Stranger Danger … Only Part of the Problem

We are bombarded daily with news of political, entertainment and sports celebrities being accused of bullying, harassment and sexual misconduct.

The sport of tennis has not escaped its share of salacious stories.

Bill Tilden, one of the paramount players in the game, was twice arrested and convicted of sex with underage boys in the late 1940s. After his release from prison, he was shunned by the tennis world, and because of the onerous conditions of his parole, he could not earn a living through tennis. This man, born to wealth, who once traipsed and pranced his way through regal venues across the continents, died nearly penniless.

Pete Fischer was an early coach of Pete Sampras who constructed the game that carried Sampras to multiple championships. Fischer was a Los Angeles pediatrician who was convicted and sentenced in 1998 for abusing a few of his young patients. Although he still hoped to coach, he could no longer practice medicine.

Most recently, South African Bob Hewitt was convicted in 2015 of the rapes and sexual assault of two minor girls he coached. Although he holds 15 major titles and a career Grand Slam in both men’s and mixed doubles, he was permanently expelled from the Tennis Hall of Fame in 2016.

Is there a way to prevent stories like these from happening?

Although teaching children about stranger danger is a good cautionary lesson, 90 percent of sexual misconduct occurs during coach/student relationships. That is one of the first facts I discovered when I took the online SafeSport training program, created by the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) to help coaches create and promote safe training environments that allow every athlete the chance to succeed.

According to USOC, as many as one out of eight competitive athletes experience some form of sexual abuse or assault within their sport.

SafeSport training “examines the coach-athlete relationship, defines the six primary forms of misconduct: Bullying, harassment and hazing, as well as emotional, physical and sexual misconduct; it describes sexual abuse and identifies the signs and symptoms of sexual abuse; and discusses how to respond and report misconduct.”

The training is offered free—simply log on to Training.TeamUSA.org. There is a pathway for coaches, and one for parents. If your professional affiliations require continuing education credits, SafeSport can be applied toward those needs. And this training is applied across the board to all sports.

This is a comprehensive program. It provides coaches and parents with guidelines for spotting predatory behavior, and some clear rules for reporting misconduct. For example, within a sport, abusers do not stand out because they look bad. Rather, they often present great credentials and public behavior. SafeSport lists some possible red flags for spotting them. You will certainly want to watch for what is called grooming—isolating a child from the group with promises of special treatment. And you will learn what your reporting obligations are if you witness suspicious behavior. Locker room talk with minors is sexual misconduct, and is prohibited. If you are a coach, SafeSport provides some tools to protect you from malicious accusations. Using only common sense to address these issues might find you sliding on some slippery HarTru.

Is taking the SafeSport online training worth the time?

For me, it fulfilled a professional requirement for continuing education credits. After completing the course, I reflected on my experiences in the sport and realized that I had been bullied, hazed and was even a victim of the early stages of grooming.

I cannot recall any time that I witnessed improper behaviors, but I am happy that SafeSport has taught me how to respond when I do.