ABOUT THE SAFESPORT ACT

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On January 1, 2018, the PROTECTING YOUNG VICTIMS FROM SEXUAL ABUSE AND SAFE SPORT AUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2017 (the SafeSport Act) took effect, ostensibly for the protection of youth athletes from child abuse and neglect as they trained and competed within the National Governing Bodies (“NGBs”) of the fifty (50) United States Olympic and Paralympic sports.  The focus of the SafeSport Act is on coaches, officials, medical personnel and promoters of tournaments—a set of persons referred to in the federal statutory framework as Covered Individuals.

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The agency appointed for implementation of the SafeSport Act was the United States Center for Safe Sport (the Center), and the Act heavily stacked the deck against Covered Individuals in both arbitration and litigation pertaining to allegations of sexual abuse, physical abuse and emotional abuse. While the federal statute tasked all Covered Individuals with a duty to report to law enforcement and to the Center immediately (within 24-hours) upon becoming aware of accusations raising a reasonable suspicion of child abuse, the so-called SafeSport training video, created by the Center, reduced the reporting standard to mere suspicion, eliminated a need for reasonable scrutiny of any accounts of misconduct, and exhibited a profound and egregious implicit bias (also known as unconscious bias) against Covered Individuals. Indeed, the Center’s three-module SafeSport training video—required curriculum for SafeSport certification—painted a virtual target on the backs of all coaches, officials, medical personnel and tournament promoters. Encouraging what amounts to a gross over-reporting of conduct, the SafeSport training video advocates a standard of proof falling far short of the well-established legal standard of an articulable reasonable suspicion as mandated by United States constitutional law and judicial decisions.

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Click the link below to dig more deeply into Jack’s landmark research and legal opinion into this national-crisis-in-the-making. SafeSport in Overdrive to Overkill may be a tough pill for NGBs and the Center to swallow, but it also may lead to important changes which collectively serve to rescue youth sports in the United States Olympic and Paralympic movement.