It was a friend’s Facebook post. Not a professional in the horse business.
So… At the risk of fanning the flames… Kathy Serio’s post on FB. That’s the scenario people are scared of. Did this actually happen, or is some backstory here?
As far as other disciplines taking exception to Safesport? I’ve seen it in the breeds quite a bit. While Safesport isn’t the driving motivator, several breeds are looking at leaving USEF
SafeSport has only been around for 2 years and as more people take the training and understand how very wrong this predatory behavior was, more people will get in trouble. Dating is going out to eat, going to movies, holding hands in public, and calling someone a boy/girlfriend. SafeSport is not looking to persecute people who have public relationships with minors. It’s the adults who engage in predatory, secret relationships with minors who will be in trouble. Hope people don’t need the difference explained between two people with an age gap involved in a consensual publicly acknowledged relationship and a predatory relationship.
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The job of Safe Sport is to uphold the Safe Sport code of conduct within sports organizations via reporting, investigation, hearings, and disciplinary action. It is NOT the job of Safe Sport to make public the information collected through those investigations. The fact that this information is not furnished to the public gives a perpetrator (or their lawyer, or their friends) the opportunity to wage a one-sided social media campaign that may completely misrepresent the allegations, the evidence, the number of complainants, the time frame, and in particular–the Safe Sport process.
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I had to stop reading all the Facebook comments, especially after reading a post saying that the “supposed victim” better be lawyering up to fight a wrongful death lawsuit. I looked at this man’s Facebook, he was deeply entrenched in the hunter community and had graduated from law school at some point.
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MacLain Ward’s statement is quoted at post 296. Very interesting and a balanced perspective.
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I am trying. As long as it’s about grieving their friend or directing some anger at SS, I’m ok. I attempt to correct non-facts. I’ve called some people out on the victim shaming and/or blocked them.
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I didn’t think McLain Ward’s statement was so balanced. he seemed to say he was ok with safe sport until it affected a guy he didn’t know but never heard anything bad about. McLain’ s position was really weird and nonsensical to my reading. His decision to insert himself into a situation of which he is admittedly ignorant seems equally poorly thought out.
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I would love to see the 2000+ people who signed the Change.org petition saying they were leaving. It is nice when people self identify as supporters of child abusers and/or trainers who sleep with their students. What a great advertisement for their business or personal reputations! It would be a thorough clean up of the industry by November 2019. Great!!
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I didn’t get an email, but is this it?
https://www.usef.org/media/press-releases/usef-safe-sport-statement
My reaction to the Kathy Serio post (which is so long and emotionally charged that its hard to get through) is that SafeSport did its job. Her husband was accused, they followed the procedure, SafeSport released him from the list.
As for the extreme hardships she is claiming, I get it… to a degree. I recognize there is certainly an element of “unfairness” for the innocent. I can empathize about how awful the experience must have been. Yet you are not going to convince me their life was ruined because of this, especially not when victims of sexual misconduct are literally having their lives ruined by a predator’s actions.
In my job (education), there are about a million and one ways I could be suspended without pay while an investigation is conducted. Thanks to deunionizing, I likely wouldn’t even get an arbitration process. I’d get to sit there helpless while people without investigative training decide the fate of my career. And, I’d probably be on the news. But you know what? I still can understand that it needs to be done for the safety of the kids. So sorry, you’re not going to convince me that the use of interim suspension pending investigation is unfair or unreasonable.
Traditional methods of handling sexual misconduct, like reliance on law enforcement and criminal convictions, DO NOT WORK. Measures like “due process” and “beyond a reasonable doubt” have set predators free to prey on others.
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Yes, that is what was emailed to me.
Here’s a link. You can see which people have signed publicly and read comments. Kind of an eye opener.
https://www.change.org/p/murray-kessler-usef-membership-withdrawal-due-to-rob-gage-suicide-over-safesport-allegations
Theres also a GoFundMe but that is directed partially at helping his girlfriend (and partially on clearing his name) so there could be people on that who are trying to be good friends by supporting her. But some of the comments on that are interesting.
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At my kids school, all teachers & staff & any parent that volunteers on or off school property as to have a background check & get fingerprinted. I’ve never heard a complaint from anyone, as all parents realize it’s for the safety of all the children.
I wonder if SS will require that all Usef members that are listed as professionals, get background checks & fingerprinted.
what an uproar that would cause.
I wished Usef had a simple database that parents could check out Usef professionals & see if they ever had Usef sanctions against them, and see that background checks have been done.
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It is certainly true this has been a disaster and allows a social media trial from both sides that is completely lacking a way for outsiders to figure out what on earth is going on. Which, I think, is why many people are calling for more transparency or else keeping the allegations out of the public until they are in a position to reveal SS’s conclusions. Something like a non public ban temporarily?
I have cliniced with Rob before and was signed up to ride in a clinic with him next weekend (a birthday present from my husband). This whole thing has been a huge shock and difficult to process how to be fair to everyone especially victims, to be sensitive while wondering how to balance what we are hearing with our experiences.
Packy McGaughan’s COTH article is an eventer perspective and has apparently been in research for months. It is sadly timely.
I am so so sorry for the victims of any sexual assault. I too am an underage victim at a horse show but I don’t even know the names of my attackers. I still don’t walk around dark places without a knife on me.
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I don’t seem to have gotten this email… but I’ve noticed before that they send them in waves and I am not always in the same wave as others I know. What does it say (or is it too long to cut and paste)?
N/M I see someone else linked it
Licensed officials with USEF have been required to have background checks and safe sport training for several years now. Probably 6-8 years? No fingerprints yet.
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Reading thru the fb posts, I’ve seen so many people saying it’s a she said /he said situation …because there is no proof. How do they know there is no proof??? Perhaps there is… maybe an old letter/note. Some old pictures, who knows… but, SS investigates & they have let others off the hook. If Rob wasn’t let off the hook as others, I’m assuming they had a good reason.
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The ignorance regarding SafeSport procedures shown by the posters on that petition is astounding. I read only a few and got the gist. I also got the impression that many of the people were not members of USEF.
Again, it seems as though many people have not even bothered to read the SafeSport policies and procedures.
If I was better at organization I would propose a petition in support of SafeSport in the hope that USEF would be aware that not everyone is against the program. It is a program that , like any other, can be fine tuned if problems come to light.
Rob Gage’s ban is certainly not the hill to stand on to make your case that a ban was unfair.
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