Monday, April 14, 2014

Charlotte Observer: Charlotte swim coach banned for life after sexual misconduct charge



Jamie Thomas finally banned for life. It took a very long time to process this ban and people should ask USA Swimming why?  (In fact I will ask and post the reply.)  This all began back in November 2013. 

In fact South North Carolina has had 9-coaches charged with sexual misconduct since 2012. Absolutely despicable. Sounds like a serious cultural problem that needs addressing. 

From the Charlotte Observer:

 On Monday, the sport’s governing body announced Thomas’ permanent suspension for violation of the USA Swimming code of conduct. The suspension means he is prohibited from coaching or owning one of its club teams. 
 “The safety of our athletes is our top priority,” USA Swimming spokesperson Karen Linhart said. “It’s very important to have the right people in our sport, acting in the ways of our code of conduct and doing the right thing.” 
 USA Swimming initially suspended Thomas following his Sept. 18 arrest in Opelika, Ala., on a pending sexual misconduct charge. 
[Link]

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Tony: maybe you should first pull out a map and figure out what state Charlotte is in.

Tony Austin said...

My bad, I have made the correction.

Anonymous said...

Nov 2013 to now is a long time? That's six months. What if he was innocent? What about due process? Don't you think he should have had an opportunity to present his side of the story?

I go back to my issues (not sexually related) with people in swimming, and how I was accused of a lot of things that were false. It took far longer than 6 months for my situation to be resolved, and I won my grievance and the appeal. But you would have been happy to have me hung long prior to that.

I'm not supporting the actions of this guy, if indeed he did anything (I have no clue, I'm not familiar with the situation). I just know how lives can be so easily ruined by false accusations. Lives such as mine.

Tony Austin said...

Thank you for the thoughtful post. Moving forward I am stepping back from the comments section and won't be responding with opinions or my own counter arguments until a specific point of law is resolved by the courts. But I do sincerely thank you for the comment.