George Morris on the SS list

[Joanne]

"Originally posted by caffeinated View Post
He also bragged publicly about entering dressing rooms at his pageants, so he could see naked women, with minor girls present. So, there’s that.

(sorry not sorry)"

@rollingabout

Proof? Your TDS is showing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFaQL_kv_QY

[flyingchange]

I joined and scrolled through a little bit. It was nauseating. Saw a few acquaintances on there. One, who is a big H/J rider - not a surprise. Lots of screwballs saying that this is Pelosi’s fault and that a formal congressional investigation into SS is in order. Lots of “something random that happened 50 years ago!” … people with businesses (one of the admins is a realtor in Orlando - won’t be using/recommending him ever! What a complete idiot). I left the group after maybe two minutes. Gross.

[anon6003733]

del

[anon6923113]

@Irish Ei's

More members of the FB group
Holly Hugo-Vidal
Ron Danta
Robert Ross
Vanessa Brown
Dianne DeFrancieux-Grod (sp?)

I have not really read the posts, I’m just listing names as they appear,regardless of their reasons for being there

It’s hardly a surprise, but two names obviously need to be on the list…

Candice King
Susie Hutchison

Susie’s own public Facebook page is frankly astounding. I had sympathy when the article came forward last year. No more. Sorry. This is not ok.

[CPL713]

@Texarkana agreed. I was relieved to see Beezie’s response. I just admire her so much, and was so worried she’d say something that would injure my feelings toward her lol.

As for the ones who ARE saying things that are just gross…well, at least they’re going on the record and letting us see what we’re dealing with, I suppose.

[541hunter]

@Bensmom thanks for the write up, that’s helpful for my education. I posted something else a while back with links to my state’s medical board processes, which seem closer to Safe Sport’s, though with slightly more transparent. I do think the analogy stands however, that it is not at all unheard of for internal investigations and sanctioning to occur in professional organizations based on alleged misconduct. However, I’m not a lawyer, just a lowly higher ed marketing professional with a hot head and some time between meetings, so I could very well be missing a key piece of the pie!

[TooManyBays]

@Jealoushe

Robert Dover - who has a lot going on inclduing his vegan tack line
Bernie Traurig - Equestrian Coach.com
Eric Lamaze (this pains me to type because I love Eric and how much he has overcome)
Chris Hector of Horse Magazine https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/wh…/hector-chris/

A small list to start of those to unfollow.

Before everyone starts throwing the baby out with the bath water, I would give this a few days to sink in. There are many BNTs that know George on a close personal level. If one of your good friends was given a SS ban, you might act the same. Disbelief, saying it can’t be true, SS must have made a mistake, etc.
Once the shock wears off they may play a different tune. I would give them the benefit of the doubt until they can have a few days to think it over.

Edit: I’m not talking about the people who cliniced with him once and are having little meltdowns on social media. I’m talking about those who know him very well.

[Texarkana]

@CPL713

@Texarkana agreed. I was relieved to see Beezie’s response. I just admire her so much, and was so worried she’d say something that would injure my feelings toward her lol.

As for the ones who ARE saying things that are just gross…well, at least they’re going on the record and letting us see what we’re dealing with, I suppose.

I understand how tough it is to resolve your feelings when someone you deeply care about is painted to be someone other than what you thought they were.

But the lack of human decency is unreal. I don’t know how many more times I can stomach inappropriate statements out of the mouths of my childhood idols. It’s a relief every time someone with a voice (like Beezie) says the right thing publicly, regardless of their personal beliefs.

[anon6003733]

del

[Tiramit]

@anon6003733

Did you catch dannyboy’s post 443? It’s a good read. In it they describe riding since the early 60s and attending GM clinics in the 70s. So almost five decades ago. I’m assuming these are the clinics referred to?

Nobody, particularly youngsters, was calling anybody out back then. It would have been the death knell of your equestrian existence.

I 100% agree with your see something, step up and say something viewpoint and thankfully the next generation is learning the skills to do so. I just don’t think it can be applied retroactively with any kind of remonstrance towards a young rider immersed in the cultural times of half a century ago.

Thank you, I did. My impression has been she’s attended them over the years, not only in the 70s, based on this section:

@dannyboy

I would never ride in a George Morris clinic, but I watched many of them, starting way back, I don’t know, in the 1970’s maybe. I would never put up with his abusiveness. “You’re fat” “You’re dumber than a box of rocks” “you’re a dumb blonde” and so on. I watched him put his hands all over a young teenage boy at the first clinic I ever saw, “correcting his position” and vowed right then never to ride with him. Did it affect my career? Maybe. I certainly could never put “rode with George Morris” on my resume, but I considered it a worthwhile trade-off.

and then at a recent clinic, as stated with this comment:

@dannyboy

I saw GM essentially molest some random boy in a public setting at a clinic some 40 years ago under the guise of correcting his position and I was shocked at the time by what he was doing. No, the accusations don’t surprise me in the least. Back then, no one said a word. In fact, I’ve never seen anyone publicly take GM on for his rampant verbal abuse of a child (or adult) at a clinic, even recently. Can you imagine what would happen to them if they did? Is there anyone here with the guts to do that?

By her/his (?) own comments, Dannyboy attended GM clinics and watched what she calls abuse over the span of 40 years. I’m not trying to pick on this poster specifically, only using her as an example of how people who have claimed abuse did nothing for a very long time. That’s on all of us.

