This topic is no surprise. People have been trying to undermine SafeSport since it started. How about not abusing children and just being a little nicer.
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This isn’t about undermining SafeSport. It’s about including all kinds of abuse, and it’s about finding a way to not let people use SafeSport as part of some personal vendetta to try and ruin a career with no facts to back up their claims. Maybe if there was some sort of quid pro quo, where if you make an accusation and it is proven false, the false accuser gets the ban (or at least a healthy suspension).
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Ok. I think there may always be people that will try to abuse SafeSport but the weaponization of it is a violation. That will catch up with people eventually.
I think the biggest challenge to SafeSport is the sheer numbers of investigations they have had to do.
What I hate about it is that it has to be. The abuses that have turned up in the various sports, not just the abuses but the large numbers have really been a gut punch.
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I’m not sure I understand what constitutes an abuse and weaponization of SS. Maybe you guys can choose what applies and describe why to help me understand.
It is a violation/weaponizing of SS when:
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LK was reporting MB, MHG etc to SS;
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People talking about contacting SS in light of the recent court case regarding LK and her testimony;
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I’d say closest to 1. Using SafeSport to try to unfairly accuse and hurt/damage someone by lying.
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As someone who saw a whole lot of “shenanigans” and abuse during my junior days, who knew RG (but never saw his abuse - although I believe it), and who thinks it’s time to shine a light where there is darkness… I find it troubling that Lauren Kanarek’s egregious behavior might undermine the only check and balance we have for the outrageous behavior of others.
I agree it is unsettling that she clearly tried to use SS against others, but I find it equally unsettling that those who seek to defend known abusers might be able to cry “abuse of process” and get away with it.
I don’t know that we have a good answer, but I do hope that SS finds a way to deal with this issue.
I also hope that they take more seriously the complaints that do not involve minors.
ETA: I meant Gage, not Goodwin.
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It seems to me that Lk has been reported to SS and USEF, by multiple people, on multiple occasions, with multiple complaints.
Any failure on their part, at this point, to take action and/or make sanctions against LK could be seen as a negligence of duty and could open them up for legal repercussions. Additionally, idk if they are self insured or not but their inaction, could be justification for an insurer to back out.
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I was a regional youth director for a major horse registry in the 1990s which was before SafeSport… in my area I instilled a policy of no one was be along with a minor who was not theirs … the reason was to protect both parties, one from evil contact the other from false claims
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I think safesport, while imperfect, was and is just for just these situations. It shouldn’t only be about sexual misconduct/abuse.
You can’t go around attacking people either verbally or physically. However, if a patty can clean up their mess and or pay a fine they should be able to be reinstated after a reasonable time period.
Investigations should be a good thing for people and not something to be afraid of (unless you’ve done something wrong) and I think if nothing is “found” then the investigation should turn to look why the accusation was made and penalties made there if proven a wrongful allegation that proves out the motive was to harm another.
Hope this is somewhat coherent… haven’t had coffee yet.
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It is.
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IMHO, the LK matter is more a violation of USEF rules of conduct than a matter for SS. Having said that, I’d hazard a guess that they’ll ignore it rather than deal with the inevitable civil suit should they sanction LK.
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You might be right on this re USEF rules of conduct. And we may forget sometimes that Safesport covers ALL olympic sports; their website said that in fall of 2021 they received their 10,000th report of abuse. I’m guessing they are understaffed and overwhelmed. edited to add: 3,700+ in 2021. That’s 10/day!
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Agreed, but there is a better chance of USEF coming for her now that the Criminal trial has been adjudicated. But yeah, they are a litigious clan.
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Kinda like HOA’s on steroids
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Are there any stats regarding knowingly false reports?
SafeSport supposedly prohibits knowingly false reports, and someone can be sanctioned for that.
Just to be clear…this is different/distinct from reports which are sincere, or made out of an abundance of caution… but upon investigation turn out to be unfounded, or for which there is not enough evidence to substantiate the report.
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SafeSport has tools to reprimand people who file knowingly false reports… just like law enforcement does. If you’re not worried about one case, there’s no reason to assume you should worry about the other. I’m sure that a SafeSport investigator would be pretty upset about their time and resources being wasted by a knowingly malicious report, and the code says right in it they have options.
SafeSport probably does need more funding and more people to be able to follow up more quickly.
OP may not realize this, but this fear of alleged malicious reporting has been a huge thread through Equestrian, overtopping concerns for actual victims. It is remarkable to understand how many more people seem to be afraid of that than concerned about the sexual and other abuse we know is happening, to the extent that they sometimes wrote it down and published it in books.
I agree that anyone who reports maliciously should be sanctioned by SafeSport, and I trust them to do so. I don’t agree that it’s a significant problem or that changes are required at this time.
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One of the reasons that SafeSport has such a large volume of reports is that every adult participating in any way must take the training, and the training emphasizes that everyone is required to report anything that they even suspect or have heard second hand. We are not in any way supposed to try to figure out if it is true before reporting it, which we are told must be done immediately. Anyone who does not do this is themselves in jeopardy of being in violation of knowing about something and not reporting it.
This approach gives the maximum chance of anything that DID happen getting reported (the intended and valuable result), but also means that sooner or later things that may NOT have happened are also reported. And it guarantees a huge workload for SS trained investigators, with the associated long lead time for investigations to be completed.
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Further, what about the false report setting in motion the wheels of CPS or whatever it’s called in NJ? Does the state effect repercussions against the false reporter?
While false allegations are rare, imo this case was exceptionally grievous, malicious, and with heinous ill intent which actually effected several lives in many ways. In MBs case maybe irreparably.
To ignore that would be a big mistake.
.
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Someone contacts SafeSport about bullying and neglect of minors. SafeSport contacts that state’s child protective service. Adult accused of bullying and neglect shoots client twice on suspicion client contacted child protective service.
How are the organizations to proceed now? A report can be investigated and found to be unfounded though sincerely meant. A report filed as harassment that then turns out to find a different problem and danger of a mental breakdown? Perhaps the reporting was part of the trigger? Perhaps it was going to happen anyway, it was the victim’s unlucky day to piss of the person having a breakdown?
How to organization’s respond to such a complete cluster? What kind of investigation into a mental breakdown can determine the real factors?
It’s not a defense attorney swapping victims to defend his client. That is separate from what really happened internally and externally for this situation to occur.
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A big question that is, understandably, still an
‘unknown’ for the public revolves around who the SafeSport report focused upon.
Was it just a report about MB?
Or did the report also focus on MHG, and involve accusations that she was a negligent mother, had her kids living in an unsafe environment, etc etc?
When DCPP showed up at the farm that day, the first person they spoke with was MHG. The second person they spoke with was RC. They had contact with MB during their visit… but interviewing him was apparently a lower priority.
Kind of noteworthy.
If there was a report focused on MHG being by a neglectful parent… it sure seems like that was a false report made for personal and vindictive reasons…
I can understand that declaring any report about MB was ‘unfounded’ is incredibly problematic at this point… given that he shot LK on 08/07/19.
But if there was a report filed which focused upon MHG… and her kids… and LK was the person who called it in… that is not so complicated. At all. And I would imagine SafeSport has a record of what the original report involved, and who actually called it in.
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