I posted this New York Times Magazine article yesterday on theCoached into Silence Facebook page, but the Pandora’s box of broken silence ensures that there is much more to follow.
There are so many aspects of these Horace Mann revelations that echo what we have seen at institutions…
From the Legislative Gazette :
Chris Gavagan, a filmmaker and documentarian, spoke of the abuse he experienced as a child from his roller hockey coach. "I was here last year … The fact that we're having this conversation again is a catastrophic failure," Gavagan said. "If your child had a one in five chance of getting hit by a car today, you'd be spending every moment of every legislative session fighting for stop signs, for speed bumps, for lower speed limits, for traffic lights. Yet when the odds are exactly the same of your child falling victim to a sexual predator, your inaction gives nothing but green lights to those who seek to prey on children."
Yesterday former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky waived his right to a preliminary hearing. He’s been charged with 27 felony counts of child sex abuse. Witnesses were to detail their versions of the alleged incidents, but Jerry Sandusky’s attorney said the hearing would have given Sandusky’s accusers a chance to publicly rehash allegations. Join us for a discussion of the latest developments in the Penn State case and its broader implications
editor, The Patriot-News
associate professor, Columbus School of Law The Catholic University of America
director of clinical services, Childhelp's Alice C. Tyler Village,a residential treatment center
filmmaker, currently directing a documentary on sex abuse in sports, "Coached Into Silence"
associate professor director, Sexual Behavior Consultation Unit Johns Hopkins University
Amendola’s one-man circus.
New York Times article ”Coaching Gives Abusers Opportunity and Trust” Chris Gavagan, a filmmaker who is making a documentary on sexual abuse in sports called “Coached Into Silence,” based largely on abuse he said he endured from a youth hockey coach starting when he was 14, is among those who believe the problems for boys in sports are much larger than suspected. Not only does it happen more than people want to think, he said, but the culture of sports works against a child trying to report it.
“Sexually abused boys are going to be the most silent group,” Gavagan said, adding that the allegations involving Sandusky, if true, fit a familiar pattern.
“With the whole macho atmosphere of sports, it seems to be the perfect storm of circumstances,” he said. “There’s the cult of personality that keep these guys the kings of their little kingdoms, the sense of hero worship. The kinds of things Sandusky was offering those boys is every boy’s dream — trips to bowl games, going down on the field. It allows these things to go on for a long time. And when you don’t tell someone the first time it happens, you already feel complicit.”
Gavagan has become involved in the rush to respond to the allegations against Sandusky and Fine, including testifying in front of a Pennsylvania legislative committee supporting laws requiring people to formally report to the authorities any allegations of sex abuse.
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