Kinda Hockey-related...Sheldon Kennedy

[LordKOTL]

So my wife, who works as a forensic child interviewer, is at a symposium this week about abused kids.

One of the speakers today is Sheldon Kennedy--Ex NHL-er who was abused by the same criminal fuck (Graham James) that abused Theo Fleury.

I figured it might be interesting so some of the hockey fans here. Let me know if anyone wants some details and I can try to pick her brain with some of the more salient points.

 

[DMelt36]

I guess my only thought about this is whether or not it's something that happens with any sort of frequency in the hockey world. As much as some of these youth teams have to travel at times, parents have to put a lot of trust into youth coaches that they're going to take care of their kids.

 

[LordKOTL]

Nothing she told me about his presentation indicated it was hyper-prevalent. She did say that he said Graham James tried to preempt any accusations by telling the team that he was a troublemaker and a drunk (when he was 12), and that, at the time, given his standing as a youth coach, the NHL didn't want a sex scandal like that so he felt he had to keep mum about things during his professional career.

On one hand (especially with the reactions to the Voynov, Kane, and Shaw incidents as opposed to the Bobby Hull incidents) it's a good thing that culture is somewhat changed and is starting to change for the better.

I do think society today is better able to handle such incidents. Back then there was a "Believe the adult" mentality. Now, any accusation is investigated even if the side effect is automatically guilty in the court of public opinion regardless of what the truth really is.

 

[DMelt36]

Yeah, they've unfortunately happened in so many other areas now that I think people are more willing to believe the victims when they come forward against a person perpetrating these types of crimes, no matter what people's public perception of that person is.