| Register

Banks Youth Football

Abuse/Molestation Risk Management Program/Plan

Abuse/Molestation Risk Management Program/Plan

Banks Youth Football has adopted the following policies and this document will also serve as our adult staff/volunteer educational training program:

Criminal Background Checks

Criminal background checks should be run with a third-party vendor on all paid and volunteer staff with access to youth. At a minimum, the criminal background check should pull records from all 50 states to include the National Criminal Database and the National Sex Offender registry. Any background check that indicates that a potential staff member/volunteer is unfit to work with youth should result in disqualification of such staff member/volunteer. Prior to running background checks, the following steps* should be taken:

All prospective staff should complete an application to include a question about whether the applicant has ever had any prior criminal convictions or is pending any current investigations and a consent provision to run a background check.
Disqualification criteria should be adopted and published.

*Disqualification Criteria: To make sure that all staff are treated fairly and consistently, the following disqualification criteria should be used: Individual staff members/volunteer found to be guilty of the following crimes should be disqualified as a staff member/volunteer as outlined below.

All sex offenses including child molestation, rape, sexual assault, sexual battery, sodomy, prostitution, solicitation, indecent exposure, etc.
All felony violence including murder, manslaughter, aggravated assault, kidnapping, robbery, aggravated burglary, etc.
Found guilty within the past 10 years of all felony offenses other than violence or sex including drug offenses, theft, embezzlement, fraud, child endangerment, etc.
Found to be guilty within the past 7 years of all misdemeanor violence offenses including simple assault, battery, domestic violence, hit & run, etc.
Found guilty within the past 5 years of misdemeanor drug and alcohol offenses (or multiple offenses in the past 10 years) including driving under the influence, simple drug possession, drunk and disorderly, public intoxication, possession of drug paraphernalia, etc.
Any other misdemeanor within the past 5 years that would be considered a potential danger to children or is directly related to the functions of the staff member/volunteer, including contributing to the delinquency of a minor, providing alcohol to a minor, theft (if the volunteer is handling funds), etc.

Guilty means the applicant was found guilty following a trial, entered a guilty plea, entered a no contest plea accompanied by the court’s finding of guilty, regardless of whether there was an adjudication of guilt (conviction) or a withholding of guilt. This policy does not apply if criminal charges resulted in acquittal, dismissal or in an entry of nolle prosequi.

Should any of the pending charges described above be uncovered, or should any of the above charges be brought against an applicant during the season, the applicant should be suspended from serving until the charges are cleared or dropped and the MO approves reinstatement.

The confidentiality of records should be protected and access should be limited to those on a “need to know” basis.
Before an adverse action is taken against an applicant, our organization should comply with all federal and state laws governing background checks such as the Fair Credit Reporting Act and assistance should be requested from our background check vendor as regards required applicant notifications.

Recognizing Grooming

Grooming is the process by which sexual predators pave the way for sexual abuse by gradually gaining the trust of and conditioning of minors, parents, and administrators. The steps in the grooming process are as follows:

Identify a vulnerable child whose needs are not being met such as lack of attention by parents, lack of spending money, etc.
Fill the missing needs of the child by providing attention, transportation, help with homework, special favors, confiding in secrets, spending money, gifts, etc. to create a "special bond".
Gain trust of family by spending disproportionate amount of time with them.
Isolate the victim to create one on one opportunities.
Gradually use boundary invasions that start off with inappropriate electronic communications and photo sharing, tickling, wrestling, massages, alcohol, drugs, pornography, etc. that lead to nudity and sexual activity.
Maintain control and silence with threats of fear and shame.

