Coughlin's Safe Sport Status Changed to Interim Suspension

[Tavi]

Misconduct encompasses harassment and assault. As of now we don’t know where his crimes fall, hence my usage of (alleged) harassment/assault.

According to the SafeSport definition, sexual misconduct is not limited to harassment or assault. For example, it includes consensual sexual behavior where there is an imbalance of power, which could mean an age difference. And as you note, we don’t know the facts in this case. I don’t think it’s necessary to use the harshest, most divisive possible definition in order to advocate for victims. And I say that as a survivor of sexual assault myself.

See page 8:

https://77media.blob.core.windows.n...sport-code-appendices-a-b---final-amended.pdf

 

[MsZem]

Rachael Denhollander's husband has a pinned tweet thread from the time that Christine Blasey Ford came forward in which he discusses how the discourse around sexual assault allegations can have a chilling effect on girls who are abused and the likelihood that they will tell anyone at all. Rachael was as "perfect" an accuser as could be - a white woman who was articulate, educated, with documentation of the sexual assaults she had experienced, who'd been young and a virgin - and she and her sister survivors still suffered greatly and many turned on them (I hope it's clear that I don't personally consider some survivors more perfect than others). The way sexual violence and other forms of abuse are discussed are seen by a lot of vulnerable people, and attacking the accusers - as Sappenfield has done, as many outside the skating community have done - is grossly irresponsible at best.

I don't think skaters publicly grieving for their friend are the same thing. Their friend is gone now. It may take time to process that he was flawed in ways that they were not aware of. This is a painful process and many of the skaters are quite young; it's hard to lose someone at any age, let alone at that age.

Mervin Tran managed to balance between his sorrow about John Coughlin's death and the broader message he wanted to send. Not everyone can do that. This is a tough time for many people. Lists of "trash people" are not going to make anything better. We need more, not less, compassion. Attacking people is not educating them.

I've also seen what I consider callous comments about suicide and people who die by suicide. John's decision to take his life was his own, and while the investigation may have weighed heavily on him, nobody should blame themselves or be held responsible for what he did. But going on about how selfish he was to do it, how it proves guilt - no. People who die by suicide reach a point where their pain is overwhelming and they cannot see a way out. They feel that others will be better off without them. They, too, need help and compassion.

We've lost people in this community to suicide. There are FSUers who have lost loved ones. Let's please be careful in how we discuss this issue.

 

[Japanfan]

If you think what happened to John Coughlin amounts to discomfort and inconvenience.......That is NUTS. He lost all ability to earn a living in anything related to skating for at least as long as the investigation would take. Some of the pending cases on SafeSport are almost a year old. This is an exceedingly long timeframe in which to conduct investigations and force people away from their jobs and livelihood. Even if cleared by SafeSport, he would likely never get some of those positions, like brand manager for JW Blades, back. His reputation would never be restored. Many people would still not go to him for coaching due to the court of public opinion judgement. This is not something someone can just "get over." This is way beyond discomfort or inconvenience. It, in fact, just drove a young man to suicide.

A year isn't that long within the context of a lifetime and I would expect that Coughlin had at least enough money to live on for a year as a successful elite figure skater.

I think his reputation could have been restored had the allegations been deemed without merit, especially given that (as indicated by this thread) people who know him are more likely than not to disbelieve the allegations.

And one might say that John made a choice to commit suicide, a very tragic choice - rather than was driven to it and had no choice. Unless he suffered from severe depression already, which I don't think is the case.

@carriecmu0503, you sound as if you are blaming the alleged victims who came forward and social media for ruining John's life, which is twisted thinking.

If John was innocent, it is a real shame he didn't stay alive and fight to clear his name.

If he had been cleared, but it wasn't desirable or feasible for him to stay in the skating world, he was young enough to forge a new career for himself.

 

[Karen-W]

Someone (@Clay) just told me that this is very much like 1994, where all the talk about skating had nothing to do with skating and skaters were tried and convicted in public. It's not all social media's fault.

I don't agree at all. I am all over social media these days, what with being in the job market, and all my friends and acquaintances know how much I love figure skating. Not a single person has sent me a link, nor have I seen any links popping up as "something you might like" or sponsored content on my Twitter or Facebook feeds. I'm just not seeing this story being the major story of the news cycle (that all belongs to the continuing gov't shutdown) let alone garnering anywhere close to the same level of public interest as 1994. Heck, it isn't even getting the same attention that the Nasser story had, especially last summer, the Ronan Farrow piece on Harvey Weinstein, or the Bill Cosby accusations.

