Posted on 11/28/2011 2:01:27 PM PST by petitfour
PASADENA – Charmaine Carnes had only been at Flairs, a Pasadena gymnastics club, a few months in 1978 when she was chosen to ride in the front seat of coach Doug Boger's car. Carnes beamed as she shut the car door, convinced that the ride with Boger, then 30, to a competition later that day was the first leg of a journey that would make her an Olympian. Instead, Carnes said, Boger took her and many of her Flairs teammates to a much darker place.
A newspaper clipping featuring Doug Boger, right, with Flairs gymnast Denise Gallion. Gallion said Boger sexually abused her for three years, starting when she was 13.
"I was 8 or 9, and I remember he had this yellow Mustang and it was an honor if you got to ride with him," Carnes said. "And we would be in the car and it started off with him tickling me, and then I realized he was tickling me in my genitalia and I remember just staring at the gearshift in the car."
(Excerpt) Read more at ocregister.com ...
Here is another story that did make it to ESPN in November even though the story hit the wire more than two months earlier. This one is about the girls/women’s US Olympic team and national team coach from 1984. It is sickening.
http://www.ocregister.com/news/peters-318708-yamashiro-gymnastics.html
You can’t put a sexually mature man in alone for any lengths of time with girls or young women with this kind of thing happening. It is a basic natural impulse, something our Creator endowed us with to insure we would not be lonely. It is among the top three most basic human impulses, along with the desire to grow, to be more powerful.
A polite society puts in restraints that assure that no man is ever alone with a woman/girl, that there is always another mature adult present.
Likewise we should understand the darker aspects of such sexual and mating impulses, that they can be in one person quite perverted, and apply era and age appropriate safeguards to protect both predator and prey. For no HUMAN predator ever relishes long his hunger if it is profanely or vilely satisfied.
This especially applies in athletics, where skimpy dress and strange and impolite body contortions are common, and where the power role of trusted coach makes the prey particularly vulnerable, like birds walking into the maw of the tiger.
I don’t think it is man’s nature to physically abuse 10 year old girls and to sexually abuse 12 year old girls. It is the nature of sick men. Maybe this guy can go found a religion or something.
Unfortunately for these girls, this man was left alone with girls all the time. He demanded that parents leave the facilities and not watch practices.
“A polite society puts in restraints that assure that no man is ever alone with a woman/girl, that there is always another mature adult present.”
Heck, we have the same policy with the boys. A coach is never alone with a player. Any meeting is conducted in the snack bar area. If a coach is in the locker room and a player walks in, the coach leaves. We don’t accept players as friends on Facebook, and every e-mail goes to the parents only.
It is among the most basic of animal-human natures, it holds both sex and power combined. It is a very powerful drive.
To deny its potency is to subject more generations of youth to such predations, harms and perditions.
Yes, as humans, enfused with G-dly souls, we are capable of surmounting such traps arising out of our basic nature. But in these cases -- coach-to-youth, because of the intrinsic animal-like nature of athletics (it's not the chess team for gosh sakes) -- the traps require strongly enforced particular rules of proper behavior, with a constant vigilance.
Can be expanded on endlessly. Look at the massive increase in psycho serial rapists and killers since the 60’s when dress became provocative and now has no boundaries. As a crime show buff when you look deeper you’ll find we now have multiple active serial rapists and or killers. Once an Anomaly is now the norm in law enforcement.
Are the accusations true?
I am inclined to believe the accusers. If the USAG put the men on the banned list, then I am inclined to believe there must be a mountain of evidence or at least corroborating stories. They do not like to act on these sorts of allegations because if the media ever decided to do a story on it, the USAG would look bad. Bad press means loss in revenue. for the USAG.
I usher at church as well as teach a University class. Our church has rules where in dealing with kids, there are always two adults especially when taking them to the bathroom and we don’t enter it either and no wiping, no helping them on buckling pants - no touching !!
On my university class, I have several self-imposed rules. First one is I don’t meet students alone in an office. Even though it is aimed at female students, just to be fair, applies to both sexes. Second with female students, I interact with them as little a possible and the interaction is only class related and private matters like grades are discussed through e-mail.
I conduct my office hours in an open area like by the building’s coffee shop in a very open area. Since I am part time, the office that we share is a very isolated office in a dead-end hallway and there is basically no traffic going by. That makes for a lot of opportunity to get in trouble.
> Heck, we have the same policy with the boys. A coach is never alone with a player. Any meeting is conducted in the snack bar area. If a coach is in the locker room and a player walks in, the coach leaves. We don’t accept players as friends on Facebook, and every e-mail goes to the parents only.
>> A polite society puts in restraints that assure that no man is ever alone with a woman/girl, that there is always another mature adult present.”
I grew up in this sport.
I spent countless hours in the gym with adult male coaches.
Not one of them gave a hint of this kind of behavior.
I grew up in this sport.
I spent countless hours in the gym with adult male coaches.
Not one of them gave a hint of this kind of behavior.
That said, I disagree with your view that men are such animals this kind of thing is inevitable. Many, many men manage to be faithful to their wives and never even think about fooling around with underage girls.
Yes, my life would be poorer if I couldn’t have had any male coaches or have spent hours in private discussion with various professors and teachers or colleagues or managers.
I understand the concerns about being vulnerable to allegations. But the idea that men just can’t help themselves and are prone to sexually attack any woman or girl if given the opportunity doesn’t fit with any reality I’ve experienced.
Of course, any man fighting such urges shouldn’t put himself in those circumstances.
Who estimates that 25% of men have sexually abused young girls?
that being said...with all of these horror stories, there are lessons to be learned...
No child should share a hotel room with an adult who is not their parent/family member/legal guardian.
No child should travel alone with an adult who is not their parent/family member/legal guardian.
Children should not train alone in a gym - with no other athletes present, or other adults presents.
When coaches counsel an athlete, they should remain visible to others...no closed doors...or have an office with a window.
There are many simple thing that can be done that protect the kids - but also protect the adults from false accusations.
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