Policies to Protect Against Misconduct

All forms of abuse including sexual, physical, emotional, harassment, bullying, and hazing are prohibited.
Prohibited sexual abuse physical acts include genital contact whether or not either party is clothed; fondling of a participant's breast or buttocks; sexual penetration; sexual assault, exchange of a reward in sport for sexual favors; lingering or repeated embrace that goes beyond acceptable physical touch; tickling, wrestling, or massage; and continued physical contact that makes a participant uncomfortable.
Prohibited sexual abuse verbal acts include making sexually oriented comments, jokes and innuendo; staff member/volunteer discussing his or her sex life with participant; asking about a participant's sex life; requesting or sending a nude or partial dress photo; exposing participants to pornographic material; voyeurism; and sexting with a participant.
Any type of grooming behavior is prohibited.
Prohibited forms of physical abuse include punching, beating, biting, striking, choking, slapping, or intentionally hitting a participant with objects or sports equipment; providing alcohol to a participant under legal drinking age; providing illegal drugs or non-prescribed medications to any participant; encouraging or permitting a participant to return to play after injury or sickness prematurely without clearance of a medical professional; prescribing dieting or other weight control methods for humiliation purposes; isolating a participant in a confined space; forcing participant to assume a painful stance or position for no athletic purpose; withholding, or denying adequate hydration, nutrition medical attention, or sleep.
Prohibited emotional abuse includes a pattern of verbally attacking a participant personally such as calling them worthless, fat or disgusting; physically aggressive behaviors such as throwing or hitting objects; and ignoring a participant for extended periods of time or excluding them from practice.
Bullying includes an intentional, persistent, or repeated pattern of committing or willfully tolerating (e.g., staff not preventing) physical, nonphysical, or cyber bullying behaviors that are intended to cause fear, humiliation, physical harm in an attempt to socially exclude, diminish, or isolate another person emotionally, physically, or sexually. It is often not the staff, but instead, other participants who are the perpetrators of bullying. However, it is a violation if the staff member/volunteer knows or should have known of the bullying behavior but takes no action to intervene on behalf of the targeted participants.
Prohibited hazing includes any contact which is intimidating, humiliating, offensive or physically harmful. Hazing typically is an activity that serves as a condition for joining a team of being socially accepted by team members.
Two deep leadership is required where two adults (e.g., any combination of staff or parents) should be present at all times so that a minor participant can't be isolated with a single unrelated adult, except in the case of an emergency.
In special situations involving an adult such as car travel, overnight travel, locker rooms/changing areas, individual coach meetings, and individual training sessions, minors should always have another child buddy with them or a second adult within an observable and interruptible distance.
All electronic communications including email, texting, social media, etc. between the staff member/volunteer and a minor participant should be limited strictly to the legitimate activities of the organization. A parent/guardian of minor or another staff member/volunteer should be copied on all such communications.
Any overnight travel exposure should prohibit adults spending the night in the same room as an unrelated minor participant; require grouping of participants of the same sex and age group in rooms; and provide adequate oversight with a same-sex chaperone for each group.
Take off/pick up of athletes by staff should be strongly discouraged because of the difficulty in limiting one-on-one contact.

Reporting Suspicions of Child Sexual or Physical Abuse and Other Forms of Abuse

Federal or state law may require any adult staff member/volunteer who has a suspicion of child sexual or physical abuse to independently report such suspicion directly to law enforcement within 24 hours. Failure to report may be a punishable offense.

In addition, the adult staff member/volunteer should report the suspicion within 24 hours to the appropriate organization official and the official should also report to law enforcement within 24 hours if there is suspicion that child sexual or physical abuse has been committed.

The organization should allow law enforcement to handle the investigation and the suspected staff member/volunteer should be immediately suspended or reassigned to alternative duties that don't involve access to youth pending the outcome of the investigation. Organization officials should not comment on the allegation or police investigation until it has been concluded.

Staff members/volunteers should also report prohibited misconduct other than child sexual and physical abuse to the appropriate organization official and the organization can investigate and decide what types of sanctions, if any, are appropriate.

The organization is prohibited from retaliating in any way against a staff member/volunteer who makes a good faith report of a suspicion of any form of misconduct.

Child Abuse Training for Minors

The Safe Sport Act requires sports organizations to provide minor training on preventing and reporting of child abuse. Our organization should distribute the following documents: Minor Training (Ages 4-12) and/or Minor Training (Ages 13-17) or a similar document from another source to each parent with a strong recommendation that each parent should review this document with their minor child.

