President Donald Trump signed into law a bill requiring amateur sporting federations to report accusations of sexual abuse to law enforcement.
We reported on the bill earlier this month as it passed the houses of Congress. The “Protecting Young Victims from Sexual Abuse and Safe Sport Authorization Act of 2017” came in response to a flood of sexual abuse allegations coming forward within both entertainment and sports, most notably the trial of Larry Nassar, a doctor who worked with athletes from the youth level to the Olympic level and was accused of abusing more than 150 women over more than two decades.
The law now requires amateur sporting federations such as USA Swimming to report sexual abuse allegations to law enforcement.
Just last week, U.S. Olympic swimmer Ariana Kukors came forward with allegations that longtime coach Sean Hutchison had groomed and sexually abused her since the age of 13. USA Swimming admitted it had received reports of an inappropriate relationship between the two when Kukors was no longer a minor, but that both parties denied the allegations at the time. We’ve asked USA Swimming whether it reported the allegations to any law enforcement agencies or whether federation policies required such a move at the time, but have not received a response since asking last week.
The fact these Federations were not reporting allegations and letting qualified individuals investigate, is in itself pathetic. I am not a fan of countless laws from Congress, however this one is sadly justified. Is the law retroactive? Will USAS have to go back and turn over all records to the proper authorities? If not, they may not. And that in itself is a problem if they do not proactively turn over the old records.
This needs to be extended to Universities
Interestingly, the Obama administration specifically directed universities to give sexual assault victims the option of whether or not to report potential crimes to law enforcement.
The Obama admin didn’t have the same level of sympathy as the current administration.
I think it was more about the previous administration’s desire to be “activist,” and circumvent due process, in order to allow allegations to be adjudicated in a forum where a presumtion of guilt prevailed.
Agreed.
Way overdue!