Callaghan suspended over sexual abuse allegations

[giselle23]

If Fox News is covering the Callaghan story then Robert Mueller must be doing something really important "No! Don't look there! Look over here!"

I doubt if the Callaghan story is big enough to the general public to divert attention from the Mueller investigation. It looks more like Maurizi is taking his story to the media--see the video from Good Morning America.

 

[overedge]

I doubt if the Callaghan story is big enough to the general public to divert attention from the Mueller investigation. It looks more like Maurizi is taking his story to the media--see the video from Good Morning America.

If you look at Fox's website, they are madly covering anything and everything that isn't Mueller-related. Sure, Maurizi may be taking his story to the media, but that doesn't mean Fox might not have other motives in inviting him in for an interview.

 

[Yazmeen]

This is not meant to start a flame war, but regarding Todd Eldredge's potential "involvement," and why he may be brought into this; I think it may be one of three scenarios here:

1. Todd had absolutely no idea any sexual abuse was going on while he was with Callahan as a student and now has no desire to get involved in this situation
2. Todd was also victimized by Callahan and has and still prefers to stay silent
3. Todd was and maybe still is doing a "Paterno" to at least some degree. IOW, he was aware of the abuse to at least an extent but chose (or possibly felt pressured) to stay silent about it, and still prefers to stay silent

No matter what or any scenario of possible involvement you may believe, Todd was Callaghan's most prominent student in the respect of being the elite skater who was with him the longest and who remained with him to some degree until the new story broke. I know some think it's unfair to bring Todd into this, but Todd has kept Callaghan by his side now for decades and had him directly as part of his team until just a few days ago. Whether you (or Todd) likes it or not, I think he's going to be brought into this. And I personally don't think that's necessarily an unfair pathway for those investigating the story to proceed with.

And for those who don't know what I mean by a "Paterno," this is a short version of the story, which is still very controversial in PA as to whether or not or what Coach Joe Paterno knew and did and what his responsibility should or should not have been in this situation surrounding horrific child sexual abuse. Many folks in the state believe his behavioral was disgraceful while many Penn Stater's still mourn his passing and vilify the way the university ended his career: https://www.cnn.com/2017/09/09/us/penn-state-paterno-sandusky-police-report/index.html

And not, I'm not saying the two situations are the same; I bring this up as another story of others in a circle/team working with an abuser and the questions that arise when the abuse finally comes to light.

 

[Debbie S]

All USFS rinks require that all coaches, including Learn to Skate, have gone through the USFS background check system, and also get a specific type of insurance. It's done through the USFS website. All of the rinks I have experience with require all coaches to submit specific paperwork related to this from USFS before they can coach. The rinks don't pay for the background checks or conduct them - the coach pays for the background check, and the check itself is done by some outside group that USFS has contracted with.

In the midwest and east coast USFSA rinks are more common, but on the West Coast (where I am), most rinks - even those that only have USFSA competing skaters - tend to use their own system. My rink requires PSA paperwork/liability/background check submitted for all private coaches; another allows most coaches to pay $50/day and coach on a freestyle (though through that system they won't teach group lessons). My rinks at college (one USFSA; one University run) allowed whoever to coach that wanted to as long as the coach/student bought private ice to do it on. Perhaps that system is more stringently followed where you are, but from my experience there are many ways around it.

Rinks actually vary widely as far as rules and background checks for coaches. USFS rules pertain to USFS-sanctioned activities - test sessions, competitions, learn to skate. Club ice is a little tricky - due to the way the current rules were written, club activities do not require CER-certified coaches but USFS 'strongly encourages' clubs to require it. My club's board voted to but not all clubs do. As for rink-provided FS ice, USFS rules don't apply, unless the rink chooses to follow them (which USFS 'strongly recommends'). One rink in my area does require coaches to have full CER certification and background check. Others don't, just insurance. There may be local laws that require more for coaches and anyone working with children (like fingerprinting and background check through the state police), but that depends on the rink.

For learn to skate, instructors are not required by USFS or rinks to have full certification or insurance, as they are covered by the rink's LTS insurance. Some rinks have their own requirements (passing Senior Moves in the Field, for example) and they may also require instructors to have the police background check and fingerprinting (if over 18). But unless someone has been convicted or has a criminal case pending, they will pass the check.

 

[becca]

I think generally coaches should not date students. I would not say every scenario is wrong. I.e Meghan and her husband but she was well adjusted adult and I don’t think same power dynamics. However there is a difference between one student and a pattern of dating students.

 

[Sylvia]

Craig Maurizi just said on Fox News that U.S. Figure Skating encouraged him to file a report with Safe Sport.

More about The U.S. Center for SafeSport here: https://www.teamusa.org/about-the-usoc/safe-sport

ETA that Maurizi did mention that USFS played a role in Brennan's latest article that was published yesterday:

Christine Brennan's latest column has new comments by Maurizi.

*** Latest sex abuse scandal shows USOC has much work to do :
https://www.usatoday.com/story/spor...candal-shows-usoc-has-much-work-do/426170002/

Relevant excerpt:

Maurizi said he was pleased with the suspension, but is concerned that it doesn’t reach far enough.

“I’m very happy and thankful to SafeSport for doing their part and to USFS for getting them involved,” he said. “That’s all good stuff, but it does seem to literally just scratch the surface. They can’t stop a rink owner from hiring him even now. My daughters are in school and we get a blast phone call about snow days. How is there not some sort of email blast about this, an Amber alert kind of thing, for example?”

USFS did send out an email alert last Wednesday to about two dozen skating club officials and SafeSport chairs in Southwest Florida, where Callaghan last coached, USFS spokeswoman Barbara Reichert said.

 

[allezfred]

Maurizi is seeking vengeance.

He supposedly had sexual contact with Callahan from ages 15 - 18, but the 'full sexual' relationship after the age of 18. He supposedly carried it on 'sporadically' for 12 years after the age of 22, according to him. Maybe they were using each other? Sounds like a bad gay relationship to me.

Sounds fishy on both sides.

Suddenly your avatar makes sense.

 

[Deleted member 53443]

I think generally coaches should not date students. I would not say every scenario is wrong. I.e Meghan and her husband but she was well adjusted adult and I don’t think same power dynamics. However there is a difference between one student and a pattern of dating students.

I went into this with a bit more liberal view than I have now regarding students and coaches, My belief that adults should, and can, take care of themselves is intact. I believe love beats status (otherwise, we are backwards in our thinking, to Europe in the 1700s, when "commoners" could not marry nobles), that power balance is not determined on riches and status, and that we shouldn't judge others on what they choose to do in their relationship. It's simply none of our business, whether this is about gay marriage, age difference, or "creepy pictures". None of my business.

But. In a rink, the risks are just too big of young girls and boys getting inappropriately manipulated by coaches. I think there should just simply be a rule that does not allow relationships between coaches and students as long as they are in those respective positions. It's just easier. If I was a rink manager, I would say to every coach that this is the deal, and you sign a paper on it. If you want a relationship with a student of the right age, you find a way to get out of here and have that relationship elsewhere. You can stay and coach, but not that student.

 

[becca]

I went into this with a bit more liberal view than I have now regarding students and coaches, My belief that adults should, and can, take care of themselves is intact. I believe love beats status (otherwise, we are backwards in our thinking, to Europe in the 1700s, when "commoners" could not marry nobles), that power balance is not determined on riches and status, and that we shouldn't judge others on what they choose to do in their relationship. It's simply none of our business, whether this is about gay marriage, age difference, or "creepy pictures". None of my business.

But. In a rink, the risks are just too big of young girls and boys getting inappropriately manipulated by coaches. I think there should just simply be a rule that does not allow relationships between coaches and students as long as they are in those respective positions. It's just easier. If I was a rink manager, I would say to every coach that this is the deal, and you sign a paper on it. If you want a relationship with a student of the right age, you find a way to get out of here and have that relationship elsewhere. You can stay and coach, but not that student.

But why shouldn’t Meagan be coached by her hubby if she wants. What about if someone decides to coach someone they are already dating? That’s why I don’t support Blanket rules.

 

[Deleted member 53443]

But why shouldn’t Megan be coached by her hubby if she wants. What about if someone decides to coach someone they are already dating? That’s why I don’t support Blanket rules.

I agree with you they should in a perfect world, just no perfect solution to this. It's a sort of risk vs sacrifice sort of situation.

 

[becca]

I agree with you they should in a perfect world, just no perfect solution to this. It's a sort of risk vs sacrifice sort of situation.

I think though we live in free countries. I think more that federations could have an age rule above 18. A 25 year old who is an adult is different scenario than an 18 year old.

 

[Willin]

@Per Initially I was along your line of thought: no exceptions. But then I realized that Meagan was 25 when she started dating her coach. By that point she's more than old enough to start making choices for herself, and as she's said multiple times she and Bruno work more as partners than coach and student. Even in the kiss and cry you can see their dynamic is more equal. If anything Meagan's the one in charge: she knows what she wants, how to get it, and what she needs Bruno to do so that she can get it.

 

[wickedwitch]

I think if a coach and an adult student want to date, they have to be up front and completely honest about it both to their federation and the coach's other skaters from the beginning. If they did that, I would be comfortable with the situation, although there are clearly still issues there.

 

[Deleted member 53443]

I guess a framework where a rink could grant exceptions could be made. Or set a fairly high age limit, like 21. I mean, for example if there is an adult coach teaching an adult skater and they fall for each other (I am talking adult like in 30-50 now) it would be ridiculous to not let them date.

All I know now is that I don't want to be a rink manager lol.

 

[Japanfan]

I think though we live in free countries. I think more that federations could have an age rule above 18. A 25 year old who is an adult is different scenario than an 18 year old.

I agree with this. A rule preventing a relationship between consenting adults like Megan and Bruno would be far too restrictive - not sure such a rule could even be established.

Of course, this wouldn't stop predators like Morozov from taking advantage of young women (Shae Lynne was young when she married him, although I don't know what the age difference is). To combat such situations, female skaters should learn about power imbalances early in life and be given tools to deal with them - but that should be true for girls in general, not only skaters.

 

[RoseRed]

I agree with this. A rule preventing a relationship between consenting adults like Megan and Bruno would be far too restrictive - not sure such a rule could even be established.

Of course, this wouldn't stop predators like Morozov from taking advantage of young women (Shae Lynne was young when she married him, although I don't know what the age difference is). To combat such situations, female skaters should learn about power imbalances early in life and be given tools to deal with them - but that should be true for girls in general, not only skaters.

Not to defend Nikolai, but they're the exact same age. And she was 29 when they got married.

 

[Vagabond]

Roman Skorniakov and Tatiana Malinina started coaching each other after the death of their coach Igor Ksenofontov in 1999. I assume that they were already romantically involved; at any rate, they were married in 2000.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Skorniakov

One of Samuel Contesti's coaches was his wife, Géraldine Zulini. If I recall correctly, they are almost exactly the same age, having been born a week apart. They were married shortly before their respective twenty-fourth birthdays.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Contesti

Meagan Duhamel was well into her twenties when she started training with Bruno Marcotte. I don't know when they became romantically involved, but, as someone said upthread, she was twenty-eight when they got engaged.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Contesti#cite_note-ST090924-4

In the second and third of these situations, one could just as easily argue that the skater, rather than the coach, was in the dominant position in the relationship. I would prefer to think that in all three of the instances, the couples had the right to make their own decisions and that none of these relationships even remotely resembles that between Callaghan and Maurizi.

