Is the USHJA covered by SafeSport, or is it free to hire any known sexual predator it wishes?
Diane Carney has not run afoul of SafeSport other than been a huge, festering boil on its ass, right?
I still think that our industry has found ways to evade regulation and some degrees of common decency for a long time. You could have stopped at the AHSA making a big loophole of room for pros who had killed horses for insurance money to still make a living, and seen the same trend.
I didnt suggest that DC be banned by safe sport, I suggested that USEF and its subsidiaries (ushja, usdf, usea) make better choices about whom they employ and support, ie where they spend their money, which is really membership money.
USHJA members and officials must comply with Safe Sport.
I think what LexinVA meant by “a seat at the table” was any desire that a person has to become an USEF official, which requires Safe Sport training and a criminal background check.
There are currently USEF members who have had criminal convictions that are committee members and R rated judges not to mention DUIs and substance abuse, so I doubt Packy wanted a seat at any table that would have been denied to him for those reasons.
I didn’t know him so I have no idea what he would have wanted.
Safe Sport is a relatively new entity and I am not aware of how long the criminal background checks have been required by USEF, nor do I know what offenses would disqualify an applicant in this day and age. Those decisions are up to USEF and aren’t spelled out anywhere that I know of.
A reminder to everyone too that SafeSport has options beyond bans or suspensions, including letters of reprimand and friendly but direct phone calls about what is appropriate and inappropriate. Our sport maybe needs the latter most of all.
I’ll add my own unfounded speculation that my first thought for that time and place for a 50-something person dying suddenly and unexpectedly was COVID-19, which can cause sudden deaths due to lack of oxygen, heart attack, and stroke, and without much if any warning. Of course there are other reasons that just happens unexpectedly.
The enhanced background checks and all that are new, AFAIK. It’s being implemented in all sports because of SafeSport, but it only covers specific people, who work for and with the NGB and the programs, from the top to the most mundane position on the front lines and contractors. Most people will not be screened.
Yes, Licensed officials and employees of USEF are subject to background checks, members aren’t.
@poltroon - thanks. And I agree on both points you made.
One further point I will make on this topic though…
and I’m going to INTENTIONALLY make this point hypothetically and remove it from the realm of actual individuals living or deceased…
If a mother is at a horse show with her child, who is a young teenager, and they are standing in the general vicinity of their coach, who is standing with a peer level professional, and with a pre-eminent figure in that particular competition scene in their area, and the peer coach tells an off color sexualized joke in a very loud way and my young teenager and I overhear it…
I’m annoyed by this. Professionals need to knock it off with stuff like that.
In the age of Safe Sport, I DEFINITELY expect the top tier professional figure in the area to say something along he lines of, “Hey there! Enough of that sort of talk. We are here to horse show and support clients and the sport - c’mon now.”
If that doesn’t happen, I take a mental note. If my own coach also realizes I am standing there, and my young teenager and myself likely both overheard this… and my own coach says nothing in the aftermath of something extra messy like this… I also take a mental note. Not a positive note.
Personally, my choice is almost always just to vote with my feet, sooner or later over stuff like this. I’m making a point of speaking up about it on these threads right now though, for the people in the back, who are equine industry professionals and rely on clients like adult ammy me, and my hypothetical teenager, for income. Please realize that we ALL need to change certain aspects of a relaxed and chummy culture in our sport in the wake of a stunning and tragic series of revelations concerning the sexual abuse of children. Be a positive part of that change… and if you or your friends coach minors… regardless of your sexual orientation… knock it off when it comes to sexualized jokes in YOUR workplace. Some of YOUR clients, who pay YOUR bills, don’t like it.
This isn’t all that complicated in my opinion. We can all still have lots of fun around horses, the barn and horse shows in general without engaging in this sort of behavior.
So…I’ve been reading a book about Cambridge Analytica. It used something called just -world hypothesis. "This is a cognitive bias where some people rely on a presumption of a fair world: the world is a fair place where ‘bad things happen for a reason’ or will be offset by some sort of ‘moral balancing’ in the universe. We found that people who displayed the JWH were, for example, more prone to victim-blaming in hypothetical scenarios of sexual assault. If the world is fair, then random bad things should not happen to innocent people, and therefore must have been a fault in the victim’s behavior. Finding ways to blame victims is psychologically prophylactic for some people because it helps them cope with anxiety induced by uncontrollable environmental threats while maintaining a comforting view that the world would still be fair to them."
I doubt it was COVID, though his area is a hotspot. He lived in a home with elderly individuals who are at high-risk for infection and fatality and they are thankfully uninfected, so far as anyone has said. His sudden passing means that they likely have nobody to complete the sale of the property that he had recently began and to help relocate them to wherever they could possibly go after their home is sold. Believe it or not, people are actually moving in and out of homes right now, but it’s definitely a dangerous game to play, especially if you are high-risk, and it’s nothing but difficulty if you are old and physically incapable.
SS can also do a partial loss of privilege and those folks don’t seem to appear on the USEF lists, just on the SS website.
The USEF has limited their list due to public outcry. people who are dead aren’t listed but on SS they are.
Years ago, when Katie Prudent was still w the Firestone’s, my husband and I were watching Mrs. Firestone in the ring. He was talking w Katie and I was standing by a very famous rider who, along w others, were turned away toward the schooling area. Famous person, out of nowhere, rather loudly said “ all you have to do to horse show is be able to muck, f***, and drive a truck”. There were lots of people around. I looked at him and said” I’m not old enough to hear that kind of talk” and walked to the other side of the group. To this day, I find him reprehensible, no matter how famous he was.
I wonder what his mother would think of that behavior? Would she be horrified, or was that kind of behavior something he grew up thinking was acceptable?
I find that shocking, but I was raised by parents who considered good manners an important part of being a human being.
Whatever the reason, some people don’t think good manners are important. It’s too bad that it takes Safe Sport to teach adults common courtesy, not to mention what is acceptable behavior where minors are concerned.
When I was first out of college, I was one of the first females hired in my role in my industry. I had to figure out how to navigate some rough going without alienating every poorly behaved guy I crossed paths with. That line, with a wink, worked well. In this instance, I gave him a withering look. I could care less what he thought of me- I, personally, never thought he really rode that well 😉
There are times when people can speak in a crass manner and there are times when people can crack crass jokes. While you are doing your job or in a random group of people are not one of them.
I feel bad for the friends and family of these crass people who get caught, but professionalism is a thing and it’s high time it comes to the horse industry.
Yes. Why don’t people understand that there is a big difference between joking with their good friends in private, and telling those same jokes and/or using that same language in public? Should be common sense.
And if one misjudges their audience, it’s not hard to apologize and not do it again. I don’t understand this acceptance of crass behavior for the general public. Everyone has made bad jokes or said something that’s not cool. It’s not hard to say sorry and adjust ones behavior.
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