Right now you have a culture of gaslighting and grooming that has become normalized. People don't speak up, out of fear. They've seen that they're not going to play the next game. Their friends are going to make fun of them. They're going to be kicked off. They're going to be bullied. They won't get their scholarship or whatever it is. There are lots of things. They are fearful of this retaliation.
We have to start anew. We need to teach people that it is positive to report abuse and to keep people safe. Then we need to have safe places to report and safe people to report to. You cannot report a coach who's abusing to the assistant coach, who then may be retaliated against by the coach. It takes a long time to remove coaches.
Is there another channel? In the military, we have a chain of command. What's the chain of command for reporting? I'll bet if you asked an athlete, they wouldn't know a safe chain of command for reporting. Some of them report to their parents, and their parents say, “Well, I'll report, but understand, you might not be able to play.” Then the child, or athlete of any age, says, “I want to play. That's my life.”
We don't have safe places to report. We don't have a chain that is known or that is safe and where action is then taken immediately. If you report an abuser and the abuser stays, and you still have to travel or be in the locker room with that abuser, have you really reported in a safe place? No. You are fearful that someone has told that abuser.
We need to make it very clear that you are a hero when you report, and to always be the voice, and that there's no retaliation or retribution. If there is, whoever retaliates or takes any action against you is out. They are out, not you. They are out. There have to be clearly defined and articulated rules that are trained and that are followed—that are not just on paper but followed.