 

[Vera Costa]

According to the SafeSport definition, sexual misconduct is not limited to harassment or assault. For example, it includes consensual sexual behavior where there is an imbalance of power, which could mean an age difference. And as you note, we don’t know the facts in this case. I don’t think it’s necessary to use the harshest, most divisive possible definition in order to advocate for victims. And I say that as a survivor of sexual assault myself.

See page 8:

https://77media.blob.core.windows.n...sport-code-appendices-a-b---final-amended.pdf

Two of the allegations against Coughlin come from minors.

Even if we’re talking about a consensual sexual behaviour between him and a minor, that would still qualify as harassment at best.

ETA: I read the rest of it. So sexual conduct between a 19 year old and 16 year old would be ok as long as there is no power imbalance?

 

[zoe111]

I think the potential consequences for future victims feeling unable to come forward about abuse because of the reaction of the skating community to this are markedly greater than the potential consequences of a list of receipts circulating on Twitter. Skaters aren’t being harassed- people are trying to educate them.

No. They are being harassed. This is not the same situation as if the potential abuser is alive and people are supporting him in public against the potential accuser. John died- horrifically, tragically. They are allowed to grieve, allowed to grieve in public without all this self righteous crap levied against them. None of them are saying he did or didn’t do it, just that in their interactions, he was a good friend. The trolls need to leave them alone. No one is not supportive of the alleged victims. They can be supportive and crushed at the loss of John at the same time.

 

[tony]

Reading through everything that’s been posted/shared in terms of articles so far and I hope this doesn’t come across as disrespectful, but what I really don’t understand is the list of skaters that is now being circulated and the amount of people on social media posting as if they know every last detail of the case and know for 100% certainty exactly what he (apparently) did, while slamming anyone who dares to believe that it might have been misconstrued or exaggerated or whatever else.

I’m all for victims’ rights, but at the same time, I consider myself to be someone who doesn’t jump to any conclusion in any kind of debate and I don’t tend to get involved in any arguments unless I know enough facts to argue my case back and settle the discussion quickly. That, of course, hasn’t ever extended to something of this nature, but I’m still curious how so many people even here are capable of just taking everything as absolute fact and building upon the very little information that has been presented to create their own narratives. Many skaters are choosing to share their sympathies over the person they knew- at this point not knowing any more than the next person in regards to the case.

I don’t know what exactly happened, and I don’t know that it’s possible for any of us to ever know. Everyone has a right to their own opinion and their own way of coping with something like this, but trolling others and sending them nasty comments behind a lame user name on Instagram, Twitter, or YouTube comments isn’t ‘helping the cause’ as these people seem to think they are doing.

Those people can be mad at him for committing suicide and possibly shutting the door on ever getting the whole story, but we once again can’t automatically assume that he did it because he was guilty of something. All my own opinions, of course.

 

[zoe111]

I’m sorry, but it looks like I’m going to have to make another controversial opinion known.

That list is necessary. That isn’t just people grieving or remember their friend. Nearly every top skater is on that list. Add the various former amateur skaters, the silence from the coaches after the PSA announcement and Delilah Sappenfield running off to People and you have a culture.

The victim blaming, the near complete lack of acknowledgement of the victims, the blaming of reporters and institutions, there is a lot to say about how the figure skating community has reacted to an allegation and none of it is good.

We talk about responsibility for what has happened and what can be done to correct this. The lack of protection for victims is both an institutional failure and the culture that is steeped in toxicity.

Not one prominent skater, former or current has stepped up to say this is wrong. I don’t blame those who remained silent. There are plenty of reasons including personal experiences and genuine confusion. But the skaters who went and wrote about how amazing Coughlin was and others who by liking or retweeting tacitly gave their support to those post and further legitimised them, they should be held to higher standards. If they can support Coughlin in death, then it isn’t much to ask for support of the victim.

This isn’t just about Coughlin anymore. It’s about Larvik, Morozov, Callaghan, etc. Members of the community have to demand change. Putting their heads in the sand only makes them complicit in the culture.

No. Just no. Right now for the skaters it’s about losing John. You’ve no idea how they feel about the victim and it’s just this kind of sentiment that I find hugely disturbing. It’s wildly inappropriate for anyone to tell them ‘he may or may not have done something wrong so you’d better not mourn him’. And making a list is harassment and completely psychotic

 

[Vera Costa]

It’s wildly inappropriate for anyone to tell them ‘he may or may not have done something wrong so you’d better not mourn him’.

