Hockey moms and dads whose children play in an East Bay program affiliated with the San Jose Sharks thought no one who ever committed a sex crime and applied to coach would get near their kids because they'd be screened by a criminal background check.
But the California Amateur Hockey Association and Sharks Ice, which runs the Oakland Ice Center rink, let a man coach 9-, 10- and 11-year-old kids even after a background check showed he had been convicted of a sex crime against an underage girl when he was a young man.
It turns out that applicants who have been convicted of sex crimes and are red-flagged can appeal to the hockey association for permission to coach anyway, as the incident at the Oakland Ice Center this past summer illustrated. The Sharks asked the 29-year-old coach last summer not to return, but only after a suspicious parent dug further into his background and presented the association's appeal committee with more information.
Both the Sharks and the hockey association say they have since toughened their policies.
"We have a zero-tolerance policy for any type of misconduct that places the safety of children at risk," said Jon Gustafson, vice president of Sharks Ice, insisting his organization will never again allow someone convicted of a sex crime to coach even if the association clears it on appeal.
"Don't think for a minute we haven't learned from this," added Lance Burrow, a San Jose lawyer who serves in a volunteer capacity as the hockey association's general counsel and its "SafeSport" director. ..Continued.. by Tracey Kaplan
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