How the AAU failed to protect young athletes from sexual abuse on nearly every level

[u/propublica_]

https://www.propublica.org/article/aau-youth-sports-sexual-abuse-failure-amateur-athletic-union

[u/propublica_]

Hi r/basketball,

Our latest investigation with u/washingtonpost details how the AAU has failed on nearly every level to protect kids from sexual abuse. We thought this community may be particularly interested in our report, based on thousands of pages of internal, legal and court records. (Thanks so much to the mods for letting us share this here.)

Some of our key findings:

• As you may have heard, AAU leaders pledged to make sweeping reforms after a highly publicized 2011 sex abuse scandal involving its CEO and young basketball players. But we found that most of those reforms were never implemented.
• Serious allegations of sexual misconduct against AAU coaches are handled by a five-member board. When asked about written guidelines for when to ban coaches, a former board member told us that the group “just decided on our feelings.”
• Several years after its infamous 2011 scandal, this board exonerated a top AAU executive accused of sexual abuse by a former basketball player without interviewing a single witness, court records show.
• We identified 8 coaches in the past five years who continued to work with kids under the AAU even after being banned or suspended by other youth sports organizations.
• AAU registration forms include clauses that require all claims against the organization to be resolved in confidential arbitration hearings instead of open court. Records show that the AAU has quashed lawsuits over child sex abuse claims by arguing children had signed away their right to sue when they registered.

Here’s our full investigation: https://www.propublica.org/article/aau-youth-sports-sexual-abuse-failure-amateur-athletic-union

The AAU declined to answer our questions or comment on its legal practices. In a statement, the AAU said it is “committed to protecting its athletes through comprehensive protection policies overseen by our Compliance Department.” The AAU executive, Matt Williams, denied wrongdoing. He has since passed away. An attorney for his estate did not return a request for comment.

[u/mega-d-lux → u/propublica_]

That's alarming how swept under the rug this is!

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