The Foundation for Global Sports Development delivers and supports initiatives that promote fair play, education, and the benefits of abuse-free sport for youth.
White Law PLLC was founded to provide more personalized representation to clients facing legal dilemmas. Whether you have an issue that is complex or relatively straightforward, any legal matter can have a significant impact on your life. Our team of experienced lawyers based in Okemos, Michigan, strive to deliver outstanding legal services that exceed your expectations. We utilize our extensive legal knowledge and the latest in technology to bring you effective and proven solutions to your legal issues.
For These Texas Gymnasts, Reporting a Coach for Sexual Abuse Only Prolonged Their Ordeal
For These Texas Gymnasts, Reporting a Coach for Sexual Abuse Only Prolonged Their OrdealWhen he left the first gym, she followed him to his new position at another gym in North Texas. The behavior escalated, she says. Shortly before Duval’s sixteenth birthday, Hyder got her parents’ permission to drive her to Houston for a competition and a chance to train with famed gymnastics instructor BELA KAROLYI. During the trip, Hyder visited her room and gave her a massage in which his hands were “all over” her body, she says, and he ended the session with a kiss on the lips. On the drive back, she says she pretended to sleep while he put his hand inside her bra. Jim Jarrett says Hyder worked two additional shifts at Capital’s Cedar Park gym, doing cleaning and equipment maintenance, before leaving the gym altogether, and soon thereafter, he left Texas entirely. Sierra Hill competes on the balance beam at a 2013 competition in McKinney. After seeing a July 2020 TV news REPORT that detailed other gymnasts’ allegations against Hyder, Vaughn’s mother filed a complaint with the Round Rock Police Department, which investigated the case, but according to the police REPORT, the Williamson County district attorney’s office declined to pursue charges. (The office declined to explain why, telling Texas Monthly that as a matter of policy, it does not discuss cases that don’t go to prosecution, especially those that involve children.) Hyder left Texas and began coaching at another gymnastics facility in Bentonville, Arkansas, for part of 2020. He no longer works there, according to the gym’s owner, who confirmed Hyder worked there for a time but otherwise declined to speak with Texas Monthly. In 2018, she formed a group at Texas A&M, Twelfth Woman, which successfully lobbied the university to improve its policies regarding sexual assault and harassment. She also began talking with other gymnasts who trained under Hyder, and eventually released those conversations as a podcast. In July 2020, she filed a REPORT with USA Gymnastics, the governing body for the sport in the United States. Because the complaint contained allegations of sexual abuse, it was forwarded to the United States Center for SafeSport, the congressionally mandated oversight agency for Olympic sports. Investigators for SafeSport have since interviewed at least nineteen gymnasts who’ve made allegations of sexual misconduct against Hyder, spanning the nearly forty years he spent teaching the sport in Texas. But more than a year after Hillis filed her REPORT, SafeSport has yet to conclude its investigation, leaving Hillis and the other women in a state of limbo that has sowed frustration and distrust toward the very agency that was supposed to protect them. The dark side of gymnastics has been one of the most-discussed issues in sports in recent years. In May, the Australian Human Rights Commission released a REPORT describing gymnastics in that country as a “high-risk environment for abuse.” Last year, gymnasts around the world began describing their experiences with physical and emotional abuse on social media, with many of them speaking out for the first time, using the. hashtag #GymnastAlliance. Of course, criticism of misbehavior in the sport isn’t new. In her 1995 book Little Girls in Pretty Boxes, sports journalist Joan Ryan described gymnastics as “legal, even celebrated, child abuse.” Because of the young age at which gymnasts begin training for the highest level of competition, they are particularly vulnerable. Conley, Hill, Hillis, and Williams all trained for Level 10 gymnastics, the level just below the Olympics, and they entered the sport as young children. Williams, for example, started at Capital when she was two, beginning with “mommy and me” tumbling lessons. Training through injuries and attempting maneuvers against a doctor’s advice are common in the sport. That culture, the women say, also helps explain gymnasts’ reluctance to REPORT abuse. “You just learn to not know how to trust yourself with anything,” Hill says. “It’s a common gymnastics thing. If you push through pain, you’re considered tough, and you’re better than everyone else.” That was also part of the culture at Capital Gymnastics, according to several of the gymnasts who trained there who spoke with Texas Monthly. Those gymnasts blame Hyder for his behavior, but they also say the gym’s owners, Jim and Cheryl Jarrett, created an environment in which they did not feel they would be believed if they came forward with their concerns. “I didn’t complain to anybody about Barry,” Williams says, “but I did complain and to my parents about other [verbally abusive] coaches, and my mom brought those coaches up to the Jarretts. In those situations, things didn’t change.” Hill says she, too, believes the culture of the gym meant that the Jarretts would have been unreceptive to complaints. “They’d probably believe Hyder instead,” she said. When Hillis reported Hyder to SafeSport, however, she described that meeting with the Jarretts, naming them in her complaint for what she considered inaction. “I have reported the abuse [by] Barry to these owners and they have neglected to do anything to REPORT the abuse to law enforcement or USA Gymnastics,” she wrote. “I spent hours at their house telling them everything listed in this REPORT and they thanked me for coming forward.” Hyder continued to work at Capital Gymnastics until 2019. Amy Duval first met the Jarretts when she was fifteen years old; Cheryl was one of her first coaches at the Dallas-area gym where she met Hyder.
Download View in BrowserThe Foundation for Global Sports Development delivers and supports initiatives that promote fair play, education, and the benefits of abuse-free sport for youth.
White Law PLLC was founded to provide more personalized representation to clients facing legal dilemmas. Whether you have an issue that is complex or relatively straightforward, any legal matter can have a significant impact on your life. Our team of experienced lawyers based in Okemos, Michigan, strive to deliver outstanding legal services that exceed your expectations. We utilize our extensive legal knowledge and the latest in technology to bring you effective and proven solutions to your legal issues.