Keeping Track of Criminal Cases & SafeSport Suspensions in Skating

tylersf

Well-Known Member
Messages
494
That's really not funny, given the mental and physical abuse of athletes that SafeSport investigates.
Clothing/costumes have been known to cause mental anxiety...
 

Sylvia

TBD
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80,287
Sylvia posted that article by ESPN a few months ago about the struggles of SafeSport that noted almost half the decisions are being overturned or reduced on appeal, often due to technicalities and other questionable reasons. While that continues to be the case, at least posting an interim ruling serves as a notification by default. If advocating for the safety of athletes is the priority, it's a workaround that would help them make informed decisions.
Link to my post with relevant excerpts from the article that was published in February: https://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/th...nsions-in-skating.105778/page-13#post-6217992

ETA another related thread in GSD:
 
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Judy

Well-Known Member
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5,547
In Canada, there have now been enough complaints about sport organizations investigating themselves (and doing a crap job of it) that the federal government is setting up an independent investigative body similar to SafeSport. The head of it - the "sport integrity commissioner" - has just been appointed.

Also, a group of sport researchers is asking the federal sports minister to review the Own The Podium program, on the basis that using medals as the main measure of performance leads to unhealthy training environments. https://www.cbc.ca/sports/former-ar...-first-sport-integrity-commissioner-1.6409749
Ugh no! My niece works for Own the Podium. She says they are amazing to work for. We might as well eliminate competing and winning in every coached sport then.
 

Lanja

Active Member
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31
Own the Podium could be a great place to work with awesome colleagues and fantastic perks and still be promoting an unhealthy philosophy.

My husband used to work for an oil services company. It was by far and away his favourite workplace. The products that he worked on are used every day to destroy our planet.
 

Sylvia

TBD
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80,287
"A federal judge is allowing a former competitive figure skater’s [Maurizi] lawsuit alleging sexual abuse by his skating coach [Callaghan] that started during the 1970s in Buffalo to proceed against the Buffalo Skating Club." (Buffalo, NY article, May 16):
A message left with a lawyer representing the Buffalo Skating Club was not returned.
Callaghan, who was a coach at the Buffalo Skating Club from 1976 to 1981, said in an affidavit filed with the court that “I have a meritorious defense to this action and deny the allegations asserted by Craig Maurizi.”
Last year, U.S. Figure Skating, the governing body of the sport, agreed to pay $1.45 million to settle a lawsuit from another figure skater [Adam Schmidt] who claimed he was sexually assaulted many times as a teenager in a Detroit ice rink by Callaghan, now 75.

ETA - article from July 2020 when the original federal civil action was filed in Buffalo by Maurizi:
 
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Artistic Skaters

Drawing Figures
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8,150
Update to a case previously discussed:
A former Central Florida figure skating coach pleaded guilty to sexually battering a former student when she was just 12 years old. Andrei Berekhovski admitted he was one of the child’s primary caretakers when he sexually battered her back in 2005.

Berekhovski faced 30 years in prison for his crime, but Judge Renee Roche accepted a plea deal for three years behind bars with credit for time served if Berekhovski pleaded guilty to one of three sexual battery counts. The former coach will also register as a sexual predator and surrender both his Russian and U.S. passports.
News 6 learned that a second woman came forward with allegations of abuse by Berekhovski after the initial story went public. However, as part of the plea agreement, the court will not be allowed to bring forth any additional charges related to the second woman.
 

Judy

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5,547
Own the Podium could be a great place to work with awesome colleagues and fantastic perks and still be promoting an unhealthy philosophy.

