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Cheerleading has a list of people banned from the sport. It was missing 74 convicted sex offenders.


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Positivity     38.00%   
   Negativity   62.00%
The New York Times
SOURCE: https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/investigations/2020/09/18/cheerleading-cheer-investigation-sexual-misconduct-sex-offender-banned-list/3377622001/
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Summary

A USA TODAY investigation found others who continued working in cheerleading despite charges or convictions for sexual misconduct involving minors.Kale Dunlap, who pleaded guilty to online solicitation of a minor and is facing sexual assault charges, kept coaching and cheering in USASF gyms after being indicted. Until earlier this year, Despain owned a gym that at times has been sanctioned by USASF, despite a 2015 Houston Press article that highlighted his past and a January 2019 complaint provided to USASF.Karrah Pope, who Despain was convicted of inappropriately touching when she was 14, said she stopped cheering competitively because she worried about seeing him at events. "And that clearly was not happening when a registered sex offender was allowed to be there and own a cheerleading organization still."USA TODAY identified nearly 180 individuals affiliated with cheerleading who have faced charges relating to sexual misconduct involving minors but were not banned by the sport’s two governing bodies, USASF and USA Cheer. Harris has not responded to requests for comment.Kristen, a Texas mother whose 14-year-old sons accused Harris of abuse, told USA TODAY she reported the allegations involving her sons to USASF in May and July. Harris was in a USASF-member gym as recently as June, according to that gym’s social media account.Clark spoke with USA TODAY for about 30 minutes in late August, then declined further interview requests. Clark and USA Cheer Executive Director Lauri Harris (no relation to Jerry Harris) said their organizations have adopted policies and implemented training courses to prevent and identify sexual abuse in the sport. In an interview with USA TODAY, Robinson was open with reporters in describing how she started a member gym while on the sex offender registry.Robinson said her sister is the registered owner with USASF because Robinson knows her 2006 conviction for sexual battery of a high school boy would show up on a background check. "I am certain that people don't do it," Clark said, according to an audio recording the mother provided to USA TODAY.USA Cheer Executive Director Lauri Harris said her organization has trained more than 20,000 coaches through its safety certification program, offers a course on identifying the maltreatment of children and launched an online reporting form for abuse allegations. In an interview with USA TODAY, Harris and USA Cheer Director of Education and Programs Jim Lord said the organization's banned list is just one of many tools used to keep athletes safe. The others on USA Cheer's inital list were individuals already banned by USASF.Clark, who oversees membership for USASF’s more than 2,300 clubs, said her organization is open to banning non-members. "We're a voluntary-membership organization," she said via email, "not a gatekeeper for participation in the sport."Among the nearly 180 people USA TODAY found by searching Google, news archives and public records are former USASF members and some whom the governing bodies were aware of but had not banned. A few days later, she noticed his name had finally been added to USASF's list — nearly two years after he was first indicted — and posted on Facebook that "between myself and the mom of the child we were on their butt constantly."Perricone told USA TODAY that when she wrote the email defending Dunlap, she believed he was innocent."He was never left alone at my gym and to my knowledge he never had any misconduct with any of our students," Perricone said in an email. In response to questions from USA TODAY, Harris said USA Cheer encourages teams to thoroughly screen anyone who has direct contact with athletes but pointed out that music producers "have really no interaction with athletes."Avard, however, attended a practice of USA Cheer’s teams in Atlanta without being background checked. (Harris said the athletes on that team are all 18 or older and are never unsupervised at practices.) Avard’s social media accounts — which he turned private after USA TODAY informed him through a representative that the newspaper would be reporting on his record — show him regularly attending competitions, including as recently as March. A 2001 news article about his criminal record and work in the music industry is one of the first results in a Google search of his name and company.But Harris said she had no idea about Heath’s past until USA TODAY told her. "There's no closed doors."  About two weeks later, after her name appeared on USA Cheer’s banned list, Robinson posted a Facebook update announcing a change at her gym: Her son would be taking ownership of the gym’s All Star cheerleading program.Robinson said she’d remain involved in the gym’s dance program as coach and owner.A few days later, she posted the gym’s cheer schedule on her Facebook page.

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