By Cathy Chapaty
Yudit Sidikman was 12 years old when
a sexual relationship began with her temple’s cantor. It lasted until she was 18.
“I didn’t call it rape until I
was the mother of a 12-year-old,” said the co-founder of El Halev, an
Israel-based nonprofit dedicated to empowering others through martial arts and
self-defense training.
Today the veteran judo black
belt leads Empowerment Self-Defense Global, a fledgling group with an
evidence-based approach to self-protection. Its mission is to bring empowerment
self-defense (ESD) literacy to women all over the world.
Sidikman is one of many in the
martial arts industry addressing sexual abuse in organized sports.
Industry representatives note
that the number of respectful and trustworthy martial arts instructors far
outweigh the abusive, and that child protection policies—including background
checks, education programs, and investigation protocols—became common practice
in the mid-1990s. Still, they say, martial arts professionals cannot rest on
their laurels.
Though each group recommends different paths to address the
problem, they all agree that education is vital to ending sexual abuse and
misconduct.
National Women’s Martial Arts Federation
Through its empowerment self-defense model, the National
Women’s Martial Arts Federation (NWMAF) has taught tens of thousands of martial
arts teachers to go beyond “stranger danger” self-defense instruction and
address the statistically more likely intimate partner violence. (According to
a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study released in 2014, 45.4
percent of victims were assaulted by people they knew.)
This summer at its member meeting in Naperville, Ill., the
federation is expected to vote on adding bullying, sexual harassment, and sexual
abuse policies to its bylaws.
George Schorn, chair of the NWMAF, said that the board of
directors “has been working to move the NWMAF forward with a more explicit
focus on this issue.”
The proposed bylaw changes include a statement that the
“NWMAF shall advocate for best practices in martial arts, self-defense, and
healing arts programs in order to provide a safe, inclusive, and supportive
training environment for every student.”
Schorn said that the federation is also working on a policy regarding
conduct and reporting that will expand on the “safe, inclusive, and supportive”
part of that statement.
“What this amounts to is an elevation of the standards
already articulated in our self-defense
policies,” she said. “These expectations about personal space, physical
contact, refusal, and permission are integral training elements for the vast
majority of the NWMAF membership, but they should be stated forcefully within
the context of martial arts training and instruction, not just self-defense.”
The federation has specific policies addressing girls
and teens at its annual camp, Schorn said, “and of course we run background
checks on all instructors we hire for camp.”
“Our education programs for instructors currently rest
primarily within the self-defense program,” she said. “There is also a great
deal of formal and informal instructor mentoring within the NWMAF, and
student-teacher boundaries are often addressed explicitly in the training
policies of member schools.”
However, Schorn noted that given the federation’s small
membership and limited resources, it “hasn’t developed a formal training
program for this specific problem.”
“If I were to offer one piece of advice about safe training
environments, it would be this: Shame and secrecy have no place in an
appropriate training environment. If an instructor or fellow student uses shame
to ‘teach,’ to manipulate, or to maintain/enhance their status, they are
abusing the power of their position. If they demand, plead for, or tacitly
encourage secrecy around any element of training, from relationships to words
to physical actions, they are not worthy of trust. If you ever feel reluctant
to talk about what is happening in your training, you need to leave and figure
out what the problem is, from outside the unsafe environment.”
Martial Arts Industry Association
Frank Silverman, executive director of the Martial Arts
Industry Association (MAIA), said the association advises its member schools to
follow CDC guidelines for
preventing child abuse, and directs them to download guidelines cited in a 2014
MASuccess article, “Keeping Our
Children Safe: Protecting Against Pedophilia in the Martial Arts School.”
In the 2014 article, Dr. Anna Salter offered tips that
include screening employees and volunteers, enforcing strict no-dating policies
between instructors and students, and responding to inappropriate behavior. Salter
also recommended schools train their staff on sexual abuse prevention.
Professional boundaries are
non-negotiable, according to Dr. Salter, and every school should have a policy
prohibiting dating between instructors and students.
“[Employees] should find people
to date outside of the school. I have seen guys in prison for having sex with
15-year-olds,” she said. “If you get an impressionable high school freshman or
sophomore in your class, the instructor is in a position of authority. So I
would fire them if they were looking for dates within my school.”
Once safety precautions and
boundaries are clearly stated, it’s vital to create a safe atmosphere in which
students can talk about when they don’t feel safe.
“You must tell (students) that if
they are uncomfortable with a coach for any reason, they must tell someone
about it,” Salter advised.