No one is saying they can’t mourn him. But they are choosing to mourn him publicly and thus their actions have consequences.

Again, this isn’t about them but about the victims. The skaters choosing to mourn their friend while ignoring what he might have done on a public platform with large audiences is damaging to both the Coughlin’s alleged victims and any other victims who may wish to come forward. They could have could have chosen to mourn silently. There are those who haven’t said anything yet about either Coughlin or the alleged victims. But for those who aired their grief, for those who ignored the alleged victim and for those who went as far as to defend him, they can’t not be held responsible for the harm they can potentially cause.

Enabling alleged victims to come forward with their stories is far more important than these skaters publicly mourning the alleged accused. Victims have trouble enough trouble with processing what has happened, dealing with public public and private reaction and the hurdles in place getting to be believed. I can’t support skaters who make it even harder for them in the name of grief.

Grieving isn’t an all-access pass for problematic behaviour.

 

[caseyedwards]

No one is saying they can’t mourn him. But they are choosing to mourn him publicly and thus their actions have consequences.

Again, this isn’t about them but about the victims. The skaters choosing to mourn their friend while ignoring what he might have done on a public platform with large audiences is damaging to both the Coughlin’s alleged victims and any other victims who may wish to come forward. They could have could have chosen to mourn silently. There are those who haven’t said anything yet about either Coughlin or the alleged victims. But for those who aired their grief, for those who ignored the alleged victim and for those who went as far as to defend him, they can’t not be held responsible for the harm they can potentially cause.

Enabling alleged victims to come forward with their stories is far more important than these skaters publicly mourning the alleged accused. Victims have trouble enough trouble with processing what has happened, dealing with public public and private reaction and the hurdles in place getting to be believed. I can’t support skaters who make it even harder for them in the name of grief.

Grieving isn’t an all-access pass for problematic behaviour.

No one- No one on earth is preventing any “victim” from standing up and saying what they want about poor John!!

 

[nlloyd]

No. Just no. Right now for the skaters it’s about losing John. You’ve no idea how they feel about the victim and it’s just this kind of sentiment that I find hugely disturbing. It’s wildly inappropriate for anyone to tell them ‘he may or may not have done something wrong so you’d better not mourn him’. And making a list is harassment and completely psychotic

I am not quite following your argument here. Who is saying that skaters shouldn't mourn John? I have seen some posters suggesting that mourning might best be done privately (rather than on social media) and others suggesting that for some skaters' public mourning has moved into overt accusations being made against the complainants, but I have not heard anyone saying that those who knew John shouldn't mourn him.

I do think social media is not the best arena for grieving, let alone careful communication. It is too easy to be reactive: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook etc. do not encourage considered responses. Individuals are able to "publish" their thoughts, feelings, and wishes instantaneously to a wide audience. In the case of complex, emotion-laden issues, social media is even trickier.

Those outside the figure skating world, for example, see two phenomena that are difficult to reconcile. On the one hand they see that John was facing three allegations of sexual misconduct and had been suspended pending further investigation. On the other hand, they see an outpouring of affection for, admiration of, and gratitude to John by skaters, their parents and their coaches. Those who are part of the figure skating world, particularly skaters themselves have a more difficult task of reconciling the two because they were close to John or the skating communities of which he was a part. Social media does not encourage stepping back and thinking about the relationship between the two. In fact, I think that, in being predicated on instant responses, it actually discourages it. It is then easy simply to dismiss one or other of the two phenomena or to relate them in an ill-considered way.

 

[WildRose]

Mirai Nagasu (‪@mirai_nagasu‬)

2019-01-21, 11:10 PM
I’m feeling really sick to my stomach after seeing a list of “trash people in the skating community.” I didn’t know the John who is being accused of said allegations but don’t want to take away from the voices of the abused. I hope that in all of this we can find peace.

 

[puglover]

Mirai Nagasu (‪@mirai_nagasu‬)

2019-01-21, 11:10 PM
I’m feeling really sick to my stomach after seeing a list of “trash people in the skating community.” I didn’t know the John who is being accused of said allegations but don’t want to take away from the voices of the abused. I hope that in all of this we can find peace.

I was impressed with Mirai's comments here.

