What do three Sacramento individuals, a karate teacher, a basketball coach and a Mormon youth sports director all have in common? Your first guess might be they all work with children. Correct. However, they also have a far uglier commonality: arrested on charges of child molestation and child pornography charges.
These three were a part of a larger bust executed by Federal Agents in the Sacramento area in recent weeks. Online sting operations allowed agents to determine the identities of individuals possessing and distributing child pornography. This particular bust is more than a little unsettling having included so many individuals whose primary occupations had them working with youth on a consistent basis.
Background checks for coaches and youth oriented sports league volunteers have become more commonplace in recent years as incidents of harassment, abuse and exploitation have risen. The perpetrators are thus developing tactics to try to remain under the radar to avoid detection.
While background checks are an extremely effective method for preventing the wrong people from getting involved with children, parents also need to apply their own intuition and common sense, especially if they feel something is amiss.
Ken Rosenfeld, FOX40 legal analyst and veteran criminal defense lawyer says, “You have to as a parent involve yourself and watch. There’s always signs, some of them subliminal, some of them not. But there are always signs when someone seems a little too involved with children.”
One of the men arrested, Peter Graham, taught a Kenpo karate program to kids. While he had no criminal record, other red flags in plain view were a little hard to ignore.
Consider that at 29 years of age, he was still living at home with his mother. His Facebook page displayed photos of him at a Plumas Lake pool party frolicking with young boys in 2009.
Issues interacting with other adults? Check. Cause for suspicion if you are a parent? Check. Had my son or daughter been involved in this guys class they would have been pulled out quicker than Bruce Lee breaking a stack of concrete blocks.
While it is unlikely Peter Graham and company will be around kids anytime soon, it’s necessary to supplement your organizations background check policy with your own vigilance and good decision making ability. If you suspect something is amiss with your child’s sports mentor despite a clean background sweep, do not wait to vocalize your concern until it is too late.
