We saw this article on About.com written by Robin McClure and thought it was highly relevant. The advice in the article is sound and can be applied to many things besides coaching. Recently there was a case reported in Easton, Connecticut regarding a teenage babysitter abusing the 2 girls he was watching. You might not be able to run a background check on a minor; however, other advice in the article below like stopping in unexpectedly and talking to your children can be helpful in protecting them. Unfortunately, sexual predators are highly skilled in fooling even the most suspicious parents. Could a sexual offender be coaching or working with your kid? It's possible, and often parents don't ask enough questions before signing their kid up to participation in sports or other activity whether background checks are done. Many adults blindly trust their child's coach, adult leader, or community volunteer, somehow thinking that anyone who would volunteer their time to work with kids must be a "good guy." Unfortunately, that's not always the case. While more and more organizations are requiring a background check before an adult can coach/supervise a kid, that's not always the case. The reason? Background checks cost money and require someone to administer the checks, and organizations may not have funds available. Some groups even require the individuals who are interested in coaching to pay for the background checks themselves, but when parent volunteers and coaches are sometimes hard to find, that can make finding people who agree to take on the task even more difficult.
Boy Scout Files Uncover 22 Connecticut Residents Suspected of Abuse or Inappropriate Behavior
Donald Fricke was remembered as a popular leader among his Milford Boy Scouts. One off his supervisors in the 1980s said the heavyset volunteer who passed himself off as a clergyman was well-liked by the boys, always willing to donate his time and never was a disciplinary problem. Except that the supervisor never knew until 1985 that Fricke, who worked as a custodian for the Milford Recreation Department, was convicted and sentenced to probation in 1966 for fondling a Scout during a camping trip. Fricke admitted as much in a 1985 Connecticut Post article. "Once somebody was found out, they were supposed to be kaput with the Boy Scouts," said Edward Quirk, who served as a volunteer leader with Fricke in the 1980s. "The name was supposed to go on "a black list." Apparently it went into a black hole instead. And Fricke, who died at 47 in 1991, found his way back into Scouting in 1979 and stayed on for six years until his prior act was discovered. No allegations of immoral conduct were made against him except for that 1966 incident. Fricke's name is among 22 Connecticut residents in files of 1,247 volunteer leaders from across the country accused or convicted of immoral acts from 1959 to 1985. The files were maintained by the Boy Scouts of America and released to an Oregon jury in 2010; on Thursday, the Oregon Supreme Court allowed the public release of those files, which fill 14,500 pages.
Men Face Societal Pressures When Reporting Sexual Abuse
Although the two groups have more in common than not, experts say male sexual assault victims are often left to deal with certain issues that female victims might not face. Research suggests more than half of all sexual assaults in the United States go unreported. ........... Men represent a small but significant share of the nation's sexual assault victims. According to data from the U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics, 11 percent of sexual assault victims between 1992 and 2000 were male.
Pyschological Centers for Victims of Child Sexual Abuse
Leading drugmakers will help set up psychological centres for victims of child sex abuse in an effort to counter the long-term health problems suffered by victims. They are to join forces with Harvard Medical School, the Mayo Clinic and others to improve medical education and accelerate the early identification of victims. Sexual exploitation when a child can saddle a person with life-long illnesses and a range of mental problems. At least one in five girls and one in 10 boys are victims of sexual abuse before they reach the age of 18, but only one in three cases is reported, according to the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (ICMEC).
Chilean Bishop Resigns as Sexual Abuse Allegations Investigated by Vatican
The pope accepted the resignation of a Chilean bishop who is under investigation by the Vatican for the alleged sexual abuse of a minor. The resignation of Bishop Marco Antonio Ordenes Fernandez of Iquique, Chile, marks one of the few times that the Vatican has acknowledged publicly that it was investigating a bishop for sex abuse allegations. Advocates for clerical sex abuse victims have long complained that the Vatican has looked the other way when bishops have been accused of abuse or of covering it up.
Peace Corps Volunteer Gets 15 Years for Sex Abuse
Thompson went below the recommended sentence of at least17 1/2 years because of Osmun's quick admission, cooperation in identifying the victims And his desire to obtain treatment. He pleaded guilty to traveling overseas to have sex with a minor. Osmun apologized to the 12 church members who were present, his parents, the victims and the Peace Corps whose image he said was tarnished by his actions. Osmun has been in custody since his Aug. 4, 2011 arrest by agents from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement division at his parent's home in Milford. His father is the Rev. Andrew Osmun of St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Milford. In a letter to Thompson, Osmun told the judge: "When I could not get my fix from pornography, I moved on to hands on offending, as many sex offenders can probably attest." U.S. Attorney David Fein, who prosecuted the case with Assistant U.S. Attorney Krishna Patel maintained that Osmun's "prior instances of his misconduct were not properly reported. Indeed, if Osmun's prior conduct had been known, he would not have been accepted as a volunteer with the Peace Corps and the abuse to these children would have been avoided." ... About a month after Jesse's arrest, Seth was arrested by police in Austin, Texas for allegedly possessing child pornography. Police there found pictures on his computer of a young girl, between seven and nine years old engaging in intercourse and oral sex with an adult male, according to an affidavit submitted by Sgt. Robert Sunley, of the Southern Texas Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. As reported in CT Post by Michael P. Mayko
Jerry Sandusky Headed To Prison, But Scandal Persists
Headed to prison for the rest of his life, Jerry Sandusky leaves behind a trail of human and legal wreckage that could take years to clear away. Victims face a lifetime of healing. Penn State is laboring under severe NCAA penalties. And at least four civil lawsuits have been filed against a university shamed by scandal, with more likely to come. If Sandusky felt any remorse or pity for anyone but himself, he didn't show it at his sentencing Tuesday. Instead, speaking in court for the first time since his arrest last November, the former Penn State assistant football coach delivered a disjointed and defiant monologue in which he denied committing "disgusting acts" against children and cast himself as the victim.