 

[Coco]

It's hard to judge people who are grieving. But if Delilah and others want to make the point that safesport needs to change their process, their behavior is proving why it is set up the way it is. People who file reports will come in for some pretty extreme forms of retaliation if they had to do so publicly. Some people who file reports might be mistaken or might be motivated to hurt someone through lying. However a lot of people who file reports are telling the truth. If they were never afforded anonymity, they would keep the information about bad actors to themselves and more would suffer.

If any friend of John's truly wants to make a positive change here, they will focus on safesport and not on the people who filed these complaints. To the extent they do go after the people who filed these complaints, they're completely undercutting their own case that any kind of change is needed.

 

[Coco]

A year isn't that long within the context of a lifetime and I would expect that Coughlin had at least enough money to live on for a year as a successful elite figure skater.

40% of Americans don't have reserves to cover emergency expenses between $500-$1,000. I'm paraphrasing, but it's in the ballpark.

I can see that you want to believe what you stated in your post, but I don't see how any of that can be known.

 

[nlloyd]

It's hard to judge people who are grieving. But if Delilah and others want to make the point that safesport needs to change their process, their behavior is proving why it is set up the way it is. People who file reports will come in for some pretty extreme forms of retaliation if they had to do so publicly.

What strikes me as odd is that those who believe that social media and the court of public opinion drove Coughlin to such desperate measures are sometimes the same people who are judging the complainants on social media and finding them dishonest etc. Do they not fear for the impact of their social media comments on these individuals?

 

[caseyedwards]

It's hard to judge people who are grieving. But if Delilah and others want to make the point that safesport needs to change their process, their behavior is proving why it is set up the way it is. People who file reports will come in for some pretty extreme forms of retaliation if they had to do so publicly. Some people who file reports might be mistaken or might be motivated to hurt someone through lying. However a lot of people who file reports are telling the truth. If they were never afforded anonymity, they would keep the information about bad actors to themselves and more would suffer.

If any friend of John's truly wants to make a positive change here, they will focus on safesport and not on the people who filed these complaints. To the extent they do go after the people who filed these complaints, they're completely undercutting their own case that any kind of change is needed.

Everyone must think of what being put on that suspended list does to a person! Coughlin lost all his jobs! His life in Skating was destroyed. He was never going to work again. His life was over. He was guilty because he was on that list. His name was joined with rapists and abusers because he was on that list. The list means you are an evil monster.

 

[Japanfan]

No one is saying they can’t mourn him. But they are choosing to mourn him publicly and thus their actions have consequences.

Again, this isn’t about them but about the victims. The skaters choosing to mourn their friend while ignoring what he might have done on a public platform with large audiences is damaging to both the Coughlin’s alleged victims and any other victims who may wish to come forward. They could have could have chosen to mourn silently. There are those who haven’t said anything yet about either Coughlin or the alleged victims. But for those who aired their grief, for those who ignored the alleged victim and for those who went as far as to defend him, they can’t not be held responsible for the harm they can potentially cause.

Enabling alleged victims to come forward with their stories is far more important than these skaters publicly mourning the alleged accused. Victims have trouble enough trouble with processing what has happened, dealing with public public and private reaction and the hurdles in place getting to be believed. I can’t support skaters who make it even harder for them in the name of grief.

Grieving isn’t an all-access pass for problematic behaviour.

Although you make valid points and I agree with you, it's very likely that the skaters haven't even thought about the situation from that perspective. They lost a friend they have fond memories of, and may be grieving, and their instinct was probably just to express condolences and support each other.

Spokespeople from various federations could have sent the message that it was important to respect the alleged victims and therefore best to express grief and give condolences in private. This would have been affirming in terms of taking allegations of sexual misconduct/misconduct in the sport seriously and supporting victims who allege misconduct to come forward.

But, not federations did that.

 

[Japanfan]

40% of Americans don't have reserves to cover emergency expenses between $500-$1,000. I'm paraphrasing, but it's in the ballpark.

I can see that you want to believe what you stated in your post, but I don't see how any of that can be known.

Most Americans aren't elite figure skaters and figure skating is a very expensive sport. Most skaters come from relative wealth (certainly in relation to me), but no, not all.

But you are correct, I do not know John's financial status.

Also, for the many Americans who live paycheck to paycheck and became unable to work or get into a situation that requires expensive legal or medical bills, there is the dole and food stamps. Legal Aid for those who can't afford a lawyer. Were John really poor, he had those resources available to him. And yes, I do know that too many poor Americans' lives are ruined by serious medical issues. But I'd wager that John does not fit in that category.

