There have been two stories in the past week involving minor hockey organizations and bullying in the Vancouver area. In one of the stories the coach quit because he was dissatisfied with the way the private club handled the outcome of the bullying by some of the players.

I hadn't noted that the investigation covered around a twenty year period.

A problem is that almost all of the national organizations hold minimal to no administrative authority over either provincial or community organizations so those agencies need to build local oversight to forestall repetition.

It would be a good idea to investigate what rules are in place in your youth sport organizations and how carefully they are being overseen on an ongoing basis.

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There's another story dealing with Uigyurs, a muslim minority in western China who are being retrained in "vocational"/concentration camps in western China.

ole joyful

Some of you who are retired, or considering, may have grandchildren involved with youth sports. Even if you're in a different country, you may want to check as to the level of recruitment checking and ongoing oversight is exercised over the staff who deal with them.

If you have an interest in sports but lack grandchildren, you may have sufficient interest in having the local children avoid the risk of sexual abuse to do such checking.

ole joyful ... 20 years retired

I chose to have this thread and post show on "Retirement" as well - and all of the posts appearing here are over there, as well.

As you may note, my post above this was aimed at retirees, and appears here, as well.

I was unaware that this is routine procedure.

Sorry if anyone is discomforted by it.

When I thought that I should post this over on "Retirement", it took me about two seconds to calculate that posting it here ... will have it posted over there as well.

ole joyful

Tip of the ice berg and this sort of revelation will only continue. We are a world obsessed with gratification and it is only logical it will slop over into abuse. The lie of "no one gets hurt" in the world of pornography, promiscuity, "love is love" is one we will all pay for.

Team sports can be such a positive for so many kids - especially those at risk. It makes me doubly sad for those that have negative experiences and that these horrible events impact the functioning of good programs.

This came to light fairly recently when the doctor for the gymnastics team in the Houston area was found to be sexually assaulting the girls. He had been doing it for years. Larry Nassar

If you're speaking of Nassar, he was based at Michigan State and was the team doctor for the Olympic/National women's gymnasts.

Nassar used to be in Texas, working at Bela Karolyi's training camp.

Okay, correction noted. I didn't know that. His bio in Wikipedia is very Michigan-centric and doesn't mention a Texas interval in his life. Maybe he did that on a fly-in basis or something else.

It’s very sad and disheartening when we hear about these things. And unfortunately it’s not just related to sports or religious organizations, but I expect any activity can have these these predators (private music or art teachers would be another example).

Parents and grandparents too these days need to be alert for signs of changed behavior in their children. Talk to your kids about what can happen in a one on one situation before it happens. And do your research if possible before hiring someone. And don’t let these isolated cases make you afraid to let your child participate!

It's important that parents and grandparents build a good relationship, dealing with a variety of issues, with their young folks as they grow from toddlerhood, so that they can feel free to come to discuss whatever goes on in their lives.

It is important that we help them to feel free to come to us with issues that in earlier times were generally perceived to be taboo subjects.

I think that, if we have that wide-ranging and easygoing relationship with them, we may be able to detect when some outside guide of our young folks may be grooming them for such later abuse, for it seems as though this usually goes of for some time before they get down to the nasty stuff.

ole joyful

I do also wonder at what is being considered abuse as not all abuse is sexual. Some consider running extra laps or doing certain exercise movements as punishment for infractions as abuse. While it can be carried too far some consider anything as abuse including being told that they would not participate because they did something they should not.

Informative and enlightening podcast called "Believed" on Larry Nasser.