For More Detailed Information

This short form program is a summary of a more detailed risk management program entitled Safe Sport Child Abuse and Other Misconduct Risk Management Plan for Non-NGB Organizations. Please refer to this program if you need more details on the following issues: Safe Sport Act Requirements; abuse and misconduct definitions; social media; email; text, and instant messaging; locker rooms and changing areas; travel; reporting misconduct; what to do after reporting to law enforcement; responding to misconduct and policy violations; whistleblower protection; dealing with the media; screening volunteers; and administration of criminal background checks.

Communication of Information

The information in this risk management program should be communicated by pre-season staff meeting and/or by distribution of this document to all paid and volunteer staff with evidence thereof retained for at least 15 years.

Our sports organization has adopted this program and incorporated it into our written policies and procedures.

Adopted By Banks Youth Football Board: April 18, 2022

DISCLAIMER: THIS SAMPLE RISK MANAGEMENT PLAN IS MEANT TO PROVIDE GENERAL AWARENESS AND EDUCATION ON THE TOPIC OF MISCONDUCT IN SPORT AND SUGGESTED POLICIES COMPILED FROM VARIOUS RESOURCES AND IN NO WAY IS MEANT TO BE ALL-ENCOMPASSING. THIS SAMPLE PLAN MAY CONTAIN INCORRECT INFORMATION AND MAY OMIT CRITICAL INFORMATION. SPORTS ORGANIZATIONS SHOULD INDEPENDENTLY RESEARCH VARIOUS AUTHORITY SOURCES SUCH AS U.S. CENTER FOR SAFESPORT BEFORE CUSTOMIZING THEIR OWN PLAN. NO SPECIFIC ADVICE IS BEING PROVIDED FOR ANY ORGANIZATION. NO LEGAL ADVICE IS PROVIDED. THE LAW PERTAINING TO CHILD ABUSE AND OTHER MISCONDUCT VARY FROM STATE TO STATE. ALWAYS CONTACT A LOCAL ATTORNEY FOR LEGAL ADVICE IN YOUR STATE. SADLER & COMPANY, INC. DBA SADLER SPORTS & RECREATION INSURANCE DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL LIABILITY RESULTING FROM THE PUBLICATION OF THIS SAMPLE AWARENESS AND EDUCATIONAL RISK MANAGEMENT PLAN. IN EXCHANGE FOR RECEIPT OF THIS INFORMATION, RECIPIENT AGREES TO HOLD HARMLESS AND INDEMNIFY SADLER & COMPANY, INC. DBA SADLER SPORTS & RECREATION INSURANCE AND RESPECTIVE DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, AND EMPLOYEES FOR ANY CLAIMS OF BODILY INJURY, PROPERTY DAMAGE, OR OTHER DAMAGES, INCLUDING REASONABLE ATTORNEY’S FEES, TO THEMSELVE

Abuse Avoidance Training for Minors Ages 13-17

Sports are supposed to be fun, but on rare occasions the bad actions of some adults may result in child abuse. Children need to be informed about the different types and warning signs of abuse, be aware of situations to avoid to reduce the risk of abuse, and know when and how to report incidents.

In 2018, Congress passed a new federal law, “The Safe Sport Act.” This law requires sports organizations, subject to parental consent, to provide training for minors regarding prevention and reporting of child abuse, and a process to allow a complainant to easily report any incident of child abuse to the appropriate persons.

At a minimum, we strongly recommend that parents review this training document, and based on your child’s age and maturity level, discuss only age-appropriate content contained herein with your child in the privacy of your home.

It is also recommended that parents should view additional, free training resources on how to keep your child safe from the U.S. Center for Safe Sport.

What is Abuse?

