Safe4Athletes

In  2002, a Penn State University graduate student told the university’s head football coach, Joe Paterno, that he witnessed one of Paterno’s former assistant coaches, Jerry Sandusky, sexually assaulting a 10-year-old boy in the Penn State football facility’s showers. The next day, Paterno told his athletic director. Neither the athletic director nor the president of the institution, who informed of the report, contacted the state’s Department of Public Welfare as required by law. But this wasn’t the first time for Sandusky or Paterno.

Sylvie Parent of Laval University examined 3 Quebec sport federations and 3 Quebec sports clubs each affiliated with those organizations respectively to examine the interventions used in cases of sexual abuse and the perceptions of 27 stakeholders within these organizations regarding this issue.  Several factors were identified which impeded the process of disclosure and caused victims to remain silent:  prejudice, beliefs, and myths that seemed to perpetuate a culture of inaction and silence.

A: Coaches and athletes constantly engage in verbal interactions. It is the coach’s responsibility to use such interactions for instructional and motivational purposes.  Emotional or verbal abuse of athletes should be expressly prohibited.

A: Not unless the Athletes says Ok– only in these generally accepted ways - when correcting physical form for skill or strategy execution, injured or congratulating an athlete for a good performance.  Always ask the athlete first.  If it does feel ok, it isn't ok.