{"id":16077,"date":"2025-04-23T07:16:21","date_gmt":"2025-04-23T15:16:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/concussioninc.net\/?p=16077"},"modified":"2025-04-23T07:22:53","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T15:22:53","slug":"good-riddance-to-the-latest-apparatchik-heading-the-u-s-center-for-safesport-but-the-problem-is-the-agency-itself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/concussioninc.net\/?p=16077","title":{"rendered":"Good Riddance to the Latest Apparatchik Heading the U.S. Center for SafeSport. But the Problem Is the Agency Itself."},"content":{"rendered":"

by Irvin Muchnick<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Following the U.S. Center for SafeSport\u2019s latest scandal \u2013 center investigator Jason Krasley was discovered to have been previously arrested, the first time on charges of stealing money from a drug bust, the second time for rape and human trafficking \u2013 the agency’s CEO, <\/a><\/span>Ju’Riese Col\u00f3n<\/span>, is out.<\/span><\/p>\n

This ensures another ad hominem news cycle, followed by a longer and more profound public interlude of yawns.<\/span><\/p>\n

To be sure, <\/span>Col\u00f3n, SafeSport\u2019s second chief, has been a bad joke. Last summer the <\/span>Chicago Tribune <\/span><\/i>was just about the only major news outlet in the country giving any boost to the just-released report of the Commission on the Future of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee. The commission recommended federal funding of the SafeSport center, to eliminate the money and influence of Olympic overseers, and removing from Olympic sports governing bodies control of grassroots programs in swimming and other sports. The <\/span>Tribune <\/span><\/i>published both my op-ed essay<\/a> and its own editorial<\/a> on the issue.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a letter to the editor in response, Col\u00f3n crowed that she was in Paris, leading the first-ever SafeSport delegation at an Olympiad \u2013 as if cheering for the U.S. Olympic team in international competition had anything to do with ensuring the safety of kids under the thumb of unaccountable local coaches.<\/span><\/p>\n

But that was just the latest in a long history of SafeSport outrages. In 2018, Col\u00f3n\u2019s predecessor, Shellie Pfohl, did her first television interview, as the story of serially molesting USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar was exploding. Pfohl showed up in a USCSS-branded pullover and focused her soundbytes on assurances that her agency\u2019s work would never impede Olympic teams\u2019 quests for medals.<\/span><\/p>\n

SafeSport\u2019s first chief investigator, Michael Henry, was a con man who didn\u2019t have a law license yet episodically misrepresented himself to complainants as \u201cdirector of legal affairs.\u201d He was the center\u2019s highest-paid employee and got performance bonuses even as the case backlog grew \u2013 until he left following the story of breaches in the agency\u2019s confidential case database, whose server was being kept in the office kitchen. Henry went on to his current job as \u201cjudicial integrity officer\u201d for the federal courts<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

SafeSport\u2019s public relations flack, Dan Hill, is another con man<\/a> who lied pathetically about his one conversation with this reporter. Hill also claims to work pro bono, when nonprofit tax filings show his company has been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been working on an exploration of why last year\u2019s congressional commission report has gotten near-zero attention (the <\/span>New York Times <\/span><\/i>didn\u2019t devote a single line to its publication and findings). More on that shortly, but here\u2019s the spoiler: No one seems to have any will for restructuring America\u2019s broken youth sports system, by which the Olympic Committee and its commercial and flag-waving priorities make widespread sexual abuse of children an inevitable fallout \u2013 a cost of business. Evidently, anecdotal firings, accompanied by expressions of \u201cconcern,\u201d are sufficient. The figures in Congress who were responsible for establishing the commission are safer than kid athletes: safe to stay passive about implementing toothful reforms.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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