My husband used to work for an oil services company. It was by far and away his favourite workplace. The products that he worked on are used every day to destroy our planet.
Own the Podium works with coaches only .. my convo dates back to early Dec with my niece .. but it’s a structured plan to get an athlete to the next step. If you won a bronze then the goal is silver etc. however, it is more complicated and detailed then what I’m capable of explaining. They aren’t abusing the athletes.
 

antmanb

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12,639
Own the Podium works with coaches only .. my convo dates back to early Dec with my niece .. but it’s a structured plan to get an athlete to the next step. If you won a bronze then the goal is silver etc. however, it is more complicated and detailed then what I’m capable of explaining. They aren’t abusing the athletes.
We know there is a problem with figure skating coaching and the unhealthy things are being promoted, from eating disorders, to abusive coaching situations, deification of male partners that leads to further abusive situations.

The coaches are the ones responsible for this, so it isn’t some giant leap of logic to think people who only work with coaches might be part of the same problem. Obviously not all coaches are bad but to think this organisation is completely blameless just because they don’t work with skaters doesn’t sound right to me.
 

nikjil

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705

barbk

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8,259
Disgusting! I know these deals spare the victim from testifying and avoid juries who can be tricky with these case but three years is ridiculous!
I wrote to our DA when the newspaper recently reported that two of the adults in a theft troika responsible for >$100K in porch piracy plus multiple auto thefts were given probation rather than jail time. He nicely wrote back and invited me to meet with him. I'm going to do that. I accept that plea bargains are the norm and that the system would collapse without them, but it increasingly feels like they have totally left the idea of punishment behind. Judges, too:
 

overedge

Mayor of Carrot City
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35,856
There is a new suspension listed on Safesport:
Christopher YoungHoustonTXU.S. Figure SkatingAllegations of MisconductTemporary Suspension05/17/2022U.S. Center for SafeSport
 

overedge

Mayor of Carrot City
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35,856
The Canadian Office of Sport Integrity opens on June 20. This is the organization that is going to provide third-party dispute resolution services, and also investigate athlete complaints of abuse and harassment (because the national sport orgs are doing a crap job of it themselves).

There was a story (paywalled) saying IIRC that the office is only going to have three staff members to begin with. Given all the complaints that have been made public in the last few months, I think those three staffers are going to be overwhelmed with work very quickly :(
 

Artistic Skaters

Drawing Figures
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8,150
Article regarding the guilty plea by Dane Ayers:
A former ice dancer training in Southwest Florida and arrested in 2020 on charges of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old Lee County girl will serve a year in jail.

Dane Francis Ayers, 22, on Monday pleaded guilty to lewd and lascivious conduct before Lee County Judge Nicholas Thompson.

Ayers' jail time will be followed by 10 years of sex offender probation and he must register as a sex offender. He was given credit for two days in jail.
 

Frog Foot

New Member
Messages
7
There is a new suspension listed on Safesport:
Christopher YoungHoustonTXU.S. Figure SkatingAllegations of MisconductTemporary Suspension05/17/2022U.S. Center for SafeSport
Any idea what this case is about? What has happened to Sappenfield case, it has been forever and nothing.
 

once_upon

Better off than 2020
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30,221
Oh come on guys, in the long history of investigations of sexual misconduct, the Sappenfield case is still in its infancy.
 

overedge

Mayor of Carrot City
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35,856
Rick Westhead, a reporter for TSN in Canada, has been doing some excellent investigative work re athlete abuse and national sport organizations dealing with it - or, more often, not dealing with it.

According to him, since 2018 national sport organizations in Canada that get federal funding have been required to make an annual report to the govt on how many abuse/harassment/bullying complaints they dealt with. He filed a freedom of information request to get those reports. Skate Canada reported exactly one complaint during that time. Here's his Tweet with the numbers:


Either Skate Canada has a very narrow definition of "formal" or its complaint system is completely dysfunctional. Or maybe both....
 

Yyzskater

Active Member
Messages
92
Rick Westhead, a reporter for TSN in Canada, has been doing some excellent investigative work re athlete abuse and national sport organizations dealing with it - or, more often, not dealing with it.