I understand that people are trying to make sense of John's tragic passing. But a year without work just doesn't make sense to me as a reason. I think he would have gotten a lot of support with a Go Fund Me campaign had he stayed alive to benefit from it.

In any case, I digress. And I don't want to speculate on the reasons any further, because it is rather irrelevant in light of the seemingly senseless loss of life for a talented and well-loved man with much of his life ahead of him.

I wish his loved ones strength and fortitude in comes to terms with this tragedy.

 

[Deleted member 40371]

What is the purpose of this trash list ?, make it easy for people to guess who could be accuser ?, make it to the list and you are not the accuser, so reckless and counterproductive this list is...

 

[zoe111]

No one- No one on earth is preventing any “victim” from standing up and saying what they want about poor John!!

This. John was a friend. They are allowed to mourn publicly and have it not have anything to do with the victim. Guys- this is not the same as publicly supporting someone accused of malfeasance while he’s alive and the investigation is ongoing. This man DIED. Repeat- died. Took his life. He was well loved and all the skaters have said publicly that they don’t know the accusations details but that they are grieving the John they know. Publicly. And that’s ok and I think the bashing of people mourning needs to stop.

 

[Inessence]

I see Jonny Weir has clapped back on Twitter.

ETA: He deleted it.

 

[Stephori]

Two of the allegations against Coughlin come from minors.

Even if we’re talking about a consensual sexual behaviour between him and a minor, that would still qualify as harassment at best.

ETA: I read the rest of it. So sexual conduct between a 19 year old and 16 year old would be ok as long as there is no power imbalance?

The most prevalent age of consent in United states is 16. In those states, the answer to your question is "yes". In states where the age of consent is 17 or 18, no it would not be ok.

 

[Frau Muller]

Wasn't Coughlin employed as a coach in Dalilah's program?

Can somebody please answer this question?

 

[starrynight]

No. Just no. Right now for the skaters it’s about losing John. You’ve no idea how they feel about the victim and it’s just this kind of sentiment that I find hugely disturbing. It’s wildly inappropriate for anyone to tell them ‘he may or may not have done something wrong so you’d better not mourn him’. And making a list is harassment and completely psychotic

It’s a product of our times that people go on the attack on social media with no mercy. There’s real culture of anger and outrage. Technology dehumanises the targets - I doubt they could say these things to the skaters’ faces.

There’s also a certain type of person that latches onto these things just to find any excuse to abuse people online as well. Next week it will be something different. Some of the twitter accounts that are hunting skaters down are just full of all kinds of attacking behaviour on a variety of topics.

Also I suspect that list also is influenced by certain fans wanting to go after skaters they didn’t like before this saga and are using it as ammunition.

It’s really nice being able to have contact with skaters through social media and I think it’s a positive for the platform of the sport. But unfortunately it’s a double edged sword and it’s being used against them at the moment. My recommendation would be for skaters to disengage from social media for a while.

 

[Japanfan]

This. John was a friend. They are allowed to mourn publicly and have it not have anything to do with the victim. Guys- this is not the same as publicly supporting someone accused of malfeasance while he’s alive and the investigation is ongoing. This man DIED. Repeat- died. Took his life. He was well loved and all the skaters have said publicly that they don’t know the accusations details but that they are grieving the John they know. Publicly. And that’s ok and I think the bashing of people mourning needs to stop.

I can see both sides of the argument.

It could be really painful for the victims who alleged misconduct to have to read tributes to JC, especially knowing they will never receive any closure.

That's why I suggested above the federations might have advised skaters to share their grief and condolences in private. It would have acknowledged that sexual misconduct is a serious issue in the sport.

But OTOH, innocent until proven guilty.

I don't think there is a right answer here, kind of a damned if you do and damned if you don't situation.

 

[GreatLakesGal]

New York Times' Jeré Longman wrote an article that will be in the print edition on Tuesday (Jan. 22): Skating Is Familiar With Scandal. Now It Is Confronting Something Grimmer.

"Coughlin’s story reflects both an enhanced effort to construct a safety net to protect athletes against sexual impropriety and the imperfections that remain in that web, not just in figure skating, but in every sport."

Thanks for posting this, Sylvia. Good to finally get some reporting on this story from a reputable journalist with a history of competently covering figure skating.