Abuse is any intentional behavior or action meant to hurt, threaten, intimidate, or control another person. Abuse can be sexual, physical, or emotional, and even broader. We will cover the different types of abuse:

Sexual Abuse

Sexual abuse can be adult to minor or even minor to minor if there is an age difference. It includes any sexual touching or spoken sexual interactions. These may be aggressive, threatening act, or actions with an intent to exploit a power imbalance between a minor and an adult. Examples of child sexual abuse include:

An adult or someone older than a child touching the private parts of a child’s body that a bathing suit or underwear would cover, or an adult making a child touch the adult’s private parts. This includes such touching whether or not either party is clothed.
An adult showing a child pictures or movies of people without clothes, engaging in sex acts, or taking these types of pictures or movies of a child.
An adult discussing sexual matters with or in front of a child whether in person or electronically through email, texting, or social media.
By law, minors cannot consent to sexual activity with an adult. As a result, any sexual activity with an adult is strictly prohibited.
Minor-on-minor sexual abuse occurs where there is an aggressor or where there is a difference in age, power, or intellectual capabilities.

Grooming

Adults who sexually abuse children slowly groom them by gaining their trust by doing kind things for them and paying attention to them. Next, adult abusers find ways to be alone with the child and they begin nonsexual touching such as tickling or wrestling, which gradually turns into touching private parts. Once the sexual touching starts, adult abusers want to continue the sexual touching and to prevent the child from telling an adult. Abusers accomplish this by blaming the child, making them feel guilty for what has occurred, or threatening the child or the child’s family with violence. Below are typical grooming behaviors and situations that lead to abuse.

Abusers target their child victims by trying to identify a susceptible child with needs that are not being met by their parents, such as being misunderstood, lack of attention, lack of spending money, etc.
Abusers pretend to be responsible adults, such as coaches and teachers, who care about children to win the trust of their child victims, their parents, and other staff members.
Be alert for adults who appear to care too much and want to hang out around children too frequently outside of official team practices and games.
Abusers often offer children gifts, money, special trips and activities, rides home, babysitting, help with homework, and other favors to be liked and trusted and to spend time alone with them.

Physical Abuse

Physical abuse is intentional physical contact or the threat of contact including hitting, shaking, choking, burning, pinching, beating, or other methods used to cause pain or injury. Physical abuse also includes other forms of noncontact abuse. A child who is physically abused will likely have cuts, bruises, or other marks on his/her body.

Examples of Physical Abuse

A coach or player purposely hitting another player with a bat.
A coach or player purposely striking a ball against another player.
A coach forcing an athlete with an injury to play before a doctor says it is okay to play again.
A coach or parent denying water breaks, nutrition, or medical assistance.
A coach providing alcohol, illegal drugs, or nonprescription drugs to a player.
Locking an athlete in a confined space.
Forcing an athlete to hold a painful stance or position for no athletic purpose.

Emotional Abuse

Emotional abuse is deliberate, noncontact behavior that can cause emotional or mental harm to a child that is repeated over time. Noncontact behavior can be verbal and physical, or denying a child attention or support. This includes making another person feel worthless, unwanted, or not cared for.

Examples of Emotional Abuse

A player or players calling another player worthless, an embarrassment, or making fun of them.
A coach refusing to allow a player to miss a practice for a family matter, or threatening to bench the player in future games if they miss practice.
A coach throwing equipment, water bottles or chairs at or in the presence of athletes.
A coach punching walls when the team loses the game.
A coach or parent ignoring an athlete for extended periods of time.

Bullying is intentionally aggressive physical and/or nonphysical behavior repeated over time that hurts, threatens or frightens another person. Bullying can take place both on and off the field. Bullies can be teammates, parents, coaches, spectators, or umpires. Examples of bullying are:

Hitting, pushing, tripping, choking, slapping, spitting, throwing objects, etc.
Teasing, taunting, name calling, threatening, etc.
A coach making an athlete feel like they are not part of the team.
Fans verbally abusing players from the opposite team by saying mean things.

