White Plains CitizeNetReporter - White Plains Little League Announces Mandatory Background Checks

WPCNR PRESS BOX. From Williamsport Little League and White Plains Little League Headquarters. (EDITED) November 20, 2002: Stephen D. Keener, president and chief executive officer of Little League Baseball, Incorporated, Williamsport, Pa., announced that all local Little League programs will be required to conduct background checks on managers, coaches or other volunteers who come in regular contact with players. Billy Ward, President of the White Plains Little League, announced today the procedure for those volunteers in White Plains Little League to apply for background checks.

The category of “other volunteers” includes WPLL Board of Directors and Committee personnel, and any other volunteer or hired worker who provides regular service to the local league and/or have repetitive access to, or contact with, players or teams.

Zero Tolerance: Mandatory Checks

WPLL is required to submit 100% ‘Volunteer Application’ forms, with photo identification attached, to Little League Baseball, Incorporated (Williamsport, Pa.) prior to the start of the season. If WPLL fails to do so, it runs the risk of losing its charters.

Volunteer Application Forms Available at In-Person Registration December 12 and 14

WPLL will provide the ‘Volunteer Application’ form at in-person registration on December 12 and December 14. For those who registered online, the ‘Volunteer Application’ form will be distributed for completion.

The Process of Background Checking.

New regulations for the 2003 season now require volunteers at the local league level to complete and submit a volunteer application, giving consent to a background check. The applicant is also required to provide a copy of a valid photo identification along with a list of references and prior convictions.

Effective for 2003 Season

The newest phase of this Little League Child Protection Program goes into effect immediately for the 2003 season. Leagues worldwide are now required to either conduct a check of a sexual offender registry, or a criminal background check for the state or country in which the volunteer resides.

The Little League Child Protection Program, in place since 1997, has sought to educate children and volunteers in ways to prevent child abusers from becoming involved in the local league.

Little League Incorporated is the world’s largest organized youth sports program, with about 2.7 million baseball and softball players ages 5-18 in the USA and 100,000 in other countries. It is estimated since 1988, more than 10 million adults have volunteered in some capacity in Little League programs nationwide. There are currently more than 1 million adult Little League volunteers in local Little Leagues in the USA.

Little League Commissioner Comments:

“First and foremost, this mandate is for the protection of children in Little League,” Mr. Keener said. “Second, this will help maintain Little League as an environment in which children are safe from those who would seek to gain access to children and ultimately harm them. Third, it will protect volunteers and leagues from possible loss of personal or league assets because of costly litigation”.

“Thankfully, incidents of sexual abuse of Little Leaguers by adult volunteers have been extremely rare”, Mr. Keener said. “While we realize that no screening process can ever be 100 percent effective, we believe this will be a useful tool in helping our local league volunteers prevent these criminal types from gaining access to children through their local program”.


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