[Lord_Helpus]

@Texarkana

Your statement that I have bolded is untrue. It’s a misconception spewed frequently by those in opposition to SafeSport, yet is clearly disproven in the SafeSport policies:

https://uscenterforsafesport.org/wp-…yperlinked.pdf

A simplified graphic can be found here:

https://uscenterforsafesport.org/wp-…-Process-2.pdf

From pp. 23-24 of the policies:

Penalties like “permanently ineligible” are not handed down by SafeSport lightly.

Also, after Rob Gage’s death, I learned a wealth of knowledge about the inner workings of SafeSport. One of the greatest things I learned is that the use of temporary suspensions and act of “blasting names,” which was originally done if the original intake process revealed a credible complaint, has more or less been abandoned.

[Bensmom]

@541hunter

@Bensmom thanks for the write up, that’s helpful for my education. I posted something else a while back with links to my state’s medical board processes, which seem closer to Safe Sport’s, though with slightly more transparent. I do think the analogy stands however, that it is not at all unheard of for internal investigations and sanctioning to occur in professional organizations based on alleged misconduct. However, I’m not a lawyer, just a lowly higher ed marketing professional with a hot head and some time between meetings, so I could very well be missing a key piece of the pie!

Honestly, in some states, I think you are correct. I’ve spoken with other licensing Board staff and been quite surprised that their process is not as intense as ours! This has been really interesting for me to look into how SS is different than what we do – and we tend to give “more” due process and err on the side of being fair to everyone as much as possible. Balancing the safety of the public and the protection of people’s licenses can be tricky sometimes, and we do see quite a bit of “I didn’t want to pay my bill, so I’m filing a complaint” behavior. But, the system usually works in those instances, and the investigation catches that.

If SS’s investigations are as thorough as ours are, I’d be satisfied with that. Because I can say that by the time we take action on someone’s license, it is pretty indisputable that it is justified.

(Of course, sometimes I have an identity crisis, having been accused of being the worst dictatorial prosecutor ever – one lawyer said I’m the “antichrist” Seriously. :lol: And then on the other side, when we don’t immediately revoke licenses, we are the Keystone Cops and totally inept. You just can’t win!)

[TooManyBays]

@anon6003733

On that note I think I read that Eric Lamaze’s statement has been deleted

Yeah, I’m sure many of these statements will disappear after a few days. Shock and disbelief make people say things they haven’t thought through.

[Tiramit]

@Texarkana

Can we at least give Beezie Madden a hand for not being despicable and actually making an appropriate statement? :applause:

And Robert Ridland at least dodged the question.

I was thankful for Jennifer Baas’ insight.

Agreed!

[Texarkana]

@TooManyBays

Before everyone starts throwing the baby out with the bath water, I would give this a few days to sink in. There are many BNTs that know George on a close personal level. If one of your good friends was given a SS ban, you might act the same. Disbelief, saying it can’t be true, SS must have made a mistake, etc.
Once the shock wears off they may play a different tune. I would give them the benefit of the doubt until they can have a few days to think it over.

So when my close friend was ripped out of our workplace in handcuffs on charges of statutory rape of a minor, I will agree that it was tough to resolve. I didn’t know how to feel. To this day, it’s still hard to believe. I never had even the slightest inkling he could be involved in such a thing, even though he was found guilty in court and may still be in jail.

But you know what I didn’t do? Take to the internet to trash the alleged victim and the judicial system. I know everyone processes things differently, but you also have a level of personal responsibility to be a decent human being. Yes, you may be angry for your friend and want to believe the allegations are untrue. Yet there are also other parties involved. Not to sound trite, but we all know there are two sides to every story and it is short-sighted to become utterly disrespectful when you only have your own perspective. Historical data indicates the majority of reports of sexual misconduct with a minor stem from a place of truth. To outright blame the victim and/or the process is not only in poor taste, it defies logic.

[Jealoushe]

I know it’s incredibly frustrating right now but anyone who hasn’t FB needs to be on the CoTH article and just repeating the truth about the investigation and the process…we need to help people understand the truth.

[fordtraktor]

@Tiramit

Thank you, I did. My impression has been she’s attended them over the years, not only in the 70s, based on this section:

then at a recent clinic, as stated with this comment:

By her/his (?) own comments, Dannyboy attended GM clinics and watched what she calls abuse over the span of 40 years. I’m not trying to pick on this poster specifically, only using her as an example of how people who have claimed abuse did nothing for a very long time. That’s on all of us.

That’s kind of a stretch. I have watched many of his recent clinics, on Livestream from WEF over recent years. It doesn’t mean I gave him any money or saw any abuse or was a silent observer of abuse. I am sure many, many COTH posters watched those clinics. None of this is “on me.” I’ve never met the man in person.

[anon6003733]

del

[springdaisy]

@Irish Ei's

Junior Johnson
Scott Canard
Teddi Ismond
Katie Prudent, under an alias username

I’m friends with Scott Canard on Facebook and saw an “I stand with George” post from him today, which has now disintegrated into the same kind of comments we’ve seen everywhere else. Guess this is one way to weed out my “friends” list.

[Tiramit]

@fordtraktor

That’s kind of a stretch. I have watched many of his recent clinics, on Livestream from WEF over recent years. It doesn’t mean I gave him any money or saw any abuse or was a silent observer of abuse. I am sure many, many COTH posters watched those clinics. None of this is “on me.” I’ve never met the man in person. I taught myself to ride with HSE, though, so I do owe him that, I guess?

“All of us” as mentioned in the sentence I wrote before that one and my earlier, quoted post. The people who heard / helped spread the rumors and still rode with or attended his clinics. Why would you think I meant someone like you who had never had any connection with the man?

@ohmyheck, all’s well!