Maloski loses KMHA appeal

From The Daily News of Thursday, April 17, 2008 . . .

Before going to bed Monday night, Ladd Maloski read a letter that informed
him his appeal of a one-year Kamloops Minor Hockey Association-issued
suspension had been rejected.
When he arose Tuesday, Maloski picked up a copy of The Daily News and saw a
story headlined: ‘Teens partying in bush risk tragedy during grad time,
police warn.’
“Hmmm,” Maloski wondered, “where was the RCMP when the KMHA party was going
on?”
That, of course, is just one of the unanswered questions that surround the
circumstances of a party held by the midget AAA North Kamloops Lions in the
home of KMHA president Stan Burton one dark October night.
What we do know is that Maloski, the local teacher, minor hockey coach and
parent who blew the whistle on that party, has lost the appeal of his
one-year suspension.
You can file that headline — Maloski loses KMHA appeal — alongside ‘Dog
bites man’ and ‘Property taxes rise.’
If you have been following along, you will recall that a teenager who was in
the care of Maloski and his wife that October weekend attended the party,
had alcohol forced upon him and ended up in hospital, drunk beyond
comprehension.
Informed by Maloski of what had transpired, the KMHA launched its own brief
investigation, decided that the team party was not a sanctioned event and
went on its merry way.
Not at all happy, Maloski turned to the local media for help. And that, more
than anything else, is why the KMHA’s discipline committee and later the
appeals committee chose to whack him.
Maloski and his wife, Monica, are the only people to have been disciplined
as a result of this mess. While Monica wasn’t suspended, she was told she
had been a bad girl and that she mustn’t misbehave again. Or else . . .
The KMHA president wasn't disciplined. Not one player off the team was
disciplined. Only the Maloskis felt the long arm of the KMHA.
“You released inaccurate information to the media regarding the medical
condition of the youth in question,” writes John Hamilton, the chairman of
the appeals committee. “You unnecessarily brought the KMHA into disrepute
and endangered its reputation by providing the media with inaccurate
information.”
Maloski maintains that simply isn’t true.
“I have never intended to share inaccurate information, and similarly never
needed to retract any of the statements that I have shared,” Maloski notes.
“In fact, Dr. Hutchinson’s statement clearly supports the care this boy
required.”
Dr. Keith Hutchison was on duty in the emergency ward at Royal Inland
Hospital the morning of Oct. 21. He later wrote a letter to the KMHA that
explained just how intoxicated the player in question was. Dr. Hutchison did
it with numbers and with words, among them: “His symptoms were consistent
with severe toxicity. (He) was not ‘near death’ as some reports in the media
have stated, but he certainly had the possibility of a bad outcome. . . .
(He) certainly had decreased responsiveness and was vomiting so could well
have become quite ill or even died if he had not been taken care of properly
by the Maloskis.”
The KMHA conveniently seems to have ignored Dr. Hutchison’s letter as it
attempts to turn the tables on Maloski.
In fact, the only person or body that would seem to have released
“inaccurate information” was the KMHA. In its efforts to paint Maloski as a
malcontent, it conducted a mass mailing to membership that included a
citation against Maloski that the B.C. College of Teachers had posted on its
website. The KMHA also posted the citation on its website. The citation was
wrong and after Maloski’s lawyer, Richard Hewson of Vernon, offered up proof
and demanded an apology, well, there were apologies all around.
That, however, wasn’t enough to stop the witch hunt.
“With the benefit of hindsight,” the letter from Hamilton continues, “this
would have been the time for additional dialogue between you and the
Association to ensure that all avenues of the investigation and internal
processes of KMHA had been identified, followed and completed. Instead, you
immediately contacted the media which is your right, without question. This
single decision however triggered a cascade of unfortunate events for many
people, including you.”
In other words, had Maloski kept his mouth shut, had he just pretended that
night had never happened, all would have been peachy keen.
Except that Maloski would not have been able to live with himself. He would
have known what happened that night and he, a teacher and a coach who has
long been involved with young people in our community, would have known that
he hadn’t raised a finger in an attempt to prevent such from happening
again.
Because that, more than anything else, is what this is all about — what is
being done to ensure that something like this can never again happen in our
community?
Of course, Maloski had to know he had a better chance of winning two
lotteries than he did of winning his appeal. After all, the appeals
committee was comprised of four KMHA people and these people stick together
like fingers dabbed with Krazy Glue. You wouldn’t expect a KMHA appeals
committee to eat one of its own, not when there is a whistleblower available
to satisfy the appetite.
And now Maloski is left with two options — accept the suspension or appeal
to B.C. Hockey.
Better to hit yourself in the head with a hammer than bother B.C. Hockey or
Hockey Canada, both of which have done nothing but soil their own sheets
through this entire episode. Nary a discouraging word has been heard from
either organization, both purporting to govern amateur hockey in our country
and both of them absolutely terrified that a peek under the carpet might
find that drinking and hazing by minor hockey players has not gone the way
of the dodo bird as they would have us believe.
Really, then, Maloski has no choice but to accept his suspension.
But all is not yet lost. Perhaps his efforts won’t have been in vain.
This entire mess now rests in the hands of the KMHA membership, a group that
includes every parent with at least one child playing hockey in this city.
The KMHA’s annual meeting is scheduled for May 5, 7 p.m., in the Sports
Action Lounge at Interior Savings Centre. That meeting will allow parents to
demand accountability from the KMHA executive, every single member of which
is complicit in this scandal.
Parents must show up in force on May 5 and they must demand answers.
Ladd Maloski’s attempts to shed light on this incident deserve nothing less.
In so doing every parent should remember that it just as easily could have
been them accompanying their own intoxicated child to hospital on that dark
night in October.

Gregg Drinnan is sports editor of The Daily News. He is at
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca