McLain Ward weighs in:
[URL=“https://www.facebook.com/mclain.ward/posts/10159287645681515”]https://www.facebook.com/mclain.ward/posts/10159287645681515
Over the last two days I have been following the tragic news of Rob Gages suicide, it’s possible explanation and it’s connection to sexual misconduct (let’s start by calling it what it is) and all of the emotions and opinions regarding Rob as a person and the “Safe Sport” policies. I often think life would be more peaceful, certainly less controversial if I kept my thoughts to myself but that has never been my way. If people like myself within our sport are not willing to at least bring up these conversations for thought, debate and hopefully better solutions than who will. I feel it is our responsibility as persons of influence in our sport and our community to tackle these difficult topics head on and hopefully prevent tragedies like we have now seen on both sides of this issue. Furthermore I chose to participate in a video in support of Safe Sport. I made that choice because I do firmly believe there are many people in our community, not just young people who are vulnerable, and it is our responsibility to continually find ways to offer them support and some protection. I made the choice to participate in that video despite always having some concerns with the implementations of safe sports policies and the possible collateral damage that could be caused by a system that frankly seems to have a lot of holes. The reality is though that it has become very clear over the last decade that abuses have happened, people have been taken advantage of, and terrible assaults have been perpetrated. Some steps had to be taken to protect that segment of our community and hold the perpetrators responsible. People needed to be aware that these abuses were happening and being unreported and ignored. Having a young family myself and being a mentor to many young adults I thought it was important to be supportive of such efforts. Over the last year though I have seen many situations that seemed very unclear, often unfair and certainly questionable in their due process. I also have no doubt that these problems and shortcomings in the safe sport process have adversely effected both the accuser and accused equally. What does seem clear is that the safe sport policies are broken in their application, that very little information regarding cases is made public even in a redacted form so that the community understands better the accusations and the process clearly and very little regard is being given to the effects on the accused life and livelihood before due process is applied. I try to look at this very serious issue from both sides the best that I can. As much as I see holes in the safe sport process and objectives I also think about what if it was my daughter that was abused or taken advantage of. I don’t have the answers but I do think our federation who represents all of us within this sport has to step and be at the forefront of how and when these procedures and policies are implemented. I realize that safe sport is a congressional mandate but that does not mean our representatives can’t be intimately involved and at the forefront of clearly explaining every step of the process and the reasons for the policies with transparency to its membership. As I said in my speech last year at the convention, we need to be not afraid to be the experts of our industry and our sport.
I only knew Rob in a casual manner, and he always seemed like a nice man. I must say that until these recent allegations I had never heard a bad word spoken about him, which is a rarity in our sport and industry. I do not know the particulars about the allegations against him or even who his accusers are, again we as a community have so little information about this somewhat secretive process that we are all in the dark and it is ripe for rumor and innuendo. To be honest most of us have almost no idea how safe sport works, who and where the mandates come from and who is charged with investigating and determining the steps taken. My hope though is that through this incredible tragedy, and the tragedies associated with any abuses perpetrated on anyone that we come together and find a better way to regulate and monitor conduct within our sport. I hope that Robs death along with frankly the shocking stories of abuses within our sport align us as a community to pull down the curtain on not only an ugly underbelly of misconduct but the process in which we use to address that conduct.
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