Be Aware
This is an email I received from a friend of mine.... She is the original author.
**************************
*************************************
I'm sick of it. My son is a competitive diver. The owner of the dive club is an elderly man who loves diving and wants everyone to learn to dive and love it. He often offers advice to people who are at the pool diving when our team is practicing. One day, about 2 months ago, he offered advice to a 35 year old man, who subsequently began to attend our other practices at our home pool, which were supposed to be closed to anyone but the team. There are liabilty issues involved if this man should injure himself without the membership insurance from DiveOntario that would come from joining the club, but that, it turned out, was the least of our worries.
As the weeks went on, parents became increasingly uncomfortable with the presence of this man. He made some inappropriate comments - asking a 12 year old girl if she wore her "birthday suit" to her birthday party the previous week, inviting my son to come to him if he wanted any Happy Meal Toys (he works at a McDonalds). He acted strangely - during the course of a 1 1/2 hour practice he would dive perhaps 5 or 6 times; for the rest of the practice, he bobbed around in the corner of the pool watching the children exiting the pool; he would put on goggles and go underwater while the children dove. He began paying more and more attention to my son, who is 7 years old, which was quite upsetting.
The parents approached the coach first, who, on their behalf went to the owner. The owner became immediately defensive and refused to do anything for a bunch of over excited parents. If we had something to say, we should say it to him. Fine. 4 Families approached him on an individual basis, only to be told that he wouldn't bring someone in who was dangerous and that the man hadn't even understood how the "birthday suit" comment could have been taken the wrong way. It was all a big misunderstanding. Through these conversations, it came out that the only information he had about this man was his first name. No last name, no address, no phone number. Next, we approached him as a group, pleading our case to him. We brought up the liability issue, we brought up our feelings of discomfort, his increasingly strange behaviour. He seemed to hear us.
The following Wednesday he showed up again. We had decided that if the owner did not take some action in removing this man we would stage a walkout, in the hopes that if he saw that it was going to be a choice between this man and the remainder of the club he would finally take us seriously. In the course of the practice the coach gave the man a liability form to sign, thus getting his full name, address and phone number. We contacted a friend who was a police officer who informed us that we should file a Suspicious Activity Report with our local police. After hearing more, the officer offerred to call back after doing a check. He couldn't give us any specific information, but could give us an idea of the urgency of the matter. Within minutes he was on my voicemail telling me to call the police RIGHT NOW. I called him back and he told me that I should call the local number, not 911, and that I should take any and all precautions to make sure this man was at no time left alone with the children in the changeroom. His voice was shaking.
This was near the end of practice. I called the police, who asked me to try to get a license plate number, which I did. About 10 minutes after he left they arrived and took the report. The next night they sent 2 officers in plain clothes to attend our practice and observe. They were very disturbed by what they saw. They remarked on a child he seemed to be targeting. It was my son. After he left the building, they apprehended him and served him with a Notice of Trespass, which would hopefully keep him away from any pool where our team was practicing/participating in a meet.
Through a variety of sources, all of whom risked their jobs by giving us the information, we were able to determine that about 10 years ago this man was conviced and jailed for pedophilia related charges. The conditions requiring him to keep away from children had expired, so technically he had done nothing illegal, which is why they were unable to do more.
Privacy laws in Canada protect this man. It infuriates me that my child and his teammates were put in this kind of danger. If we lived in the US, I would have been able to plug the State and his name into the computer and find out if he had any Sex Offender convictions. Several people had to put their jobs on the line to help us understand exactly what we were facing. Enough. I'm forwarding his picture (which we took, just in case) You'll see he's very nondescript looking. How do you describe him to the police? White male, medium build/height, brown hair, looks crappy in a Speedo. Wow. That'll narrow it down.
His name is ***********. He lives in Mississauga but works in Burlington and goes to public swimming pools in Oakville and Burlington. He's 35 years old.
As it stands right now, we only know what he is because of some truly heroic people who were willing to give us the information. How many kids live in his neighbourhood? What about the kids at the next pool he goes to? I can't live with the knowledge that I now have this information and that by not passing it on, someone else's child could be at risk.
Keep our kids safe. Change Canada's Privacy Act, so the people protected are not the criminals. They give up any rights the moment they steal away a child's innocence. These animals cannot be cured. They cannot be rehabilitated. They must be stopped.
