People Attempting to Undermine Safe Sport

Yes, that is apparently her. She has records under “Wilson” and “Willson”.

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BCs are required for those with positions in the IEA organization. Coaches are not covered in that policy.

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Interesting. So it’s ok for COACHES to fail a background check… just no one else in the organization…

The only way to keep her from the IEA is to have SafeSport add her to the sanctioned list, for her well-documented offenses, which they will quickly confirm by the legal records kept in Virginia and other states court systems, in which she’s committed criminal acts that violate SafeSport. Because it’s a matter of public record and she plead guilty to many of them, they simply throw her on the list, after confirming her identity. Toss in her involvement with TN and SafeSport would have no reservations about putting her on the list. Then IEA would not allow her to ever hold any position with the organization or as a coach, as they are obligated to obey the SafeSport rules, as a USEF affiliate.

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in order for SS to take action, they probably need to be informed.

She is compliant as far as SS testing, but SS is not doing background checks on general members.

For my sport background checks are required as part of the coaches certification process. This is done by the federation , not SS.

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You can get insurance coverage if abuse happens on your property/business. Not if you commit the abuse. It would cover someone teaching/working on your property (each policy would have specifics).

This is a common coverage added to church policies (building and sermon coverage policies etc)

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Isn’t that what Michael Jackson did…settle and not admit guilt ?

Someone needs to inform SS.

I agree that Safe Sport would be the entity to contact.

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I have absolutely no connection with any of this: I’m a Brit, but it does occur to me that someone who committed crimes in 2001 might have grown up and changed? That list of crimes sounds like a youth with serious social issues and in a bad place.

The root of this whole problem seems to be the lack of accredited, professional trainers in the USA, since any Tom, Dick or Harry can start teaching or coaching. The USEF seems to have a hard enough time running equestrian sport let alone dealing with it’s members. Most other sports do have recognized trainers/coaches with formal training and some type of registration which allows bad apples to be cleared out.

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I know lots of people who teach lots of sports and none have any governing body accreditation. Maybe at some big time level, but these horse trainers in question are not a big time level training barn.

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I agree that her crimes from twenty years ago are likely not overly concerning today. What is concerning is her aiding and abetting a permanently banned person right now - a person whose crime was sodomizing a minor.

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A few hundred posts ago, her actual arrest record was shared on the thread, but has since been deleted. The selling alcohol to minors charge was from 2001. But the rest of her arrests span a period of more than a decade, with many of the burglary related charges happening closer to 2010, I think, and some of the DUI/DWI charges within the last few years. There were multiple driving related charges…

As I said earlier on the thread, I’m all for someone turning their life around, and having a great 2nd act. But this person did deliberately go to work for a guy who has been banned for life by SafeSport because he sodomized a minor. He was convicted of this in another state. She then proceeded to help this man grow a lesson program targeting teen girls, and proceeded to help him find ways around the SafeSport ban so that these teenagers could attend local shows.

Hmmm.

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This. This times 100.

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Agreed. Sarah doesn’t have to associate with Navarro. She can work to get her life on track by associating with any of the multitude of other trainer/barns (in the very horsey NoVa area) who are credible and respected in the industry. Teaching children involves an added responsibility, as the SS training teaches us, and by associating with TN, Sarah is making choices that hurt her credibility, and her choices reflect her own sense of judgement (or lack thereof). The same goes for LTD shows, who has been noticeably silent on this subject lately.

If Navarro limited his sphere to adult amateurs, who have no interest in rated shows, he’d actually be operating within the rules and would improve his credibility.

Sarah trains at River Chase and Wulf Crest. Sarah has no plausible deniability here. By associating with TN, she is a liability to both USEF/SS and IEA.

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EXACTLY. This is the thing that irritates me the MOST about this guy. If his business catered to adult ammys, boarding, etc, I wouldn’t worry about it the same way.

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I’m going to chime in…… I’m someone who had an experience, as an adult, with Tom Navarro. Not one that you make a police report about, but share with friends because it was creepy. You don’t have to be a kid to be this guys target.

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I’m so sorry for your experience. But I can’t say I’m surprised. Men who behave inappropriately with women, whether criminally or creepily, don’t ever change. At least that’s what I’ve seen over my 50 years in this sport.

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The fact that he is still being creepy makes it even more confusing why these women are working so hard to still work with/for him.

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This happened even before his conviction and safe sport suspension ( and before message boards and Internet forums were the norm) . So I cannot attest to the longevity of his creepiness!

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