Expert: John Priest - 4/28/2010

Question
Hi John Priest,

I've been volunteering in Little League for about 28 years. I'm currently coaching my older son's Junior team and assisting on my younger son's AAA team. Last week, some incidents with the coaches son (he is 8 years old) caused me to write to the League and face some heat. What is normally done in a situation such as this? Here's the note to the coach (and Brian is the league president...he is also an assistant coach):

Charles,

It’s unfortunate that I have to write an e-mail like this one. Although Evan is available for both the practice tonight and the game tomorrow, he will not be at either if the safety situation is not addressed and corrected.

I spoke with you about this issue when I was in the dugout several weeks ago and had to remove Aaron from the game due to his violent outbursts and attempts to trip both adults and other players. Last weekend, he threw another violent outburst and was removed from the game by the ump. After you put him back in as the pitcher 15 minutes later, he walked several players and was removed as the pitcher. According to Evan, he walked back into the dugout, and when a player patted him on the back, he turned and kicked him hard in the privates. The game was once again stopped to address this new outburst.

I do not feel comfortable being in the dugout with Aaron. I do not feel that I can properly protect the other players from his violent outbursts, and I do not want to subject Evan to the potential harm that Aaron can do. I also do not believe that it is appropriate to have a parent in the dugout with Aaron given his repeated meltdowns. Other parents on the team also feel that he cannot be controlled.

The bottom line is that he’s punched you repeatedly during the season, he’s hit me, he’s tripped Brian and Logan, and he’s kicked Evan and Logan. I will be sending this e-mail to the rest of the team if this is not resolved today to let them know why Evan cannot play on the team as long as Aaron is there. We need to firmly address the problem and eliminate the chance of it repeating for the safety of the other players and not put it aside again.

Sincerely,

David

Answer
David,
Sorry for the late reply, I hope this issue is resolved by now.  It is amazing that something like this can happen without the parent intervening and remove their child after his outbursts.  If it doesn't change after going through the league president that you could go through your regional little league contact.  You can do this only if your league is associated with "Little League Baseball".  You can possibly change teams if its allowed.  If other parents are on the same side as you than have them all write letters to the league president and ask for the removal of this child from your team.  If you have the majority of parents do this than it cannot be ignored.  

Good Luck,
John Priest