My son plays on a pee wee football team in North Texas. I just found out that his coach is a registered sex offender. I called and talked to the commissioner about it and he says that he isn't required to check backgrounds of the volunteer coaches, and that he is aware of his record, but it wasn't against a child so he doesn't think there is a problem...
I know I can just not let my son(s) play in the association, but its still wrong. He said the man will be allowed to coach again.
I called the Editor of our local paper but who else can I talk to???!!
Any ideas about this would be great. I think parents should know who is teaching their children!
1 hour ago - 3 days left to answer.
I do know the offense was in 1996 and against his wife. I dont know if it is the same wife he has now or not. However, it is public record, which is how i found out. My daughter was looking on the Sex Offender Website at our area and his name, picture, and who the offense was against and what it was for all came up.
I think the main concerns I have is (a) they dont do backgrounds on the coaches ( what IF the offense had been against a child) and (b) they should disclose that information to us parents BEFORE our children are exposed to them. It just so happens this is what this guy did, what if he had some other felony record, are we suppose to wait until something happens to a child before we say there should have been checks done?
Thats all im saying. I dont care if the guy specifically is brought into the matter accept he shouldnt be allowed to coach.
Football season is over. My son is no longer on the team, but we didnt find out until after the season was over. So no he will not be back on the same team, but I am not sure I want him to be a part of an association that doesnt put the childrens best interests first.
Ok just one more edit ( i hope). The issue ( for me) isnt the GUY himself.
My concern is the fact that we as parents, putting our children in an organized sport, assume that all proper precautions are being taken when placing our children in a situation. The fact that in this specific case there are possibilities that he is as innocent as an angel, doesnt mean there 10 other guys that molest children, kill people, ect. We wont know because they dont check, and those type of crimes arent required to register.
I want to know if there is a greater power that has control over these "association" to keep some control and structure to adddress these types of issues. I never even mentioned the guys name to the newspaper, only the commissioners stand on the whole thing.|||All people who are around children in a team/classroom setting need to have background checks. I would find out who the league reports to in their district and complain there as well. For example, if it's Pop Warner football your league would report to a Pop Warner district manager to ensure rules were being followed. Go this route.
I'm in Florida and any coaches, assistant coaches and even the team moms must submit to a background check before they are accepted as volunteers. If a dad/mom helps out during a practice, there is no way to know, but the people "in charge" should always have a background check. Every year I go through a background check for baseball (spring) and football (fall) so that I can be team mom for my kids.
I wouldn't let it go. Like I first said, go to the district level. Maybe you could also speak to the local police department or even the city management to find out the protocol for this.
Good luck!|||No felon should be around children. Contact the organization that hired him and tell them you will be notifying every parent WITH OR WITHOUT YOUR CHILD INVOLVED. This organization is careless and dangerous if they do not check people out that will be around children. Predators target venues with children. Most parents will assume in this day and age that people would be checked out before being hired.|||Report it to whom ever you can in the district, AFTER you do more research on the matter. He may be violating his parole he may not, do the work then you will have a better idea of what measures need to be taken.|||Dig deeper into his record. Look up your states rules and regs. regarding convicted sex offenders. Does it say on the website if he is on supervison? If so, then contact the probation/parole officer. It may very well be that he is violating his probation.
The commissioner sounds like a real a$$. Not doing background checks on coaches/assistant coaches -anybody that comes in contact with children- is just asking for trouble.
Put everything in writing. Have the commissioner respond in writing or even email. Then go to your local news station's "problem solvers" division and see if they will research this for you. Once the community sees this on the news, I bet you that the rules regarding volunteers will be re-written asap!!|||I really don't know what you could do other than talk to the president of the association. However, that blows me away that they don't do a background check. I live in Oklahoma, and my husband coached my daughters soccer team. It's made up of all volunteer coaches, and they all still have to have background checks. If they have a record, they can't coach.|||As you say its not the guy himself you object to but the fact that no checks are made.
In the UK (im on scotland) all volunteers have to be police checked by the care commission and no one with a sex offence would be allowed to work with children or vuneralble adults.|||I would make a police report. Or at the very least, call and speak to someone at the police department in your area. They'll at least be able to tell you if he's violating any laws or terms he's got to abide by.
As far as "the association" I don't know the answer to your question, but I do want to tell you I agree with you 100%. Registered sex offenders shouldn't be allowed to coach any children's teams. And they should be screening coaching candidates much better and/or notifying parents if they should decide to hire the coach. But at least you did your job as a parent. From now on, I guess you'll just have to check out your kids' coach every year. (and I hope you told every one of the other parent's about the situation!)|||This is exactly why you shouldn't trust someone else you don't know with the safety of your children.
You have to take it upon yourself to check out people who have contact with your children like you did!
If it was me I would tell every parent I could and maybe even put an ad in the newspaper stating that fact.|||I find it very odd no background check is required for volunteers. I was a Brownie leader for the girl guides and I had to go through a criminal check (at my own expense) before being allowed to be in the organization. You should lobby for making background checks mandatory for volunteer positions. Get a petition signed and take it to your local congressperson and get media attention if you can. To me that is the most effective thing to do. Having said that now that you know for the time being a background/criminal check is not required then you must be very careful when putting your kids in extra curricular activities and make sure you get to know the coach and even do your own background check on them. Keep in mind that not every pedophile has a criminal record so it is really up to the parents to get to know the coach and keep a dialogue going with your child to be sure nothing inappropriate is going on.|||"My concern is the fact that we as parents, putting our children in an organized sport, assume that all proper precautions are being taken when placing our children in a situation"
This is where the problem lies.
If you want to make sure that background checks are performed on the adults volunteering in organizations that your children participate in, then you need to ask about that before signing the kids up for the programs.
If you feel that the Pee Wee Football League should be checking the backgrounds on volunteers, then you should sign on as a volunteer yourself and make those changes from the inside.|||I'd be more concerned about the ones you don't know about than the ones you do. The idea of registering is so that you can keep an eye on him, not to hound him all his life to keep him from ever being a productive citizen.|||I can understand being concerned. However you know he's not a child molester. Whatever happened was against his wife at that time. You didn't say how old your son was. I do however believe that anyone who works w/kids should be fingerprinted and the background check done. Of course, any charges of him vs. children would and should disqaulify your son. If the man hasn't acted inappropriately toward any of the team members, I think I would let the matter rest. Your son is going on to another team. Go through your legislator to get a law into effect to background check volunteers, teachers, etc to make sure they are safe to be around children.
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