Carmel Dads Club bans kids’ names from team jerseys for safety

[The Straight Story]

Carmel Dads Club bans kids’ names from team jerseys for safety


CARMEL — Concerned about protecting children from potential sexual predators, the Carmel Dads Club has banned the use of first names and nicknames on the back of team jerseys.

“We did it for safety,” said Mike McGinley, president of the organization, which oversees nearly a dozen kid sports and 12,000 young athletes.
A parent’s anxiety sparked the change.
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“She raised the concern about someone coming up to a kid and saying, ‘Hi, Mary’ or ‘Hi, Jimmy’ and that might lead the youngster to believe that they knew them.”

Roger Levesque, the chair of the Criminal Justice department at IU, said that, at first blush, the move might appear to be “unwarranted paranoia.”

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080902/NEWS02/80902030

[Tikki]

1. This is A-OK with me...

Great idea...sometimes there is, also, a specific person you don't want focusing in on
your children/grandchildren.

Remember to tell your little and bigger ones not to tell their name to strangers..
Tell them if someone wants to know their name, they can go ask the parents.

Tikki

[GoneOffShore]

2. Benighted nonsense!

Levesque got it right - "unwarranted paranoia" - ranks right up there with Michelle Pfeiffer never having her name on her trailer door - it's always the name of the last character she played.

[RB TexLa]

3. Bet all the parents still have the cutout of children on the back of their vehicle

or as many police departments call them GPS for pedophiles.

[AlCzervik]

4. yup, it's like an inventory list for pedophiles.

[The Straight Story]

5. I, for one, won't live in fear of such people

seems a tad silly as most molesters already know the victims.

[SheilaT]

6. This is actually a recommendation

that's been out there for a very long time. Personally, I don't know if I think it's a good idea not to have the kid's name on the shirt or if it really matters. I think the danger of something terrible happening because of the name on the shirt is trivial at best.

I'm being reminded of the scare tactics about kids being kidnapped by total strangers. Yes, it does happen, but not nearly as often as by a non-custodial parent.