Different Era:Different Sport: Same sex abuse cover-up....

http://www.thepostgame.com/features/201111/another-era-and-another-sport-sex-abuse-scandal-still-inflicting-pain-today

Before Before Jerry Sandusky- there was Donald Fitzpatrick, the longtime Red Sox clubhouse manager who lured Ogletree and at least a dozen other young, African-American boys into two decades of systemic sexual abuse.

Not only has a serial child molester infiltrated sports before, he did so with one of baseball's most storied franchises, The Red Sox Should the allegations against Sandusky prove true, the two cases are strikingly similar. Both men seduced their victims with the lure of big-time athletics. Both bribed them with equipment and other swag. Both enjoyed watching boys shower. Both fondled their victims and engaged in oral sex. Both committed crimes in plain view and, despite getting caught, were swaddled by a power structure that buried the truth to protect those highest up in the organization. Both used threats and mind games to silence their prey for decades. And both ended up being exposed as predators far too late, after they had laid waste to innocent lives.

Never mind that the negligence dated back to 1971. One victim, according to a complaint filed by his lawyer two decades later, told Red Sox home clubhouse manager Vince Orlando that Fitzpatrick had abused him for the previous three seasons. Orlando fired the boy. Two sources, who asked not to be identified, said a Red Sox player caught Fitzpatrick sodomizing a boy in the shower, much like then-Penn State graduate assistant Mike McQueary did Sandusky. The player reported the incident to the team but not police. Fitzpatrick kept his job anyway.

also: sandusky pedophile ring pimping wealthy donors

Gotta love da Google!

Kinda terrifying.

Given the nation's obsession with sports, with team loyalty, with "winners" and "winning," the adulation for sports stars, and the national myth that sports are somehow necessary to the healthy development of our children.

Children are conditioned to look up to those coaches, managers, etc.. Adults trust them. Character simply doesn't matter. Anyone who has "won," or helped provide "wins," for the team gets miles of latitude.

Charities dealing with children have to be extraordinarily watchful, since they are often targets for pedophiles. Especially when disadvantaged children are involved, pedophiles have easy pickings. In many cases they also have money to donate to those charities. Money ingratiates them to the charity, and gives them access.

Then, when someone discovers the situation, it often gets covered up by the associated organization, in a vain attempt to keep scandal from their door.

Churches, charities, sports programs, and other youth organizations are all targets of this insidious strategy. Any laxity in such an organization's watchfulness and close supervision of all who come into contact with children gets noticed right away and the pedophiles move in.

In the case of this The Second Mile organization, children were allowed to spend extended periods alone with adults and sometimes even to travel with them. That is simply not safe. Given that, I expect to hear of more instances connected with that organization, not out of deliberation, but out of a lack of oversight.

If you have children, know the organizations they belong to very well.

Heartbreaking

I wonder if that is the same in the Penn State cover-up, and that contributed to nobody doing anything..