The Dark Side of Youth Sports: How Abuse and Neglect Leave Lifelong Scars on Student Athletes

Anything for the game, anything to win. Athletics are a huge deal in the United States. Children can begin team sports as young as 4 or 5 years old, they can begin other sports like Gymnastics as young as 18 months. In fact, as of 2019, 36 million children ages 6 to 17 played a sport in the United States. On top of career endeavors, being a student athlete also allows for children to be active and make friends.

Games played by these tiny tots are typically accompanied by a bevy of parents hoping that they child will show promise and have a career as a professional athlete. Parents push their children to be in the best programs, get the best trainers and coaches, have the ‘best’ physique; everyone wants a winner. While it is true that a percentage (barely 2%) will make it their career, more will only walk away with a lifetime of suffering.

Statistics of Student Athlete Sex Abuse

More than 1 in 4 student athletes reported being sexually assaulted or harassed in college sports. However, student athlete sex abuse is not exclusive to college either. ChildHelp.org reports that abuse occurs in all types of organized youth sports. Several studies indicate that 40-50% of children involved have experienced some kind of abuse.

CHILD USA’s Elite Athlete Study found 1 in 3 athletes suffer from diagnosed mental illness. These illnesses were incited by a culture characterized by high levels of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse. Reported in the same case-study, 96% of the athletes surveyed reported that they lacked knowledge of what sexual assault or misconduct was.

Investigative Failures

Few students reported abuse perpetrated by Larry Nasser. Very few of those reports were ever investigated. Victims were treated like they were the problem, or their reports were ignored. Nasser was able to evade repercussions from Title IX investigations. Amongst the medical experts investigators consulted with, many of them counted Nasser as a close friend.

The FBI themselves fumbled their investigation. Many victims found that the interviews with agents added to the trauma of what they’d been through with Nasser. It was only after the IndyStar, a newspaper in Indiana, published an investigative report that the Michigan State University Police took the investigation seriously. Eventually, Nasser was arrested. Unfortunately, he was only arrested after the police found 37,000 CSAM images in his home.

How to Protect Your Student Athlete

While you can’t be with your child every step of the way, you can still protect them. It’s tempting to pretend that sexual abuse is just something you read about online or see on the news, that it won’t impact your family in any way. However, this chosen ignorance takes away your power to identify and prevent abuse.

The easiest way to help prevent abuse is to be involved with your child’s sport. Whether that is going to practices and games, or if that is assistant coaching; your presence can be enough to deter a predator from targeting your child or others. You can also offer to chaperones on overnight trips or away games.

Regardless of age, a student athlete should never be alone with an unrelated adult. It doesn’t matter if that is a coach or trainer, any child should have a parent or guardian present for meetings and interactions. Any scheduling for extra practices or training needs to be scheduled through you. There is nothing a coach or trainer needs to tell or show your child that cannot be said/shown in front of you and there should be no secrets kept between your coach and child.

As children gets older, this becomes more complicated. For example, high school swim teams typically practice as early as 5:00 am. It is your responsibility as a parent to make sure they get there and that they are safe during the practice.

HAS YOUR STUDENT ATHLETE BEEN ABUSED?

FREE CONSULTATION

When sexual abuse impacts a child athlete, criminal charges will likely be filed by the local District Attorney’s Office against the perpetrator. But a separate civil claim seeking damages may also be filed by the survivor or their family.

A youth sports sexual abuse civil claim with Gillispie Law Firm can be a means of recovering a number of applicable damages like emotional and psychological harm, medical care costs, and pain and suffering.