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June 26, 2005

Protecting youth athletes from sexual predators

Rick Henry struggled to get the words out. Emotions tumbled and swirled into a pool of anger, disappointment, betrayal and guilt as he recalled how a coach under his watch as Bossier Dixie president was accused and pleaded guilty to sexually abusing players.

Jim Elkins, a former Bossier Police Jury president and longtime Bossier Dixie baseball coach, pleaded guilty to three counts of fondling juveniles in 1997. He volunteered for surgical castration and is serving a 25-year sentence at Forcht Wade Correctional Center in Keithville. Elkins is eligible for parole in 2010.

Bossier Dixie isn't the only organization to face this nightmare.

Research by the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System concludes that more than 89,000 children were victims of sexual abuse in 2002.

According to a 1993 report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, experts believe 1 in 6 people are sexually abused as children.

Eight years after Elkins' case, BPAR conducts background checks on its more than 135 coaches in basketball and football, but Shreveport Public Assembly and Recreation cites a lack of funding as the reason it does not check its more than 170 football, basketball and baseball coaches.

SPAR youth sports administrator Milt Magaw said a background check would cost the league about $20 per coach for a total of $3,400 for the league's 170 coaches. "It's additional funding that we don't have in our program to do it."

BPAR contracts its screening process through Southern Research, a private Shreveport company, which performs the checks through Caddo and Bossier parish criminal records. An online background search The Times conducted on the state police sex offender site (www.lasocpr.lsp.org) found no SPAR or BPAR coach from the 2004 season listed.

"I would think in today's society, the way things are going with all the Amber Alerts going on, that you would not have anybody working around kids in a public facility that you wouldn't run some sort of background check on," said Ross Setters, who coached his daughter in SPAR's tee-ball league.

"I can understand if they don't have the funds. They can only do so much."

Jerry Bagwell, whose 4-year-old son participated in SPAR's tee-ball league, believes some form of screening is better than nothing. "Yeah, it does concern me.

"Anyone involved with children, whether it be a teacher or coach, (should be checked)," he said. "If I wasn't actively involved, it would make me feel better to know everybody else was OK. There seems there could be a way where we could do something with the community."

That doesn't mean SPAR isn't keeping tabs on coaches' and volunteers' behavior. SPAR sends supervisors to youth games throughout the season as monitors. "If we get word or we observe a specific coach getting out of hand, then we'll take more time to watch that individual and, if necessary, call them in, counsel," Magaw said. "And, ultimately, the worst case is they don't improve and we eliminate them from the program."

Caddo-Bossier Soccer Association, one of the largest youth leagues in the area with more than 2,200 children and 200 coaches participating, doesn't perform background checks either. But that soon could change.

"It's something the Louisiana Soccer Association is looking at," CABOSA President Jeff Terracciano said.

"We're basically a new club. And we're talking about it with LSA about what's the recommendation by the state," he said. "It's not a matter of funds. It's not a matter of we don't want to do it. Right now, LSA is looking at it and we're going to follow the state guidelines."

Identifying the signs

Youth athletic leagues provide the perfect opportunity for child molesters. A 1999 story by Sports Illustrated says more than 10 million children under the age of 16 participate in youth sports and are coached by more than 1 million adults. That issue of the magazine features Elkins' mug shot on the cover.

Counselors and psychotherapists recognize Elkins' behavior as befitting the classic pedophile profile though his appearance didn't fit the stereotypical image of one. He wasn't the decrepit old man in the trench coat lurking in dark corners.

His engaging personality and warm demeanor shadowed his duplicitous behavior though the signs of his abuse were there. Parents never gave it a second thought when he invited players to his house or his Lake Bistineau camp for sleepovers.

"I thought about this one time that if I ever wrote a book, it'd be called, 'Pedophiles, the nicest people you'd ever want to meet,' because that's their game," Bossier City police Sgt. Tim Dement said.

He was a detective in the juvenile division which led the investigation, interviewing Elkins and the children who reported the abuse.

A pedophile's "game is being nice and likable and winning everybody's confidence and doing everything else on the sly," Dement said.

Henry, former Bossier Dixie president, was one of those influenced by Elkins' trustworthy nature, which made it sting all the more when he discovered Elkins' secret.

"How did I take it? That a man that we all respected and trusted was out there in this program and he knew he had a problem and he didn't get help for it and still put himself in a position to work with those kids?" Henry said.

"I was very angry about it. I was caught completely off guard."

The first line of defense

Background checks are not 100 percent effective in targeting sex offenders. Experts agree that many more predators remain at large and that the best defense is a watchful parent. Many parents use the coach as a baby-sitter, leaving their child unattended at practices for hours. Or they simply trust the coach to deliver the child home safely afterward.

"Be involved with your kids," said Dennis Pratt, a sergeant in Shreveport police's sex crimes unit.

"If your kid is playing sports, go to practices. Don't just drop them off. Get to know the coaches. Get background from other parents who a coach has coached before. We, as parents, have to be smarter."

Parents also need to be aware of indications of sexual abuse. The No. 1 sign is a change in behavior. A child also may exhibit feelings of shame or guilt, withdraw from relatives and friends or perform poorly in school.

"Anything that really is out of character for your child," said Jessica Milan, executive director of Gingerbread House, a nonprofit that counsels sexually abused children and performs forensic interviews for law enforcement.

Milan has seen a jump in the number of cases reported to Gingerbread House since 2003. The organization conducted 527 forensic interviews in 2003, 641 in 2004 and is on pace for 750 this year. She estimates a 32 percent increase in the number of cases per year over the past four years.

"Every child is different, and a parent knows the personality of their child," Milan said. "Maybe a child is very social or outgoing and all of sudden is withdrawn and no longer wants to be associated with that activity they once enjoyed. That's definitely a red flag.

"There are clusters of behavior," she said. "So it's important to remember that just because one thing is out of whack doesn't necessarily mean that the child has been molested."

Henry has seen the long-term results on Elkins' victims. He knows many of the victims and their families and crosses paths with them 15 years after the incidents. He has seen their robbed youth and innocence still reflected in their eyes.

"I still think it affects them," Henry said. "It's in the back of their minds. You can see it if you know what you're looking for. I can see that withdrawn part. You can see how the joy and life is gone from their eyes.

"It was my responsibility to keep these kids safe out here. And that's where I kind of feel violated, too. I didn't do my job."

Posted by Nealus at June 26, 2005 11:51 AM

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