Cyberbullying is the use of the internet or smart phones to harass and bully another person. This can be in the form of threatening and rude text messages to an individual or group that is often repeated, flaming (an online fight with harsh language or pictures), exclusion (purposefully leaving a person out from an online group and making mean comments about them), outing (posting private and personal information, pictures, or videos), and masquerading (creating a fake social media account and pretending to be someone else).

Harassment is unwanted behavior that is repeated over time and that annoys, puts down, threatens, or offends someone else. Below are examples:

An athlete being called bad names by teammates or a coach.
Teammates or a coach making bad comments about an athlete’s gender, disability, religion, race, or sexual orientation.
A player who is humiliated by a coach or parent yelling at them while on the field.

Hazing is a physically harmful or offensive act that is forced onto someone or that someone is forced to do. Hazing often occurs as an initiation for a new member of a team. Hazing occurs even if an athlete agrees to go along with it. Examples of hazing are:

A new player being taped or tied up and forced to stay in a closet.
A player being forced to drink alcohol or to take an illegal drug.
Forcing a player to dress or act in an inappropriate way.

Situations to Avoid

No single child should ever be alone with a single adult other than a parent unless the child has written permission from the parents.
Have a child buddy when alone with another adult who isn’t a parent. This could be when in a car, a locker room/changing area, or in an individual coach meeting or training session. Otherwise a second adult should always be within an observable and interruptible distance.
Do not friend any adult staff member on Facebook or send private/direct messages to an adult staff member on Instagram, Twitter, or Snapchat.
When communicating by text or email with an adult staff member, make sure that another staff member or parent is always copied on all incoming and outbound communications.
When spending the night in hotel rooms, athletes should be paired with the same gender of a similar age. Adult chaperones should never spend the night inside the room, always remaining outside the room yet close enough to supervise.
If an adult gives a child a gift, the child should always inform their parent or another trusted adult.

What to Do and Who to Tell

If you think that you are being abused, the most important thing you can do is to immediately tell someone you trust. Do so even if the person hurting you tells you that something bad will happen if you tell anyone. You should immediately tell your parent or guardian. If you can’t trust anyone at home, talk to someone at school like a teacher, counselor, or school nurse. A family friend, pastor or neighbor can also help.

No matter what, abuse is never your fault and you don’t deserve it. It’s normal to feel upset, angry, and confused when someone hurts you. But don’t blame yourself or worry that others will be angry with you. Even if you think you’ve done something wrong, that does not make it okay for someone to hurt you. All kids deserve to have adults in their lives who love and support them as they grow up.

Source:

USA Baseball: Pure Baseball Abuse Awareness for Minors Course-Master Script.

Abuse Avoidance Training for Minors Ages 4-12

Sports are supposed to be fun, but on rare occasions, the bad actions of some adults may result in child abuse. Children need to be informed about the different types of and warning signs of abuse, be aware of what situations to avoid to reduce the risk of abuse, and to know when and how to report incidents.

In 2018, Congress passed a new Federal law referred to as “The Safe Sport Act” which requires sports organizations, subject to parental consent, to provide training for minors regarding prevention and reporting of child abuse and a process to allow a complainant to easily report any incident of child abuse to the appropriate persons.

At a minimum, we strongly recommend that parents review this training document and based on your child’s age and maturity level, discuss only age appropriate content contained herein with your child in the privacy of your home.

It is also recommended that parents should view additional, free training resources on how to keep your child safe from the U.S. Center for Safe Sport.

What is Abuse?

Abuse is when someone intentionally hurts another person, either physically or emotionally. We will cover the different types of abuse:

Sexual Abuse

Sexual abuse is unwelcome touching or spoken sexual interactions. These may be aggressive or threatening actions. Examples of child sexual abuse include:

An adult or someone older than a child touching the private parts of a child’s body that a bathing suit would cover, or an adult making a child touch the adult’s private parts.
An adult showing a child pictures or movies of people without clothes or taking these types of pictures of a child.
An adult discussing sexual matters with or in front of a child.