According to him, since 2018 national sport organizations in Canada that get federal funding have been required to make an annual report to the govt on how many abuse/harassment/bullying complaints they dealt with. He filed a freedom of information request to get those reports. Skate Canada reported exactly one complaint during that time. Here's his Tweet with the numbers:


Either Skate Canada has a very narrow definition of "formal" or its complaint system is completely dysfunctional. Or maybe both....
How is this possible when Skate Canada recently suspended a figure skating coach for alleged inappropriate communication with a skater (minor)? I'm sure this falls under SafeSports...

And to me, a suspension (interim or permanent) is as "formal" as it gets.
 

overedge

Mayor of Carrot City
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35,856
@Yyzskater in the replies to the Tweet that I linked, there are responses from people in several different sports saying that the numbers are way under-reported.

This also shows IMO that no one in the federal government who received these reports knows enough about amateur sport to notice that those numbers are suspicious. Or they knew and didn't want to rock the boat by raising concerns, which is equally bad.....
 

Yyzskater

Active Member
Messages
92
@Yyzskater in the replies to the Tweet that I linked, there are responses from people in several different sports saying that the numbers are way under-reported.

This also shows IMO that no one in the federal government who received these reports knows enough about amateur sport to notice that those numbers are suspicious. Or they knew and didn't want to rock the boat by raising concerns, which is equally bad.....
Unfortunately, without auditing the responses, I doubt any effort will be made to have the real numbers reflected. There doesn't seem to be any effort to actually make sports safe for young athletes.
 

overedge

Mayor of Carrot City
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35,856
So...it looks like the Canadian federal govt is getting a little fed up with sport organizations that it funds and that don't take abuse complaints seriously. The Dept of Canadian Heritage, which includes sport, has frozen Hockey Canada's federal funding until it makes some changes in how it handles those kinds of complaints. https://www.moosejawtoday.com/natio...-over-handling-of-assault-allegations-5506854
 
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MacMadame

Doing all the things
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58,496
I just finished taking the Safe Sport training and I have thoughts:

1) Unlike some of the sexual harassment and DEI training I've taken via work, this wasn't cringy at all. They also used some good techniques to help you retain the info. My only complaint is that I'm a fast reader and the "next" and "continue" buttons often weren't enabled until a 5-10 seconds after I was done reading. :D

2) While we tend to focus on the sexual abuse part of what SS does, one-third of the training is about physical and emotional abuse including bullying, hazing, and manipulation.

3) Safe Sport has more stringent rules than some local jurisdictions. Their age of consent is 18. So when people come to these threads and argue that "the age of consent in <State> is <a lower age>, who cares? It's not SS's policy and figure skating is under SS and their rules trump the local jurisdiction's rules.

4) It turns out that there is a federal law about mandatory reporting that requires that certain adults within an NGB or amateur sports org must report suspected child abuse to law enforcement within 24 hours of finding out about it. So again, "are they a mandatory reporter in <State> is irrelevant. They are under Federal law.

5) Sexual relationships with minors is of course verboten since minors can't consent. There is an exception for two people close in age as long as their age gap is not over 3 years and there is no power imbalance. One of their examples was a coach who was 22 sleeping with an 18-year-old and this doesn't fly because there is a power imbalance. Power imbalance trumps age of consent.

6) There are a lot of guidelines designed to prevent abuse that can get a coach in trouble. This includes doing things like private communication and going places with an individual student with no other adult present.
 

once_upon

Better off than 2020
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30,221
It also seems that you can't jump to the quiz at the end if you need to stay on one slide for xx number of seconds?
 

Vagabond

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2) While we tend to focus on the sexual abuse part of what SS does, one-third of the training is about physical and emotional abuse including bullying, hazing, and manipulation.
All abuse is emotional abuse, even if it also has a sexual or other physical component. All sexual abuse involves manipulation, even when those involved do not realize it. What's more, purely emotional abuse can do as much or even more harm to the victim than sexual abuse.

These points cannot be stressed enough.
 
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