Change.org - Demand SafeSport Hold Abusers Accountable in Sports

Demand SafeSport Hold Abusers Accountable in Sports

Emma Tang started this petition to The United States Center for SafeSport, and it now has 25,377 signatures

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I am a former figure skater and I have witnessed firsthand the trauma and neglect of SafeSport on the athletic community. I have been a part of one particular investigation for nearly a year.  The United States Center for SafeSport was created in 2017 after the sexual abuse cases in USA Gymnastics. Its purpose is to investigate all abuses in all sports, to protect athletes, and to hold abusers accountable. They have failed to do this. All coaches must be in good standing with SafeSport and take their online course in order to teach. In December 2019, The Skating Lesson (TSL) posted on social media that John Coughlin, a well known pair figure skater, had his status changed to interim restriction. Soon after, it was released that Coughlin was accused of sexual assault and abuse dating back several years. In January 2019, as officials were flying out to meet him, he committed suicide to avoid the investigation. Months later, SafeSport decided to withdraw all investigations, claiming that there was nothing to investigate and leaving the skating community without answers to any questions. It was later discovered that his coach, Dalilah Sappenfield was well known to enable the abuses of over a dozen young girls by Coughlin and more by other male skaters. SafeSport has been conducting an investigation on Dalilah and will be issuing a "notice of allegations" with the initials of all claimants by the end of the month, marking the first anniversary of the investigation. A year’s worth of investigating has only resulted in a "notice of allegations". This long of an investigation has allowed abuse to continue.  Furthermore, SafeSport is the organization that allowed Alen Hadzic (Fencer) to compete in the Olympics and overturned his suspension, despite several sexual abuse allegations against him. It is also the organization that overturned the suspension of John Zimmerman, a figure skating coach who did not report the sexual abuse of one of his underage students and threatened them into silence. We are demanding that SafeSport be held accountable and hold abusers accountable in their actions.  Changes being requested:  Timeliness in investigations: There must be a time cap as the longer an investigation takes, the longer abuse will continue. We are requesting that investigations take no longer than six months. If an investigation is forseen to take longer than six months, we request that a public notice of investigation be issued.  Adequate accountability for perpetrators: We are requesting that athletes found guilty of sexual assault be publicly reported and banned from their respective sport.

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