Katherine Starr's blog

Incognito-Martin: Has Bullying In Sports Become The New Normal?

Submitted by Katherine Starr on Mon, 11/11/2013 - 20:34. | comments

Last week, Miami Dolphins player Richie Incognito was suspended indefinitely for allegely bullying teammate Jonathan Martin.

The story has me searching for answers to questions such as:

If we think that the Richie Incognito-Jonathan Martin bullying incident is atypical, we are blind to what is really going on in sport, says the founder of Safe4Athletes, who is concerned bullying as become the new normal in sports, and calls for policies and procedures to be put in place, not just to hear them when they have been bullied, but to prevent the bullying from happening in the first place.

Katherine Starr

The Truth About Sexual Abuse Of Athletes By Coaches: It's All About Power

Submitted by Katherine Starr on Thu, 09/26/2013 - 14:15. | comments

Since the Sandusky case, many have jumped on the bandwagon to address child sexual abuse in sports. We show videos of adolescent aged girls and boys being targeted and abused. Without a doubt, we react emotionally and with revulsion to something so horrific as the taking the innocence of a young child. Girl swimming butterfly

Yet, that isn't the whole truth when discussing coach-athlete sexual abuse. If you look at the list of banned swim coaches on the USA Swimming website, there isn't one coached banned for sexual abuse who was accused of having a relationship with a swimmer under the age of 13.

Since the Jerry Sandusky case, many have jumped on the bandwagon to address child sexual abuse in sports. The problem is that we are still not seeing the issue as the abuse of power that it is, says the founder of Safe4Athletes, a non-profit organization dedicated to fighting sexual abuse of athletes.