When the Whitman crew team restarted training this winter, the team’s parent board required that rowers and their guardians sign an updated communications policy. The board acknowledged that the previous policy was “not fully compliant” with regulatory standards eight days before the August 24 arrest of head coach Kirkland Shipley on charges of sexual abuse.
The team’s communications policy now includes a requirement that a team-affiliated adult or legal guardian be copied on all communications between adult authority figures and minor athletes. The criminal complaint filed by DC’s Metropolitan Police Department characterizes texting as Shipley’s primary method of grooming female rowers.
The new policy also specifies that communications from coaches to athletes be “professional in nature, open and transparent,” and “free of hidden meanings, innuendo and expectations.”..
Luckily, the revised Maryland law verbiage is as clear as mud:
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"At the time, the man could not be criminally charged because Maryland law prohibited only full-time coaches and teachers from having sex with someone under the legal age of consent, which is 16. That legal loophole has been closed, Jordan said. State law now prohibits sex between minors and people 21 and older in a position of authority, including principals, vice principals, teachers, coaches and school counselors."