What Youth Sports Administrators Have in Common with Paterno, Spanier, Curley & McQuery

Do you realize how much YOU have in common with Joe Paterno, Graham Spanier, Tim Curley and Mike McQuery?  No, these men did not commit the physical crimes against children, as did Jerry Sandusky.  However, they are responsible and liable for their own actions when there is even a hint that someone is abusing a child.  This blog isn’t specifically about the Penn State case and who was (or wasn’t) fired, that will all pan out in court, but it is a REALITY check for all involved with youth that no one is invincible.

While the Penn State case is making national headlines because of its legendary coach and it’s football program, understand that this happens FREQUENTLY in youth sports.  Most of our readers are involved in teams/leagues/youth programs in one-way or the other. Are you a coach, athletic director, team mom or a parent on the side-lines?  Whatever your position, today is the day to step back and realize where exactly you fit into the lives of the kids participating in your youth sports organization.   You are there to protect them at all cost.

Some time ago, we did a blog on Protect Your Kids From Predators In Youth Sports.  This blog is a must read for anyone that has or is involved with children. It includes an article from Sports Illustrated from actual predators in youth programs saying “This is how we got away with it …this is how you protect your kids.” (Example from the article, Did you know, Studies have found that the average preferential molester victimizes about 120 children before he is caught? DISTURBING). It also contains useful Risk Management guidelines that can be implemented TODAY!

For more articles on preventing sexual abuse and molestation, visit our blog.

Shart this with others so that we all can make a difference.

When Appointing Volunteers Make No Assumptions

 By:  Michael Pfahl

Call it “sixth-sense”, “gut-feeling” or that “little voice” we all have it and make the conscious choice to listen or ignore it whenever it makes itself known.  Have you ever wondered if every person who was willing to say yes and step up to help as a volunteer should have even been asked in the first place?  That is the little voice again and this gut feeling becomes even more obvious when someone is over the top with enthusiasm about volunteering for a specific duty without even being asked.

Southeastern Security Consultants Inc (www.SSCI2000.com) is the nation’s leading experts on volunteer criminal background checks.  Co-Founders Randy Rodebaugh and Byron Palmer teach their clients to make no assumptions and listen carefully to your “gut” when it comes to providing anyone with the privilege of working with youth, seniors, and people with disabilities.  These two professionals are the antithesis of cynicism but hold firmly to the belief that when it comes to selecting volunteers, adopt the axiom TRUST but VERIFY.

Mr. Palmer says, “Listen to that inner voice because it only knows the truth.  Don’t become distrustful but at the same time don’t be naïve.  Don’t assume anything or feel that you know someone because you really don’t.”

It appears the he is right.  In the first 12 months after launching Operation TLC ² in 2007, among just 24 agencies in 16 states, the Operation TLC ² screening protocol through SSCI kept 243 of 3,500 would be volunteers with serious criminal histories out of parks and recreation programs.  That’s a shocking 6.9% and these are people who signed a consent form to conduct the background check.  It is impossible to gauge the number of people with criminal histories that self-eliminated during this same time period when asked to consent to the check.  Another revealing statistic is that 13% of the potential volunteers that were disqualified committed their offense outside their state of current residence.

According to the Corporation for National and Community Service, about 63 million Americans, or 26.8 percent of the adult population, gave 8.1 billion hours of volunteer service worth $169 billion in 2009.  Let’s cut the number in half and make the assumption that 31 million volunteers today have one on one access to children, youth, and people with a disability or the elderly.  Statistically speaking and applying the 6.9% disqualification rate across the estimated 31.7 million, we potentially have 2,139,000 volunteers currently working in a volunteer position that based on their personal criminal history simply should not be provided the privilege.

Whenever asking someone to volunteer, it is true that not everyone is the right person to provide one on one service to our most vulnerable populations.  Everyone can define the word overworked.  And, it is much easier to fill a critical volunteer position without ensuring due diligence.  There is one thing for sure; this warm body recruitment method and ignoring the inner voice can be a huge mistake putting the most vulnerable people being served in jeopardy.

Being overly trusting and making assumptions about our volunteers as part of our common practice can contribute to the perception and sometimes the reality that bad things can and do happen.  It is much easier to ignore the “little voice” that sometimes screams for you to question a person’s motive.  Make no assumptions and listen intently to that little voice.

