The US Tennis Association can do more to prevent abuse such as sexual misconduct, a review says

“The USTA meets all requirements of the U.S. Center for SafeSport, and in several respects has policies and procedures that provide more protection than the Center’s requirements. … However, we have identified several ways to increase player safety that the USTA should consider,” Hogan and O’Neil wrote.

The report comes less than two months after a tennis player was awarded $9 million in damages by a Florida federal court jury following her accusation that the USTA failed to protect her from a coach she claims sexually assaulted her abused in one of the training centers when she was a teenager. O’Neil – former head of the Justice Department’s criminal division – and Hogan wrote that their “investigation did not include the investigation of specific incidents involving allegations of sexual misconduct, beyond assessing whether the USTA met its obligations when abuse was reported to the USTA” and so they “did not investigate the events leading up to” that case in Florida.

They also noted that the USTA was a defendant in four other lawsuits – one of which resulted in a settlement – ​​related to sexual abuse of tennis players over the past two decades.

The attorneys said they had conducted “a thorough independent review” of the USTA’s “current policies and procedures for preventing, reporting, and responding to reports of abuse, including sexual misconduct.”

The review included interviews with USTA employees and access to hundreds of the organization’s documents. It also included a review of protections at 51 other U.S. national sports governing bodies, Paralympic sports organizations and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, along with guidance from the U.S. Center for SafeSport.

The report states that “the Council has expressed its intent to incorporate the suggestions” into the USTA Safe Play program.

“We view this report, including the recommendations of the Debevoise team, as an important step forward in our efforts to further ensure a safe environment for everyone involved in the sport of tennis,” USTA CEO and Executive Director Lew Sherr said in a statement written explanation. . “We are working to implement the recommendations as thoroughly and quickly as possible.”

The 19 recommendations include:

– seven that “focus on preventing misconduct before it occurs”;

– nine related to keeping “individuals known to have engaged in misconduct” out of USTA facilities and events, including by making information about them more widely known, because, the report says, “one of the greatest concerns parents and players have concerns individuals known to have engaged in misconduct – whether as a result of an adverse Center action or a criminal prosecution – but who seek to continue to participate in tennis,” including by appearing “at USTA-sanctioned tournaments as spectators;”

– two “aimed at expanding the number of individuals receiving Safe Play approval… and individuals receiving SafeSport training, particularly parents,” who “are often unaware of the ways in which coaches protect both underage athletes and their parents able to manipulate, and that can be particularly difficult to identify problematic behavior when a parent is hoping that a coach will help promote their child’s success in sports;”

– and one that “calls for additional staff and resources” for the USTA’s Safe Play program to help adopt the recommendations.

The review found that the USTA has only three employees “dedicated to developing and implementing the Safe Play program and monitoring its compliance,” and that its three player development campuses – in New York , Florida and California – “do not have staff members exclusively designated to oversee athlete safety.”

Howard Fendrich has been the AP’s tennis writer since 2002. Find his stories here: https://apnews.com/author/howard-fendrich

AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis