at kids via coaching. “Require coaches to be screened by the city cops.” “Access the state crime database.” “Require psychological testing.” “Call in the FBI.” Callers went on and on about elaborate methods of identifying pedophiles. It was obvious that the discussion assumed that the coach was alone in the job.
How about false accusations? How can we prevent a coach from being falsely accused of abusing kids in any fashion? Can “screening” prevent that?
The simple, direct, and low-cost approach is to get the parents involved. Parent involvement alone will discourage the twisted ones. The “parent-couple” concept is built-in protection for the kids and for the coach. This couple must attend as a couple all practices and games. They are the last to leave. The coach should probably stay with them. They assure that each kid has been picked up by a parent. The league should require this. The coach should require this even if the league doesn’t. It’s good self-protection. There’s no need to complicate this. Get the parents involved.
Since the parent-couple approach may require a considerable amount of time, a rotation of the couple may be needed. Have one set of parents coordinate this. It is a lot better than forcing every parent through a background check of questionable benefit, since all potential predators aren’t “registered”!
Having said all that, if the league runs all head coaches through the national pedophile database then it is good protection for everyone. But it’s not enough by itself. Doing that for some or all parents is a form of insanity. Discouraging the parents from participating by any method, no matter how well-intended, is plain nonsense.