Especially interesting to me was learning about SafeSport's underfunding & backlog issues as I had been wondering about this comment someone made on the GoFundMe site:

"My husbands Suspension was recently rescinded by SafeSport nearly a year after it was publicly posted. He had already been cleared by police, SBI and our DA’s Office before SafeSport issued a public Suspension over the same accusations."

 

[starrynight]

That's why I suggested above the federations might have advised skaters to share their grief and condolences in private. It would have acknowledged that sexual misconduct is a serious issue in the sport.

.

The issue is that all of this unfolded in real time in an environment of zero information. It’s easy to stand back a few days later and look at it all differently. Again, the problem with social media is that everything is instant.

Maybe a few days later one can say this or that should have happened, but at the time I don’t see how the feds could have reacted. Only the US Fed could have had any standing and I don’t even know if that Fed could even comment or even have the knowledge or ability to - as far as I understand Safe Sport aren’t at liberty to discuss the accusations - after all the only sources out there are anonymous ones because they are not allowed to comment publicly.

The only the thing now that the Feds can do is provide support to its skaters who have been on the receiving end of online bullying.

 

[caitie]

I can’t support skaters who make it even harder for them in the name of grief. Grieving isn’t an all-access pass for problematic behaviour.

I strongly agree with this. I think the problem with the list is that it includes people who did not display any problematic behavior. I do not think a simple post dedicated to the memory of a friend who has committed suicide, even if it’s under the cloud of an ongoing investigation, is problematic unless it fails to toe the line of not suggesting that their good experience with him is the only experience. I thought Grant’s tweet was awful where he said the only memory anyone should have of John is that he was a great person. I thought Gracie’s post where she said we all have our own truths and I’ll miss the John I knew was fine.

Even the person who wrote the list didn’t want to be publicly associated with it, and the person who posted it on twitter ultimately deleted it and explained over and over that she hadn’t written the provacative “Trash People in Figure Skating” title and didn’t mind skaters mourning their friend as long as it didn’t cross a line. The list made no distinction as to what the line was, and it included people who’d just donated to John’s family (like, does anyone not feel sorry for them??), who posted simple and respectful tributes or liked them.

It just went overboard imho. BUT I do think it’s revealing when you look at it and see the support the community has shown for John and wonder if it is doing anything at all for the anonymous victims. I personally find many of the tributes posted to have been quite callous of the skaters if they personally know who the first accuser is, as some of them allegedly do. I have lost respect for several ppl in the skating community and am extremely troubled by what I fear the accusers are probably going through right now.

 

[2sk8]

I strongly agree with this. I think the problem with the list is that it includes people who did not display any problematic behavior. I do not think a simple post dedicated to the memory of a friend who has committed suicide, even if it’s under the cloud of an ongoing investigation, is problematic unless it fails to toe the line of not suggesting that their good experience with him is the only experience. I thought Grant’s tweet was awful where he said the only memory anyone should have of John is that he was a great person. I thought Gracie’s post where she said we all have our own truths and I’ll miss the John I knew was fine.

Even the person who wrote the list didn’t want to be publicly associated with it, and the person who posted it on twitter ultimately deleted it and explained over and over that she hadn’t written the provacative “Trash People in Figure Skating” title and didn’t mind skaters mourning their friend as long as it didn’t cross a line. The list made no distinction as to what the line was, and it included people who’d just donated to John’s family (like, does anyone not feel sorry for them??), who posted simple and respectful tributes or liked them.

It just went overboard imho. BUT I do think it’s revealing when you look at it and see the support the community has shown for John and wonder if it is doing anything at all for the anonymous victims. I personally find many of the tributes posted to have been quite callous of the skaters if they personally know who the first accuser is, as some of them allegedly do. I have lost respect for several ppl in the skating community and am extremely troubled by what I fear the accusers are probably going through right now.

This list does appear to have been removed, both from Twitter and the original Tumblr source, which I think is a good thing. For all the talk about why it is a "good" list because we need to support victims, I see no way it supports the victims in this case. Realistically, they've had the emotional trauma of coming forward, pursuing their claims, the trauma of feeling some responsibility for a suicide influenced by social media (not saying they should, just that they likely do), then watching social media set up a list to harass other skaters - what if someone else was physically hurt? attacked? Would you want that additional burden in that circumstance? You're in the skating community, you know these people...the fact that the creator tried to hide her authorship says it all, doesn't it?

I'm troubled by how this process was handled for Coughlin too - but basically, the social media attacks didn't help him and don't help his accusers.