Looking out for Your Children’s Interest

Picture of Coach Sandusky

He is a suspected pedophile

Because of the problems that we are all witnessing resulting from the Penn State scandal, I feel that it is imperative to tell you about the importants of protecting your child. You may think that this should go without saying. But over the past 20 years and being the head of the Greater Paxtonia Track Club (coaching children from 9 to 18 years old), I have seen and heard some things that tell me that many parents set their child up to be a target of pedophiles.

When I had my track club, many parents used me as a cheap baby sitter. They just dropped their children off at the gate and leave. They never cared about who was with their children or what they were doing. Some times after practice the parents never showed up leaving the children stranded. Somehow, I was supposed to know that these children had no ride home and I was supposed to make sure that they did.

Many times after practice, the other coaches and I had to track down some of the children’s parents. One year a single male parent left his daughter at our “end of season” party that was over at 1:30 PM. He never came to pick her up and I had her from noon to eleven O’clock that night. After several attempts at finding the parent, I asked another parent with daughters to take the child for that night, starting at Eleven O'clock. Oh, the parent in question did call at sun up saying that he was sorry and wanted to know where his daughter was.

We had wavers for parents to sign when they refuse to accompany their children to other cities for track meets. One 14 year old boy brought back his signed waver. He lived in the City of Harrisburg and I took him to the state of Iowa for a week. He came in first and third place. I took him home and met his parents for the first time. I explained to them how well he did in Iowa. They told me that they had no idea that he was in a track club even though he wore a uniform. Second they did not know that he was gone for a week let alone in another state over 1,000 miles away.

From what went on in my track club, I can understand how Sandusky can have children over at his house and take them out of the state and nothing rang a bell in the heads of the parents. So for a pedophile, it is best to look for parents who think that the children are just a necessary evil. These parents are just setting their children up for a bad life changing experience.

If I care about my children, I would be at their organization functions and I would keep my eyes open for anyone treating children strangely. I know of one 40 year old coach from a Central Pennsylvania Track Club over 20 years ago that held a 14 year old girl the full time of practice. That was everyone’s first clue that something was wrong with that relationship. Someone called the mother and the police was called in.

How to Identify Pedophiles

I have noticed by looking at some cases in Central Pennsylvania that pedophilia is a cultural thing. This is why it has taken until the 1980s for law enforcement, the state, and the courts to do something about it. Some places around the world, children as young as age 10 marry and live with men.

Have you noticed the look on Coach Sandusky’s face in his interview about the “Second Mile” Foundation given about 12 years ago? Did you notice the smirk on his face in that interview? Many professionals who work in the child protective services area claim that many pedophiles have this type of look. They also claim that they use children foundations such as baseball, football, basketball, summer camp, and other organizations as cover to meet unsuspecting children. That way they can get parent and children’s confidence. When that happens they can use them anyway they want.

If a man or woman wants to be around children all the time and has none of their own in the organization of interest, to me, they are a suspect for pedophilia. Sometimes it is not about pedophilia. Sometimes it is about robbery. The best place to be is in a baseball organization listening to your player’s say that no one will be home from Monday to Friday because everyone will be going on vacation. What a nice place to get free items to sell to the local fence!

It does not matter if your child is 3 years old or 18 years old, once a pedophile gets his hand on your child, your child’s life will be changed usually for the worst.

Here are six other things to watch out for when protecting your child from people who sexually prey on your children;

1 Be aware of statistics. You should know that a majority of pedophiles are typically male. This doesn't mean that a woman can't be a pedophile; it is just less frequent. You should also know that race, age, and social or economic class have little to do with their pedophilic tendencies.

2 Watch out for someone that is too charming. Pedophiles are usually charming individuals who are able to live double lives very well. In an attempt to hide their sickness from mainstream society, the average pedophile is not obvious to most adults.

3 Never dismiss a child's claims because the adult in question is a valued member of society or appears incapable of such things. That's exactly what the pedophile wants.

4 Know who a pedophile could be. Pedophiles often molest children they have easy access to such as a family member or the child of a close friend. Despite what we would like to believe, most pedophiles are known to our children.

5 Be sure never to leave your child alone with anyone you don't trust. That being said, sometimes, your trust is misplaced.

6 Understand that a pedophile will use a range of games, tricks, activities and language to gain a child's trust and or deceive a child. These include: sexually explicit games, fondling, kissing, touching sexually suggestive behavior, exposing a child to pornographic material, coercions, bribery, flattery, and worst of all, affection and love.

Don’t expect the government to look after your children. It is up to you to take the initiative and protect your children.