More Information On Operation TLC2 And The Minimum Standards For High Quality Background Checks  – click here

About the Author

D. Michael Pfahl is president of DMP Consulting, Inc.  He has over 35 years of experience working with park, recreation, and conservation agencies to effectively train volunteers for public service.  He is the founder of Operation TLC² Making Communities Safe, a National Park and Recreation Association initiative to provide agencies with resources to help manage volunteers and ensure safety.

Criminal Background Check Stats Revealing

Operation TLC2, the endorsed criminal background check provider of RPA, published its statistics for 2010. The following statistics are expressed as a percentage of total criminal background checks run on youth sports volunteers:

* Percentage with criminal offenses: 15.2%

* Percentage of disqualifying offenses: 3.84%

Check out this link for the complete study:

Source: Mike Pfahl, Operation TLC2

Background Check Vendor: ProtectYouthSports.com

I was just introduced to ProtectYouthSports.com since they are the endorsed criminal background check vendor of our insurance client, National Alliance For Youth Sports (NAYS). ProtectYouthSports.com has some unique features as well as training videos that you should check out.

 ProtectYouthSports.com

 A good track record counts for a lot, and as you may know, Protect Youth Sports has established a very firm and reputable standing within the youth sports market for background screening. Benefiting from this very much proven history could not be any simpler, as over 5,000 organizations have found before.

Many of the problems that youth sports leagues encounter with background checks are caused by low quality instant checks and state-level-only background checks. Instant checks and state-level-only checks lead to missed records, incomplete records, out-of-date records and inadequate protection from sexual predators.

New and Enhanced Techniques Included in the Latest Version of the “Re-Verified” National Background Check from Protect Youth Sports

“True” 50 State Sex Offender Search, National Criminal Database (over 400 mil­lion records), Free Alias Name Search, No False Positives or Incomplete Records, 100% Industry Compliance Guaranteed

 ·  Free Video Course – backgrounds checks and streamlining the  screening process

·  No Signup Fees – when you are a qualified youth sports organization

·  NAYS Discounts – up to 20% off on already discounted packages

 Nothing could be easier than getting started with Protect Youth Sports.Start by requesting your Free Video Course at www.protectyouthsports.com  or call (877) 319-5587.

Boy Scouts Lose $18.5 Million Sex Abuse / Molestation Verdict

An Oregon man was awarded an $18.5 Million jury verdict against the national Boy Scouts organization for reckless and outrageous conduct in allowing an assistant scoutmaster to participate after admitting to a scout official that he had previously molested 17 other boys. Evidently the compensatory damages that were awarded amounted to $1.4 Million and the punitive damages were $17.1 Million. This verdict was only against the national Boy Scouts organization and does not include potential damages against local councils and other individual defendants. This verdict should serve as a wake up call to youth sports and recreation organizations to shore up their risk management plans. It also illustrates the need to carry high limits of General Liability coverage, including coverage for Sex Abuse & Molestation and punitive damages.

Sadler Sports & Recreation current clients can take advantage of our abuse / molestation videos on risk management implementation and awareness training as well as our word doc abuse / molestation risk management plan template. See www.sadlersports.com/riskmanagement

Source: Associated Press Release

What Should a League Do If a Registered Sex Offender is a Parent or Spectator?

In many of our national organizations, criminal background checks of coaches and volunteers are required in order to screen for sexual offenders. Throughout our risk management materials you will find that regardless of a requirement, these screenings are highly recommended.   But what should a league do when the known sex offender (per public record) is a parent or a spectator?

The first direction would be to consult your local attorney since they would be familiar with the particular states laws.   Also make sure that the organization is following its own rules and bylaws. The general liability policies that we write for the national organizations may require that volunteers be screened, but not the parents that are not volunteers.  This is because as a general rule, only a volunteer who has repeated access to youth is in a position to “groom” them for molestation. 

Whether background checks are required or not, a lot can be accomplished by educating the team/league, the volunteers and the parents on inappropriate boundary invasions.  More information can be found in our article Protecting Children Against Sexual Abuse and Molestation.