What Happened at the US Fencing Emergency Board Meeting on Sexual Assault
The well-attended meeting on August 13, 2021 was a 2 hour long event. Many members including fencers, coaches, referees and parents expressed their frustration, anger, and unfulfilled expectations about US Fencing’s lack of action and communication around the 3 recent sexual assault cases involving an Olympic fencer and 2 fencing coaches who were arrested for sexual assault of children. Emotions were high because sexual assault is a highly emotional subject that has not been satisfactorily addressed by US Fencing for a long time.
You can read more about the background HERE
Technical DErailment of meeting’s official agenda
The meeting’s official agenda got de-railed on a technicality that it was not properly called under the bylaws (Section 7.11) since the agenda items did not represent a true emergency as defined in the bylaws. While the 9 Board members present acknowledged the seriousness of the issues at hand, these 9 Board members (the President had no vote) voted by a margin of 7 to 2 to adjourn the meeting as called, and to table the agenda for a regular Board meeting scheduled at the end of August. The reasons given included needing more time for Board members to educate themselves on the rules governing SafeSport, and the need to include a representative from SafeSport and as well as US Fencing’s General Counsel given the
the complexity and legal issues involved.
Despite the technical mistake, FP thanks Peter Burchard for calling the meeting and for bringing the issue of sexual assault into the open for discussion with the US Fencing Board.
official Agenda re-scheduled for discussion at Board meeting in late august - please conduct this meeting on zoom
The agenda items will now be discussed at the Board meeting in late August. FP recalls that a Board meeting is currently scheduled for August 31, 2021 where the proposed changes to the US Fencing bylaws will be discussed. That August 31 Board meeting will now also discuss the agenda on sexual assault.
Both topics are of substantial interest to the membership, and US Fencing should conduct this Board meeting on Zoom (or equivalent) so that the proceedings can be recorded and viewed by members who are unable to attend the meeting.
call opened up to the membership
Since there were at least 80 members (FP estimate) and interested parties who dialed into the call, it was decided to open the discussion up to everyone. The levels of frustration expressed were extremely high as sexual assault has been a problem in the fencing community for many years, and people felt that not enough had been done to address issues. While some of the failure to respond arises from a lack of jurisdiction on the part of US Fencing since all sexual assault cases are handed to the SafeSport Center, it was felt that US Fencing had failed to do enough to pre-emptively address these serious issues and protect fencers from ongoing contact with predators.
A member drew attention to the fact that Modern Pentathlon Association held an emergency Board meeting immediately following an incident of horse abuse at the Tokyo Olympics, and moved to ban the offending German equestrian coach for life. Meanwhile, US Fencing has not even put out a statement following the 3 cases of sexual abuse involving human beings.
It was horrifying to learn that the coach arrested in Nashville was the Chairman of the Tennessee Division of US Fencing, he had been a leader within the fencing community up to the time of his arrest.
FP’s editor specifically asked US Fencing to ramp up awareness amongst parents on the issues of sexual assault and to provide education to parents on what signs to look out for, parents should also be educated on how to teach their kids to protect themselves against predators. Parents are at the frontline of protecting their fencers against potential assault from predators in the fencing community.
Note: “Grooming” is a common prelude to sexual abuse of minors. You can read more about it HERE
While US Fencing has 2 Board members with expertise on SafeSport, and a 5 member SafeSport Resource Team, US Fencing has generally failed to keep its membership informed on what it has been doing about SafeSport issues, especially around sexual assault. As a result, US Fencing has left its membership with the impression that it is not doing enough. This needs to be fixed.
give your feedback now to safesport@usafencing.org
It was agreed at the meeting that US Fencing would accept feedback from members on the issue of sexual assault (including on an anonymous basis), compile the feedback into a report and provide answers to questions posed in the feedback. All of this would be completed prior to the Board meeting in late August. Feedback can be sent to safesport@usafencing.org with a cc to p.burchard@usafencing.org
Recording of the meeting
While US Fencing did not record the meeting, we understand that members in attendance may have done so. If you have a recording of the meeting, please share it with us so that we can share it with the larger fencing community.
