ABC News Investigation: USA Swimming Coaches Molested, Secretly Taped Dozens of Teens

[Johnboy60]

ABC News Investigation: USA Swimming Coaches Molested, Secretly Taped Dozens of Teen Swimmers

In a sex abuse scandal that some victims compare to what happened in the Catholic Church, at least 36 swimming coaches have been banned for life by the USA Swimming organization over the last 10 years because of sexual misconduct with teenagers they coached.

USA Swimming Coaches Molested, Secretly Taped Dozens of Teen Swimmers - ABC News

 

[lawtonfogle]

As someone who has worked tech support, I normally take the position of computer stupidity (not the same as being computer illiterate) is a curse on humanity as a whole, but this seems one time where it helped stop a child molester.

FBI agents became aware of the pictures after a North Carolina woman bought the coach's computer on E-Bay and discovered a video clip of a young girl in a locker room appearing to be taped without her knowledge. A subsequent search of Hindson's home turned up more locker room footage and a large selection of child inappropriate contentography.

"Hey guys, I think I'll sell my computer with illegal stuff on it without deleting the illegal stuff first. What is the worst that could happen?"



Now comes the question, what should we do about swimming instructors. Why does someone want to be a swimming instructor? I dare say for more than the smallest minority, it has something to do with a bunch of females in very skimpy suits (at least if the suits are anything like those used by the college swim team... hey, I was doing martial arts in the same building as the college swim team was training and happened to run into them).

But banning men in general is a bad idea for two reasons. It is discriminating against the men who have far purer reasons to be a swim coach and it ignores that 15%+ of pedophiles that are women.

Actually this is a problem with childcare related jobs in general. Many of the positions are filled with pedophiles, many times pedophiles who do not actually harm a child, who are model citizens otherwise, and who would make you look stupid for suggesting they are a pedophile. But we can't just ban child care jobs.

While the Catholic Church is getting hit hard for the cover ups, the root of the problem is found all across all (or close enough) societies. There are pedophiles everywhere, many who have never offender, many who probably will never offender, but enough who are on the border and are a danger, but are impossible to detect until a child has been harmed.

But as long as so many people don't really want to talk about the issue until it effects their family personally, I don't see how we are even going to figure out what needs to be done, much less actually do it.

 

[IzzyPop]

How does this compare to the Catholic Church scandel? Were swimming coaches moved to a different district after abuse was alleged?

 

[lawtonfogle]

How does this compare to the Catholic Church scandel? Were swimming coaches moved to a different district after abuse was alleged?

I said the root of the problem was the same, which is that there are those who are sexually attracted to minors in all parts of society, and that some of them have intentions to (or already have) act on it.


But for one coach, the parallel is stronger. He wasn't shuffled, but due to a failure in their background checks, it seems he may have been hired even though rumors were starting up in the places he had coached at that children had been abused.

 

[ulu]

Why does someone want to be a swimming instructor? I dare say for more than the smallest minority, it has something to do with a bunch of females in very skimpy suits

.

Out of line and paranoid assumption.

 

[IzzyPop]

Sorry, I was referencing the article, not you. I find it interesting that child molestation automatically brings the Catholic Church to mind when that is not what has most people bothered. Now, if the accused swim coaches' bosses covered up for the coaches, I could see the similarities.

 

[lawtonfogle]

Out of line and paranoid assumption.

Well, we have 30+ coaches who have been caught in 10 years. I would say it is down right stupid to say there aren't more, either who have offended in the past and stopped or who are offending right now. And I would also so it is stupid to say there aren't at least some who wanted to offend, but had enough morals/scared enough for their hides to refrain from it.

That is already more than the smallest minority right there.

Is it paranoid to see every 'decent person' who works with kids as a pedophile? Yes.

Do you likely know some 'decent person' who works with kids who is secretly a pedophile? Yes.

What is the chance that, at any given school, you have at least one pedophile working there? Probably far higher than either you or I want to know if we want to have any chance of sleeping tonight.

People are over paranoid about pedophiles. At the same time, they don't concern themselves with the issue enough.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_sexual_abuse#cite_note-Courtois-9 Approximately 15% to 25% of women and 5% to 15% of men were sexually abused when they were children

1. ^ a b c d e Julia Whealin, Ph.D. (2007-05-22). "Child Sexual Abuse". National Center for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, US Department of Veterans Affairs. Child Sexual Abuse - National Center for PTSD.
2. ^ a b Finkelhor D (1994). "Current information on the scope and nature of child sexual abuse". The Future of Children 4 (2): 31–53. doi:10.2307/1602522. PMID 7804768. http://www.unh.edu/ccrc/pdf/VS75.pdf.
3. ^ a b Gorey KM, Leslie DR (April 1997). "The prevalence of child sexual abuse: integrative review adjustment for potential response and measurement biases". Child Abuse & Neglect 21 (4): 391–8. doi:10.1016/S0145-2134(96)00180-9. PMID 9134267.

And those numbers don't seem to be dropping by much even with all the effort we put into making them go down.

 

[Mark101]

We would have a lot more molesting if women coached women and the catholic church was shut down.
But i think the catholoc church is much worse. Most those preist are really old men who molest young boys who arent even teenagers yet. And the catholic church teaches homosexaulity is wrong even though most there priest are gay and are practicing homosexuality.
At least its normal for a man to be attracted to a teenage women. They just shouldnt be allowed to coach them because there's too much temptation.

 

[lawtonfogle]

We would have a lot more molesting if women coached women and the catholic church was shut down.

Wut?

But i think the catholoc church is much worse. Most those preist are really old men who molest young boys who arent even teenagers yet. And the catholic church teaches homosexaulity is wrong even though most there priest are gay and are practicing homosexuality.
At least its normal for a man to be attracted to a teenage women. They just shouldnt be allowed to coach them because there's too much temptation.