Thank You.
**************************
*************************************
I'm sick of it. My son is a competitive diver. The owner of the dive club is an elderly man who loves diving and wants everyone to learn to dive and love it. He often offers advice to people who are at the pool diving when our team is practicing. One day, about 2 months ago, he offered advice to a 35 year old man, who subsequently began to attend our other practices at our home pool, which were supposed to be closed to anyone but the team. There are liabilty issues involved if this man should injure himself without the membership insurance from DiveOntario that would come from joining the club, but that, it turned out, was the least of our worries.
As the weeks went on, parents became increasingly uncomfortable with the presence of this man. He made some inappropriate comments - asking a 12 year old girl if she wore her "birthday suit" to her birthday party the previous week, inviting my son to come to him if he wanted any Happy Meal Toys (he works at a McDonalds). He acted strangely - during the course of a 1 1/2 hour practice he would dive perhaps 5 or 6 times; for the rest of the practice, he bobbed around in the corner of the pool watching the children exiting the pool; he would put on goggles and go underwater while the children dove. He began paying more and more attention to my son, who is 7 years old, which was quite upsetting.
The parents approached the coach first, who, on their behalf went to the owner. The owner became immediately defensive and refused to do anything for a bunch of over excited parents. If we had something to say, we should say it to him. Fine. 4 Families approached him on an individual basis, only to be told that he wouldn't bring someone in who was dangerous and that the man hadn't even understood how the "birthday suit" comment could have been taken the wrong way. It was all a big misunderstanding. Through these conversations, it came out that the only information he had about this man was his first name. No last name, no address, no phone number. Next, we approached him as a group, pleading our case to him. We brought up the liability issue, we brought up our feelings of discomfort, his increasingly strange behaviour. He seemed to hear us.
The following Wednesday he showed up again. We had decided that if the owner did not take some action in removing this man we would stage a walkout, in the hopes that if he saw that it was going to be a choice between this man and the remainder of the club he would finally take us seriously. In the course of the practice the coach gave the man a liability form to sign, thus getting his full name, address and phone number. We contacted a friend who was a police officer who informed us that we should file a Suspicious Activity Report with our local police. After hearing more, the officer offerred to call back after doing a check. He couldn't give us any specific information, but could give us an idea of the urgency of the matter. Within minutes he was on my voicemail telling me to call the police RIGHT NOW. I called him back and he told me that I should call the local number, not 911, and that I should take any and all precautions to make sure this man was at no time left alone with the children in the changeroom. His voice was shaking.
This was near the end of practice. I called the police, who asked me to try to get a license plate number, which I did. About 10 minutes after he left they arrived and took the report. The next night they sent 2 officers in plain clothes to attend our practice and observe. They were very disturbed by what they saw. They remarked on a child he seemed to be targeting. It was my son. After he left the building, they apprehended him and served him with a Notice of Trespass, which would hopefully keep him away from any pool where our team was practicing/participating in a meet.
Through a variety of sources, all of whom risked their jobs by giving us the information, we were able to determine that about 10 years ago this man was conviced and jailed for pedophilia related charges. The conditions requiring him to keep away from children had expired, so technically he had done nothing illegal, which is why they were unable to do more.
Privacy laws in Canada protect this man. It infuriates me that my child and his teammates were put in this kind of danger. If we lived in the US, I would have been able to plug the State and his name into the computer and find out if he had any Sex Offender convictions. Several people had to put their jobs on the line to help us understand exactly what we were facing. Enough. I'm forwarding his picture (which we took, just in case) You'll see he's very nondescript looking. How do you describe him to the police? White male, medium build/height, brown hair, looks crappy in a Speedo. Wow. That'll narrow it down.
His name is ***********. He lives in Mississauga but works in Burlington and goes to public swimming pools in Oakville and Burlington. He's 35 years old.
As it stands right now, we only know what he is because of some truly heroic people who were willing to give us the information. How many kids live in his neighbourhood? What about the kids at the next pool he goes to? I can't live with the knowledge that I now have this information and that by not passing it on, someone else's child could be at risk.
Keep our kids safe. Change Canada's Privacy Act, so the people protected are not the criminals. They give up any rights the moment they steal away a child's innocence. These animals cannot be cured. They cannot be rehabilitated. They must be stopped.
Thank You.