Grooming

Adults who sexually take advantage of children groom them by being a friend so the child will like them. They want the child to trust them. Next, bad adults find ways to be alone with the child and they begin non-sexual touching such as tickling or wrestling which gradually turns into touching private parts. Once the sexual touching starts, bad adults want to continue the sexual touching and prevent children from telling an adult by blaming the child or by threatening the child or the child’s family with violence. Below are typical grooming behaviors and situations that lead to abuse.

Abusers pretend to be responsible adults such as coaches and teachers who care about children and win the trust of their child victims and their parents.
But it is a warning sign when abusers appear to care too much and want to hang out around children too frequently outside of official team practices and games.
Abusers often offer children gifts, money, special trips to do fun things, babysitting, help with homework, and other favors to be liked and trusted and to spend time alone with them.

Physical Abuse

Physical abuse is hitting, shaking, choking, burning, pinching, beating, or other methods used to cause pain or injury. A child who is physically abused will likely have cuts, bruises, or other marks on his/her body.

Examples of Physical Abuse

A coach forcing an athlete with an injury to play before a doctor says it is O.K. to play again.
A coach or player purposely hitting another player with a bat.
A coach or player purposely striking a ball against another player.
A coach or parent denying water breaks as punishment.

Emotional Abuse

Emotional abuse is deliberate, non-contact behavior that can cause emotional or mental harm to a child that is repeated over time. Non-contact behavior can be verbal and physical, or the denying a child attention or support. This can mean someone making another person feel worthless, unwanted, or not cared for.

Examples of Emotional Abuse

A player or players calling another player worthless, an embarrassment, or making fun of them.
A coach refusing to allow a player to miss a practice for a family matter, or threatening to bench the player in future games if they miss practice.
A coach throwing equipment, water bottles or chairs at or in the presence of athletes.
A coach punching walls when the team loses the game.
A coach or parent ignoring an athlete for extended periods of time.

Bullying is intentionally aggressive physical and/or non-physical behavior repeated over time that hurts, threatens or frightens another person. Bullying can take place both on and off the field. Bullies can be teammates, parents, coaches, spectators, or umpires. Examples of bullying are:

Several people ganging up an individual team member.
A coach making an athlete feel like they are not part of the team.
Fans verbally abusing players from the opposite team by saying mean things.
Ongoing teasing of an athlete by teammate(s)

Cyberbullying is the use of the internet or cell phones to harass and bully another person. This can be in the form of mean text messages, posting unwanted pictures of someone else on social media, and creating a fake social media account and pretending to be someone else.

Harassment is unwanted behavior that is repeated over time and that annoys, puts down, threatens, or offends someone else. Below are examples:

An athlete being called bad names by teammates or a coach.
Teammates or a coach making bad comments about an athlete’s gender, disability, religion, race, or sexual orientation.
Hazing is a physically harmful or offensive act that is forced onto someone or someone is forced to do. Hazing often occurs as an initiation for a new member of a team. Examples of hazing are:
A new player being taped or tied up and forced to stay in a closet.
A player being forced to drink alcohol or to do an illegal drug.
Forcing a player to dress or act in an inappropriate way.

Situations to Avoid

No single child should ever be alone with a single adult other than a parent unless the child has written permission from the parents.
Parents should be encouraged to be with their child during all practices, games, tournaments, meetings, training sessions, etc.
Have a child buddy when alone with another adult who isn’t a parent. This could be when in a car, a locker room/changing area, or in an individual coach meeting or training session. Otherwise, a second adult should be within an observable distance.
Do not friend any adult staff member on Facebook, or send private/direct messages to an adult staff member on Instagram, Twitter, or Snapchat.
When communicating by text or email with an adult staff member, make sure that another staff member or parent is always copied on all incoming and outbound communications.
When spending the night in hotel rooms, boys should be paired with boys and girls with girls of a similar age and an adult chaperone should never spend the night inside the room but should be outside the room but close enough to supervise.
If an adult gives a gift to a child, the child should always inform their parent or another trusted adult.

What to Do and Who to Tell

Source:

USA Baseball: Pure Baseball Abuse Awareness for Minors Course-Master Script.