Martial Arts Teachers’ Association (MATA)
John Graden, executive director of the Martial Arts
Teachers’ Association (MATA), said his association’s instructor
certification program includes a section on law and martial arts, devoting
an entire module on sexual harassment.
In addition to its educational program, MATA works with
school owners to review processes and procedures, helping reduce school
liability and ensure student safety, Graden said.
“We encourage owners to have updated background checks on
all instructors,” Graden said. “It’s inexpensive and we provide a vendor
link to make it easier.”
Graden also stressed the need for clear, professional teacher-student
boundaries.
“We suggest that schools implement and enforce a strict ‘no
dating students or parents’ rule,” he said.
And when traveling, Graden added, it’s even more important
for strict protocols.
“Some schools take students to tournaments,” he said. “Everyone
sleeps in one hotel room with sleeping bags on the floor. This is a really bad
idea in today’s environment.”
International Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Federation and the U.S. Ju Jitsu Federation
Background checks are required every three years or when
promotions are processed for members of the U.S. Ju Jitsu Federation (USJJF),
according to the group’s president, Bruce Bethers.
USJJF protocols bar teachers or volunteers from the mat who
have been found guilty of any sex offense—regardless of the amount of time
since the offense.
Representatives of the International Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
Federation did not respond for comment.
Empowerment Self-Defense Global help its inaugural training camp last year in New York.
Empowerment Self-Defense Global
Sidikman has been working with people
of all ages, ethnicities, religions, and physical capabilities since
co-founding El HaLev ("to the heart”) in Jerusalem in 2003. Since its
founding, El HaLev has trained more than 50,000 women, teens, children,
seniors, and people with special needs to defend themselves against sexual,
physical, and verbal assault.
Sidikman has been following the
sexual abuse scandals in Olympic sports. She believes her program can help keep
athletes safe.
“(The U.S. Center for) SafeSport
and USA Taekwondo could possibly be allies for supercharging empowerment
self-defense all over the world, but we all have to be on the same page.”
Her challenge: “Find out what
page and get on it.”
“If we unite in our message and
make sure we’re aligned with each other, then we can make a difference,”
Sidikman said.
At its core, the ESD program works
to help women around the world prevent, interrupt, respond to, and heal from
violence.
Last year, Sidikman’s
Empowerment Self-Defense (ESD) Global camp in New York drew women from Belize,
the Netherlands, the Dominican Republic, Chile, Costa Rica, England, Canada,
Israel, and, within the United States, New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania,
Illinois, Virginia, North Dakota, Maine, Rhode Island, Ohio, Washington, and
California.
Another camp is scheduled for
August, and the goal is to have a minimum of 10 different countries
represented.
How does Sidikman find these
like-minded instructors? A 100-plus online assessment questionnaire helps the
group find instructors who are aligned with ESD Global’s empowerment
self-defense mission.
ESD Global is pushing hard to
get buy-in to set up systems to keep kids safe, Sidikman said.
“Any organization that’s not
willing to implement (safety protocols)—there’s something wrong with that,” she
said. “We can’t stop everything, but we can certainly make (abuse) harder to
happen.”
Sidikman wants to help empower
survivors of abuse to talk about their experience in order to prevent future
abuse.
“The more the predators
understand that people are going to talk, they’ll be less likely (to
victimize).”
Prevention through education is
the solution to flipping the script, she believes.
“No one is speaking up for those
who don’t want to be survivors,” Sidikman said. “We want to give (athletes)
tools to deal with violence as it happens.”
Sikidman admits that tackling
sexual abuse and misconduct in sports is a daunting task, but she sees progress
being made.
“I believe that in my lifetime,
we will see the needle move in violence against women,” she said.
“We can’t give up.”
Cathy Chapaty is a
veteran martial artist, teacher, and youth mentor. She is the author of No
Pouting in the Dojo: Life Lessons through Martial Arts and is an ambassador for the Association of Women MartialArts
Instructors. Contact her at TaoTexas@gmail.com.
ATHLETES AT RISK
This five-part series explores sexual
abuse and misconduct in Olympic Taekwondo. Due to the sensitivity of the
subject matter, some sources have asked to remain anonymous.
Part 1: Convincing
Athletes to Report Sexual Abuse, Misconduct a Hard Art
Part
2: The Evolution of Abuse of Power
Part 3: Education, Boundaries Key to Ending
Sexual Abuse, Martial Arts Leaders Say
Part
4: 7 Tips to Prevent Sexual Abuse, Misconduct
Part 5: COMMENTARY:
Congress Must Intervene to Ensure Athletes’ Safety
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