How about we ban men from taking care of female minors and women from taking care of male minors. And we ban homosexuals from touching children. That couldn't have any negative repercussions at all, could it?

Really, I think the solution to the problem shouldn't be so... scorched earth draconic.

 

[Billnew]

I don't see this as an article condemning swimming coaches.

over 30 have been caught, and I assume prosecuted.

There are probably more, but this is a call to vigilance, to be on the look out every place you trust your kids to someone.

School coaches seem to be falling in my area.
The pattern seems to be female coaches being the criminals.

The swimming assoc. seems to have handled this properly, maybe need to review the cases and see if there is anything they could suggest to watch for, to prevent the coach from abusing children in their area.

Any place you have young athletic children, tweens, teens, there will always be a chance for a pedo. There are even perverts out there that
would do similar things to young adult women. Keep vigilant, and know the people around your kids.

 

[Mark101]

Wut?


How about we ban men from taking care of female minors and women from taking care of male minors. And we ban homosexuals from touching children. That couldn't have any negative repercussions at all, could it?

Really, I think the solution to the problem shouldn't be so... scorched earth draconic.

Maybe the men can still coach the girls but there shouldnt have such a direct contact. There should always be an adult female assistant present. If a grow man is alone with as has control over teenage girls in swim wear there is too much temptation.
If I had an teenage daughter i wont want her being alone with a male swim coach.
And when i have kids i would never take them to a Catholic church or ever leave my son along with a catholic Preist.

What men take care of female minors? You mean like single dads? I think its a little different when its your own kids.
Women rarely molest boys so i don't think thats as much of an issue.

 

[IzzyPop]

Maybe the men can still coach the girls but there shouldnt have such a direct contact. There should always be an adult female assistant present. If a grow man is alone with as has control over teenage girls in swim wear there is too much temptation.
If I had an teenage daughter i wont want her being alone with a male swim coach.
And when i have kids i would never take them to a Catholic church or ever leave my son along with a catholic Preist.

What men take care of female minors? You mean like single dads? I think its a little different when its your own kids.
Women rarely molest boys so i don't think thats as much of an issue.

Last time I looked, somewhere around 80% of molestation was an adult male relative messing with a young girl. So maybe we should keep the young girls in a locked ward with only female staff to keep them safe?

 

[lawtonfogle]

Maybe the men can still coach the girls but there shouldnt have such a direct contact. There should always be an adult female assistant present. If a grow man is alone with as has control over teenage girls in swim wear there is too much temptation.
If I had an teenage daughter i wont want her being alone with a male swim coach.
And when i have kids i would never take them to a Catholic church or ever leave my son along with a catholic Preist.

What men take care of female minors? You mean like single dads? I think its a little different when its your own kids.
Women rarely molest boys so i don't think thats as much of an issue.

You do realize that any given girl is more at danger of being molested by her father/step-father than by her swim coach, right?

As to women molesting boys, I think part of the problem is for a while, society didn't have near as much a problem with that as they did with men molesting girls. "A girl gets victimized by a molester. A boy scores one with an older lady." That is how the thinking was, and for some people, still is.

 

[ulu]

Maybe the men can still coach the girls but there shouldnt have such a direct contact. There should always be an adult female assistant present. If a grow man is alone with as has control over teenage girls in swim wear there is too much temptation..

You've got to be kidding. We're talking about a tiny percentage of bad apples, not your typical man.

 

[Mark101]

Who you want to leave your teenage daughter alone in a swimsuit with a grown man who has authority over her?
Sure most are probably good men but you can't always tell.
Even if they start off good if they're left alone too much with these teenage girls there's too much temptation. I know my college group paster wont ever be alone with one of the girls. He's married and won't want to ever put himself in a situation like that.

If you don't like my idea what do you suggest should be done to prevent this?

 

[Mr. Ripley]

Ban men. Or don't have children. One of those.

 

[ulu]

Who you want to leave your teenage daughter alone in a swimsuit with a grown man who has authority over her?
Sure most are probably good men but you can't always tell.
Even if they start off good if they're left alone too much with these teenage girls there's too much temptation. I know my college group paster wont ever be alone with one of the girls. He's married and won't want to ever put himself in a situation like that.

If you don't like my idea what do you suggest should be done to prevent this?

As far as "who has authority over her" -Hopefully the girl has been raised to know that just because someone's her coach, or teacher, doesn't mean she has to do anything they say that she knows is wrong.

You're right, you can't always tell about people. So you take reasonable precautions, and then either live free and with faith, or live in fear, expect the worst, and live your life to always minimize risk, no matter what the cost.

For the great majority of men, it wouldn't be a problem. Just like the majority of fathers don't get turned on seeing their children nude, and start thinking about molesting them. It's an aberration, not the norm.

 

[Mr. Ripley]

As far as "who has authority over her" -Hopefully the girl has been raised to know that just because someone's her coach, or teacher, doesn't mean she has to do anything they say that she knows is wrong.

Milgram obedience study.

 

[lawtonfogle]

You've got to be kidding. We're talking about a tiny percentage of bad apples, not your typical man.

If we are talking juniors and seniors in high school, most men are probably tempted. Just most men, contrary to what some think, have the ability to control their thoughts.

 

[lawtonfogle]

Milgram obedience study.

I don't think people realize the power of authority. The key here is you use your authority as a parent to override any potential authority a coach would have. The problem comes in when the parents themselves are the threat, which is far more often than people realize.

Of course, just raise your child to be the ultimate path striker, rebelling against any authority that does not prove themselves, and thus the effects of authority will be far less. But raising a kid like that is pretty hard, as suddenly you have to prove you are a reasonable authority to follow.