SUNDAY SPECIAL

Jim Miller has seen his share of teenagers, broken and hollow because of sexual abuse perpetrated on them from an athletic coach in Northwest Indiana schools. A counselor at Gary's Crisis Center, Miller has seen young lives destroyed by a person with a whistle around their neck.

As the number of high school students becoming involved sexually with a member of a school's staff grows nationally, Miller believes it is accurate to call this troubling phenomenon an epidemic.

"A teenager who has been abused by a coach has a tendency to become depressed, emotionally distressed, feeling a sense of loss," Miller said. "They feel like they're no longer a part of the team. People leave their school, leave town, trying to avoid what's happened. ... Maybe it was them being aggressive, maybe they wanted to make friends or get somewhere. Maybe the result is something you thought you wanted.

"But eventually, the negative spirals off and, in the end, you feel like the loser. This is not an isolated world. It has an impact on other people."

This impact is being felt from coast to coast. A 2004 study by professor Charol Shakeshaft of Hofstra shows that nearly 10 percent of U.S. public school students have been targeted with sexual advances from a school employee.

"It's not 1960 anymore," said Chuck Hall, former principal at Gavit High School, where several coach-student allegations came forth over the last seven years. Hall has been in education 41 years. He now works in District 194 in Steger.

He said the growing sexualization of kids in the pop culture has made these issues more difficult, but there are things parents and students can keep an eye on to keep indiscretions from occurring. There are red flags that can be seen, like never close a door when a coach/teacher is speaking one-on-one with a student. If you are a coach, do not put a student in your car after practice or a game.

In today's technological world, if a teacher or coach is e-mailing a student, never ever correspond about personal issues in either person's lives. And as a parent, check your child's e-mails, cell phones or Internet chat rooms to make sure your child is not "chatting" with an adult.

"Our society teaches us to do what feels good, but in these situations you just can not go there," Hall said. "You can lose your job, your family, your life. And you can hurt someone you're supposed to be protecting."

Lee Lonzo was a board member for the Indiana High School Athletic Association for seven years. He was the athletic director at Carmel High School for five years when three very public coach-student sexual situations transpired. Also a lawyer, Lonzo now speaks about this issue, and has addressed it the last two years in meetings with the Lake Athletic Conference administrators.

"It was awful; we had two people in jail and the other one committed suicide," Lonzo said. "Communication is very important. Coaches and kids have to know it's inappropriate, immoral and illegal."

One area that Carmel improved after the three cases was making sure the reporting procedure for students receiving sexual advancement from school employees was easy to do and understood. A handbook with specific requirements about conduct was written and updated to address today's problems.

The IHSAA does not mandate background checks for full-time coaches or lay coaches, but Lonzo said most schools now do it. Of the three cases in Carmel, none of the adults had a prior record.

For Miller, his counsel for teenagers in team situations is simple: Keep your eyes open.

"If you're in a situation with a coach that does not feel right, then it's probably dangerous," Miller said. "And for principals and athletic directors, don't allow unsupervised situations. I've seen what happens when these things occur, and it isn't good."