Saturday, July 28, 2012

USA Swimming Child-Abuse Scandal

Child-abuse scandals have been in the news quite a lot lately. The Penn State/Jerry Sandusky scandal has attracted the most attention ("Jerry Sandusky and Penn State's Punishment"), but there has also been the Horace Mann School scandal ("Not to Beat a Dead Horse, But...") where it appears that from the 1970s to the 1990s there were multiple instances of sexual abuse of students by teachers that were ignored or condoned by (some) school administrators. And there was also the story of the Assistant Principal at Leland High School who was arrested unlawful sexual conduct with a minor ("Celibacy and the Pastoral Abuse of Minors"). And so here's another one: USA Swimming is "home" to the largest child molestation scandal in U.S. sports history ("After Paterno -- now what about USA Swimming's child molestation scandal?"), but evidently little has been done about it:
With more than 50 coaches already banned for life for sexually molesting minor swimmers and many more still coaching at local swim clubs, not a single individual or board member at USA Swimming has been held accountable. Unlike Penn State, which cleaned house, those persons who had extensive knowledge about pedophile swim coaches and failed to act in any manner, resulting in countless additional incidents of sexual exploitation and molestation, have not only kept their jobs but have not received any kind of reprimand whatsoever (emphasis added). 
I think it's interesting that this scandal has received almost no coverage unlike the coverage the Catholic church gets when of its own is accused, caught, or convicted (which should make one wonder about journalist biases). One would hope that someone or some institution (e.g., the US Olympic Committee, Congress) will do the right thing and clean house at USA Swimming, in such a way that our swimmers don't "pay" for the crimes of others (like current and former Penn State football players are for the crimes of Jerry Sandusky, Joe Paterno, and Penn State officials - "Jerry Sandusky and Penn State's Punishment").

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