Little League Mandates Checks for Sex Offenses

By Manny Fernandez, Washington Post Staff Writer

Originally published in The Washington Post, October 9, 2002

Little League Baseball will require sex offender checks for every manager, coach, administrator and adult volunteer who has regular contact with players, and any local league may request more-extensive criminal background checks, officials said yesterday.

League officials said the additions to the rule book—to be announced this morning at Little League headquarters in Williamsport, Pa.—mark the first time a youth sports organization has made sex offender checks mandatory for its volunteers on a national level. They said the rule is aimed at preventing child abuse.

The requirement affects about 1 million adult volunteers with the league's 180,000 teams in the Washington region and across the country and mandates what had been a voluntary effort to check the backgrounds of volunteers and hired workers. The move was applauded by officials of other youth sports, as well as regional Little League officials.

The rule is designed to make the sport "as unwelcome a place as possible for people who prey on children," said Stephen Keener, president and chief executive of Little League Baseball Inc.

Washington area Little League supporters said the new procedures are unfortunate but necessary. "Responsible and reasonable people who want to assume these important roles in dealing with our youth must be open to this sort of evaluation," said Ann Kane, president of the District's Capitol City league, one of 80 area Little League programs that include about 34,000 boys and girls and 10,000 volunteers.

A Capitol City coach, John Devaney, said he has no problem undergoing a background check. "I think it's a worthy exercise," said Devaney, 45, a Washington lawyer who is one of two coaches for the 12-player Tigers.

Devaney and others said they did not expect the new rules to dissuade volunteers, and some said the change might strengthen trust between parents and coaches. Others expected a boost in volunteer ranks.

Other youth sports groups are considering or already recommend similar checks. An official at Pop Warner, the national youth football and cheerleading organization, said Little League's mandatory program is likely to become the model.

"I think it sends a strong message. . . . It shows we're taking an extra step for the welfare of the children," said Jon Butler, executive director of Pop Warner, which has more than 37,000 volunteers. Butler said that several Pop Warner leagues already require background checks and that officials will discuss mandating them nationally in coming weeks.

Lolly Keys, a spokeswoman for the American Youth Soccer Organization in Hawthorne, Calif., supported the move by Little League. "We have to take whatever precautions we can to make sure that our children are safe," said Keys, who added that her 250,000-volunteer group recommends that its local officials check applicants for sex offense histories. Criminal and civil checks are conducted on a case-by-case basis, she said.

The Little League rules take effect for the 2003 season. Leaders of each local league are required to check sex offender registries and have the option of requesting a full criminal background check. The sex offender check will be required each year and will cover anyone with regular contact with children, including regularly used umpires, whether they are volunteers or are paid.

Anyone who has been convicted of or pleaded guilty to charges involving a minor will be forbidden to participate in Little League, regardless of when the offense occurred. League officials said there are 43 states—including Maryland and Virginia—where local administrators have access to the state's sex offender registry. A majority of those states, as well as the District, offer online access. In states without access, leagues will be required to request a state or federal criminal background check.

Volunteers will fill out an application requiring the disclosure of criminal convictions of any kind and requesting consent to the background check. If a criminal history other than that involving children is discovered, local league officials will decide on any action on a case-by-case basis.

Arthur Spitzer, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of the National Capital Area, said Little League's concerns are legitimate, but "in our view, they should be careful and not overreact." Spitzer said the league should limit the scope of inquiries to offenses against children. He added: "As long as they don't discriminate in ways the law prohibits, they're free to ask their volunteers to agree to a background check."

Keener said the decision to require the checks was made in September by the league's 22-member international board of directors and was not a reaction to a widespread problem. He said the issue became a priority in part because of recent child abuse scandals. "The recent issues involving the Catholic Church have kind of propelled the topic into the public eye," he said.

In the past 15 years, nine Little League volunteers are known to have been involved in the sexual abuse of players, league officials said. A case that gained attention in the late 1990s involved a Little League baseball coach in San Bernardino, Calif., who molested dozens of preteen boys.

An increasing number of leagues have been requesting background checks on their own, a procedure league headquarters had recommended but not required. One league official estimated that 20 percent or more of leagues nationwide were seeking the checks.

In Anne Arundel County, Little League programs and other youth sports leagues that use county ballfields must submit coaches to criminal background checks. Kane, of the Capitol City league, said she has conducted three background checks in 17 years as president, two of people new to the program. No crimes turned up. "I'd rather take the extra step," she said.

In San Bernardino, Steve Larsen runs nearly 200 names of volunteers—including umpires and the young man who chalks the field—through a sex offender database at the local sheriff's office before the start of the season. Everyone has passed in the three years since the league made the checks a requirement, said Larsen, president of the 40-team Newmark Little League. The league also requires volunteers to submit to fingerprinting by authorities, a precaution Larsen said was sparked by the local case of multiple abuses.

"As society changes," Larsen said, "you have to change with it."