USA-Swimming has released a clarification of what its “flagged list” means, to make sure that there is no confusion over the issue.
What the clarification effectively says is that the highest form of punishment that a youth-sports organization has is to revoke membership, but they obviously can’t revoke the memberships of people who are not members. If anybody on the flagged list wishes to apply for membership, they must appear for a hearing to address the issue.
If the person in question refuses to appear, or if it is warranted in the opinion of the governing body, the person in question will then be added to the banned for life list.
Below is the full, unedited release from USA-Swimming.
USA Swimming only has jurisdiction over its members. However, because we are committed to doing whatever we can to keep accused predators from being members of our organization, we have embraced the practice of “flagging” records of former members when we become aware of complaints against them (whether the complaint is about something that allegedly happened before, during or long after their membership in our organization).
This gives us a tool for identifying these individuals, should they attempt to become members of our organization in the future. Should they try, their computerized member record would immediately indicate that they would be ineligible for membership until they had a full hearing to find out if they had engaged in misconduct that would make them ineligible for membership.
Since the highest penalty available to a youth sports organization is revoking membership, “Flagging” their membership record used to be the only course of action available to USA Swimming. (Obviously, you can’t revoke membership of someone who isn’t a member).
However, now that we’ve published our suspended for life list – (an action taken by only one other youth organization – USA Gymnastics) – we have a course of disciplinary action against non-members. For this reason, at yesterday’s Board meeting USA Swimming committed to contacting these former-members with complaints against them, and offering a hearing to determine if they should be added to our “suspended for life list.” Those that decline the hearing will automatically be added to the list. Those who accept the offer will go through our investigation and review process to determine if they should be added to the “Suspended for life” list.
I am not aware of any other youth organization that does this��“ but USA Swimming is committed to doing what’s right for our athletes, and doing everything we can in order to provide the safest possible environment.
I hope that answers your question. I’ve also included our release from yesterday’s Board actions on the topic of Athlete Protection.