What—no background checks? You can’t be serious!

By Donna Albertone, M.P.A.

Consultant to the VIRTUS® Programs

A few weeks ago, I attended my 12-year-old son’s recreational baseball league orientation. I sat obediently—even though I’ve heard the same information for many years now—and listened as one of the league’s coordinators barked off the rules and regulations:

• one person in the batting cage at a time,

• always be on time for practice,

• hitting, pushing, or general bad behavior will result in ejection…

And I began to zone-out from the blah, blah, blah of it all.

"And we don’t do background checks on our coaches, so pick your child up on time.”

Whoa, I really should pay attention. I thought I heard him say that they don’t do background checks on their coaches.

Wait a minute. He did say they don't do background checks on the coaches. Well, I'm certainly paying attention now!

In this day and age, with a new and sensational child sex abuse case in almost every news report, do you mean to tell me that this youth ball league doesn’t conduct background checks on the volunteer coaches who are responsible for more than 500 boys and girls? Could this be due to naiveté, laziness, or stupidity? As it turned out, the answer was all three.

After the general meeting I patiently waited my turn to speak to the coordinator. In my best and appropriate “mom” voice, I asked why they didn’t feel the need to conduct criminal background checks on their coaches. I was floored by this reaction.

“I don’t have time to do background checks on over 60 coaches,” he said. “I put in over 200 hours a month volunteering as it is and we had trouble getting coaches anyway, let alone telling them they’d need to get a background check. I just don’t have the time. And besides… who’s gonna pay?”

He continued explaining, “I know most of these coaches and most have their own son or daughter on their team,

They’re not gonna’ do anything [to another kid] with their own kid with ‘em.” By now, it was difficult to decipher the words coming from his mouth.

Forget my “mom” voice; I transitioned easily into my professional child advocate role, mentioning to him I was perplexed by the extreme nature of his reaction, alarmed that 60 volunteers—without a background check—have access to children, AND concerned that he had just announced to over 200 adults in attendance that background checks were not and are not conducted. Any adult in attendance with the desire for sex with children now knew that they had unrestricted access to boys and girls ages 10 to 15—all they had to do was offer to be a volunteer for this youth baseball and softball league.

There were many things worrisome about my encounter with this league coordinator. First was his false notion that “knowing” a person is enough to protect children. I explained that we know from child sex offenders themselves that conning people into knowing them and trusting them is a part of their modus operandi and that mixing themselves among the other volunteers is a critical part of the grooming process and an easy way—in this case—for a potential child molester to begin to gain the false trust of those around him or her.

Second, is the misconception that when an adult has their own child with them, they won’t do anything wrong—that nothing bad will happen to other people’s children. Child molesters do molest their own children—at least some of them do—and in some cases, they use their own children as bait to bring other kids around and then threaten their own children to never tell.

And, furthermore, in the dollars and cents of it all, I paid $65 to have my son join the youth league. As a paying customer, I expect to be treated with some respect.

With regard to this particular coordinator, my concerns fell on deaf ears. So, without missing a beat, I followed the VIRTUS, Step Five, "Communicate Your Concerns" model and spoke to another coordinator for the league. He too explained, more calmly than the first coordinator, that the league never felt a need to conduct background checks. I tried my best to educate him on the risks to children and to the organization. I explained it wasn’t that hard or time consuming, and that the cost was minimal. I even volunteered to spearhead the effort!

As I spoke, I’m certain I saw this gentleman’s eyes roll back into his head as he gave me his best, “I’ll just pretend I’m listening until she goes away” smile.

I couldn't take it anymore! Why weren’t the best interests of the children the top priority? Where was the uproar by parents deluging the league with phone calls and email messages questioning this breach of safety?

Here’s the problem: too many remain unaware that child sexual abuse can be prevented. Too many still deny that child sexual abuse even exists. Of those who admit that the problem exists, many still cling to the belief that it always happens “over there somewhere.” Too many buy into “not here, not my child, not in my neighborhood or community.” And too many… alright, I’ll actually say it… too many don’t even seem to care—unless, of course, it happens to their child.

Would a child be molested during baseball practice? Not likely. Would someone with the desire for sex with children seize the weekly opportunities with a child (practices and games, for example) to “groom” them, gain their trust, and establish a relationship that, over time, could lead to an incident of molestation? Absolutely!

By asking tough questions and “standing our ground” on child safety issues, will we win every battle and achieve a safe environment in every circumstance and every organization? That’s not likely either. But we have to try. We have to keep up the fight and keep taking the information to the public at every opportunity. It’s our only way to stand toe-to-toe with child molesters and take back the safety of our children—one organization and one activity at a time.

Thank God for each one of you who talks to others about what you have learned and who work to change both the little and big things around you—to make a difference in how policies and procedures are written and followed, to change environmental factors that impact child safety, and to constantly be on the lookout for new threats and new opportunities that impact the safety of children.

Thank God for all of you who now model good practices for keeping children safe and who actually make the effort—even when it’s uncomfortable or unpopular—to communicate concerns to those who can make a difference. Don’t stop and don’t ever back down. All those innocent kids out there are counting on us.

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