AAU sued for allowing Rick Butler to coach in under-18 tournament→

/

"Butler was under a lifetime ban from a different national organization, USA Volleyball, for initiating sexual relationships with three underage players in the mid-1980s. The advocates said that that by affiliating itself with Butler, the AAU, the largest youth sports group in the nation, was ignoring reforms it put in place after sexual-abuse allegations against its former president four years earlier."

Private schools, painful secrets→

/

The Globe Spotlight team has turned its investigative focus on private schools, beginning its series this weekend. "At least 67 private schools in New England have been affected by allegations of sexual abuse by employees disclosed over the past 25 years."

"The schools, many with rich histories and famed alumni, have often struggled to balance the need to respond robustly to abuse allegations with a desire to guard their reputations. Historically, few allegations were reported to law enforcement, and many schools avoid publicizing them even today. Getting past the schools’ reticence is a challenge; because these are private institutions, they are exempt from public records laws. And when the Globe sent surveys to 224 private schools on their experience with sexual misconduct allegations, only 23 — about 10 percent — chose to reply."

Australian Olympic Committee asks Brazil not to take Volkers to Rio→

/

The Australian Olympic Committee has asked the Brazil not to select former Australian Olympic swimming coach Scott Volkers for their Olympic team, amid child abuse allegations.

The Australian Olympic Committee president, John Coates, wrote to Brazilian committee president Carlos Nuzman last week to express the committee’s disappointment that Volkers was never convicted for allegedly abusing swimmers in the 1980s and 1990s.

As reported in July 2014, three of Volkers’ former swimmers, Julie Gilbert, Kylie Rogers and Simone Boyce claimed they were abused as children while training in Volkers’ swim squad in the 1980s and 1990s. A detailed account of the three swimmers’ allegations can be read here.

Child told Paterno of sex abuse in 1976, court papers allege→

/

It came in the form of a single line in a court order on a related insurance coverage case involving Penn State, and its full ramifications can't immediately be gauged.

But that line was eye-popping in itself.

The line in question states that one of Penn State's insurers has claimed "in 1976, a child allegedly reported to PSU's Head Coach Joseph Paterno that he (the child) was sexually molested by Sandusky."

Olympic speedskater joins push to pass N.Y. child abuse law→

/

ALBANY — The effort to pass legislation that would allow sexually abused children to bring lawsuits as adults will get a personal assist next week from Olympic speedskater Bridie Farrell.

Farrell, who has accused Olympian speedskater Andy Gabel of molesting her when she was just 15, will take part in a press conference and roundtable discussion in Albany on May 3 to build support for the Child Victims Act.

Wrestling Propelled Hastert’s Career, and Provided Opportunity for Abuse→

/

WASHINGTON — When calls for his removal from office reverberated through the capital a decade ago, Speaker J. Dennis Hastert struggled to explain why he had not aggressively investigated allegations that a Florida lawmaker had sent flirtatious messages to a teenage boy who had served as a House page.

At that perilous moment, an impassioned group of supporters stepped forward to speak up on Mr. Hastert’s behalf: wrestling coaches.

“Denny Hastert is a good and honorable man — and one of wrestling’s own,” Leo Kocher, the wrestling coach at the University of Chicago, wrote in late 2006 in a letter distributed to high school and college coaches.

“The wrestling community must reach as many people as it can through calling talk radio, letters to the editor, and any other way in which public opinion can be moved,” he wrote. “Denny Hastert is one of the finest people to ever hold membership in the wrestling community.”

The absurdity of New York’s law barring child-rape victims from seeking justice as adults→

/

In recent weeks, the Daily News has been commendably focused on the compelling need to reform the New York statute of limitations for survivors of alleged childhood sexual abuse. New York has one of the most regressive laws on this issue in the entire United States; it bars child victims from seeking justice against predators unless they file a claim before they turn 23.

But, unfortunately, that’s just half the problem. At the very same time, judges have been interpreting the law in a way that’s protective of institutions that may have been involved in lengthy cover-ups of abuse

‘I didn’t do anything then, but I can do something now,’ Pa. lawmaker trying to change child sex abuse laws→

/

"I didn't do anything then, but I can do something now. I can stand up for the voiceless and give all these victims out there that are struggling with alcohol, drugs, that have committed suicide, I can be their voice here in the Capitol."

Rozzi is using that voice to call for change, specifically in the statute of limitations.

"Our main thing is we want to eliminate the criminal and civil statute of limitations and it is a must that we have a two-year window to give victims an opportunity to go in court and have their voices heard," he said.