 

[soogar]

Of course, this wouldn't stop predators like Morozov from taking advantage of young women (Shae Lynne was young when she married him, although I don't know what the age difference is). To combat such situations, female skaters should learn about power imbalances early in life and be given tools to deal with them - but that should be true for girls in general, not only skaters.

Why do people automatically assume that Morozov is a predator? I've heard interviews from two of his former girlfriends- Miki and Shae-Lynn and neither of them sound victimized by him. In fact the interview with Miki (and Javi! [TSL]), Miki didn't want to talk too much about it but it seemed that when she got pregnant, Morozov asked her to leave.
Shae-Lynn said that when she trained with Nikolai, he was harder on her because of their off ice relationship.

 

[LeafOnTheWind]

Again all these scenarios are only referring to the two people involved and not taking into consideration fairness and equal treatment to third parties. A student may be old enough to deal with any power inequalities but it's still unfair to others if the coach gives special treatment to this student that the others don't get. This is why blanket bans exist and they are (or should be) encouraged to end the coach/student relationship.

 

[BittyBug]

Again all these scenarios are only referring to the two people involved and not taking into consideration fairness and equal treatment to third parties. A student may be old enough to deal with any power inequalities but it's still unfair to others if the coach gives special treatment to this student that the others don't get. This is why blanket bans exist and they are (or should be) encouraged to end the coach/student relationship.

I completely agree that coach / student relationships are inappropriate unless both parties are mature adults, but if your logic is concern for how other parties may feel, are you also opposed to parents coaching their own kids?

 

[my little pony]

in a pair, if there is any sort of an issue or disagreement, and 1 of the pair is dating the coach, i can see how that could be problematic

 

[Kasey]

in a pair, if there is any sort of an issue or disagreement, and 1 of the pair is dating the coach, i can see how that could be problematic

Like Mukhortova and Trankov when with Vasiliev

 

[Twilight1]

Don't want to throw further shade and be off topic but Morozov was married with a pregnant wife when he hooked up with Shae-Lynn.

As for Maurizi, he was a young man and grooming is part of sexual abuse. How can a young teen socialized by a predator truly understand the dynamics at play in how they were abused?

http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/child-sexual-abuse-6-stages-of-grooming/all

 

[BittyBug]

in a pair, if there is any sort of an issue or disagreement, and 1 of the pair is dating the coach, i can see how that could be problematic

The same could be said of teams themselves - if they start dating and things go wrong it can be problematic for the team.

 

[MacMadame]

In some places the law says that both parties have to be at the age of consent but that for younger people, there can't be too much of an age differential. That means if the age of consent is 16, that both parties have to be at least 16 but if one of them is under 21, then the other can't be more than 5 years older.

I think that works for most situations that we'd want to avoid at a rink.

In schools, there are employees who are paid and students who are paying. And it's only for a short time. I think saying it's just not allowed is fine. You want to date a student? Wait until they graduate. If it's "true love," it will survive waiting a few years (if it's even that long). And the dynamic of student-teacher is such that 99% of the time we're not talking about two adults in an equal relationship anyway.

In the workforce, so many other people are impacted who aren't in the relationship and a large company can just move one of them. Or for many, one of them can get a job elsewhere. Again, if the relationship can't survive waiting until one isn't supervising the other, it's not going to last anyway. Also, these rules are in place less to prevent sexual harassment and more to keep the workplace flowing smoothly.

But at the rink, you are talking about contractors so they don't even work for the rink most of the time. And the relationships between coach & student are often long-term. Plus while one is in a position of power over the other when you are coaching children, the relationship is often more of partners when it's two adults. Plus, it's not like a teacher or manager who determines who gets what grades or who gets what raises. Telling two adults they can't date because one is coaching the other seems to be a bit much when talking about two adults.

 

[VGThuy]

I came across this article on Buzzfeed about a woman who filed a lawsuit against her former high school track coach when they had what she thought at the time was a consensual affair when she was 16 and he was 29:

https://www.buzzfeed.com/jtes/the-case-died-with-her?utm_term=.nkGlMbZxBZ#.nyE0qPje2j

The way the article details her changes in behavior and lingering emotional toll that affair cost her before she decided to file her lawsuit, which ended up going no where because of her unfortunate death, I felt was related to this thread.

What struck me among many other things in the article was how when it all came out to her parents when she was in her thirties, she blamed her parents for not noticing and doing more to protect her. That reminds me of what I learned in my sex psychology class in college in how victims of predatory sexual behavior by those in a position of authority tend to lash out at those who they thought were supposed to protect them or who they felt turned a blind eye.

Another thing that stuck that was related to this thread was how those classmates who noticed the relationship at the time thought it was ok because she seemed ok and he was handsome and young and they didn't think it looked bad. Of course now we know there were latent effects of that relationship that came out later on in her life that affected her ability to function. This is not just a one-off story but it's something that has been studied by psychologists for a long time and there is real scholarship on this subject that paint similar stories.

 

[Tinami Amori]

I think though we live in free countries. I think more that federations could have an age rule above 18. A 25 year old who is an adult is different scenario than an 18 year old.

That's your opinion, at what age one is "mature". As i was told in other topics, North America is a multi-cultural society, and that means different "cultural approach" to sex and relationship, and different age and criteria when and what is "mature". In more "difficult" countries girls become mature, pragmatic, street-wise and many other things at much earlier age.

Not to defend Nikolai, but they're the exact same age. And she was 29 when they got married.

Yes, Morozov and Shae-Lynn where of the same age, and same for several of his ladies, and few others where maybe 5-10 years apart. The only two girls that were much younger are Elena I., who was a "fast girl" even before she deflowered Nikita (he was a virgin), and Vasilisa, his current wife, who was a "sexy kitten" even before she met Morozov.....

Don't want to throw further shade and be off topic but Morozov was married with a pregnant wife when he hooked up with Shae-Lynn.

Well.... technically, that makes Shae-Lynn a homewrecker.... and yet not much said about her, only Morozov....

Why do people automatically assume that Morozov is a predator? I've heard interviews from two of his former girlfriends- Miki and Shae-Lynn and neither of them sound victimized by him. In fact the interview with Miki (and Javi! [TSL]), Miki didn't want to talk too much about it but it seemed that when she got pregnant, Morozov asked her to leave. Shae-Lynn said that when she trained with Nikolai, he was harder on her because of their off ice relationship.

Why? because North America is a strange animal... which is a clashing combo of Playboy, Hustler, Deep Throat, Behind the Green Door, and sex-and-drugs-and rock'n-roll LSD hippie culture aka "sexual revolution" which gained the right for USA to beat itself in the chess as the most "progressive and free country in the world", righteous conservative religious moralists, and unkempt lefty feminists overly concerned with "power and money of evil men"..... Just face it.... it's not La Dolce Vita.... where all's in moderation... https://78.media.tumblr.com/570352f0f47d86f39c0f49abd34ef78e/tumblr_n7zgq0AlXQ1rlx538o1_500.gif

Re Miki Ando. not insisting, but my recollection is that she and Morozov wanted to marry, but her family and circle of people (back in Japan) were very much against it, and given she is Japanese, she had respect for Family and her Social Circle of people, and took their advise.

 

[Twilight1]

IMHO the cheater has more responsibility to protecting their marriage than the other woman esp. when said spouse is expecting said child. Back on the day, plenty of people had an opinion on Miss Bourne.

 

[overedge]

IMHO the cheater has more responsibility to protecting their marriage than the other woman esp. when said spouse is expecting said child. Back on the day, plenty of people had an opinion on Miss Bourne.

I seem to recall the word "gold-digger" being thrown around quite a bit....

 

[Tinami Amori]

I seem to recall the word "gold-digger" being thrown around quite a bit....

Bourne was NOT a gold digger. She was just the kind of person who puts being in love and passion ahead of everything, and not to cause problems, which yes, she did, but not as a calculating wench. But yes, affair with a married person is not right.