He approached a girl for sex: Court docs. Experts give tips to protect kids

Any mention of Thomas Keaton on the website of the Dover gymnastics and cheer gym he owned has been removed after he was charged with having a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old athlete and employee.

Headlines of people in positions of trust having sexual relationships with young people are shocking, despite them seeming more common. In this case, court documents obtained by Delaware Online/The News Journal accuse Keaton, 31, of approaching a girl and convincing her to be intimate with him.

But these kinds of incidents are almost always preventable, say people who work to protect children from these crimes.

"There are many things parents can do to protect their children," said Patricia Dailey Lewis, chief executive officer of Beau Biden Foundation for the Protection of Children. "First and foremost is that any organization that has the care of children needs to have clear discernable published policies regarding child protection — ideally an organization would have the Beau Biden Shield of Protection."

The policies, Dailey Lewis said, must cover everything from hiring to social media use to interaction between children and adults.

"All interactions between children and adults must be observable and interruptible," she added. "There should be no one-on-one interaction that cannot be seen or known by others and interruptible.

"Children deserve to be safe."

Legends Elite has not responded to questions about Keaton's position with the gym.

Recent cases highlight the problem

Several cases have surfaced recently involving people of trust being charged or convicted for having sex with children.

• Earlier this year, former Belvedere Deputy Fire Chief Dwayne L. Pearson Jr. was convicted of raping a 15-year-old girl he met through his job in 2022. Pearson's sentence is pending and he has filed an appeal.

• Six months after a former Appoquinimink School District administrator was charged with sexual solicitation of a child, Darrell Sams Jr. was allowed to plead guilty in October to sexual harassment and attempted unlawful sex contact. Sams was sentenced to probation, as well as, having to register as a sex offender. Because he was designated as a low-level threat (Tier 1), his name does not appear on the Delaware Sex Offender Registry. A review of court records, found Sams resigned from Caesar Rodney School District in 2018 for "sexual inappropriate remarks towards students." He was not charged in that matter.

• Jerry Sodano, a Seaford School District employee, was indicted last year on child sex abuse offenses dating back to 2016. Sodano was an athletic trainer for the district when he sexually abused a teen girl from August 2016 to January 2017, according to police. In October, Sodano pleaded guilty to one count of sexual abuse of a child and was sentenced to 15 years in prison, according to Superior Court electronic records.

• Michael Kealty, a former Smyrna Police Department detective, has been federally charged with distributing child sex abuse material via his Snapchat account in August. A review of the federal court documents by Delaware Online/The News Journal found that Kealty was captured on social media describing his love of rape, as well as using vulgar and racist language when referring to girls and women.

New details in the Dover gymnastics case

While working late one March night in 2023, court documents state the teen girl told Keaton about a guy she wanted to have sex with. Keaton, 30 at the time, then offered to have sex with her — for her first time.

The girl's mother texted the teen that night asking where she was, to which court documents state the daughter responded she was "leaving now" and "just finished chores."

The girl and Keaton went to a downstairs office where they kissed and then had sex, according to the documents. The next day, Keaton gave her a "Plan B" emergency contraceptive at a competition, records say.

Keaton also, according to the documents, would repeatedly slap the girl's buttocks while at Legends.

The sexual relationship continued for almost a year, according to the court documents and police. The relationship ended after it was reported to Dover police in February by a cooperating witness.

Keaton surrendered to police on March 11 after an arrest warrant was obtained.

He is charged with five counts of sexual abuse of a child by a person of trust, rape, sexual solicitation of a child and unlawful sexual contact. Keaton has been released after posting $121,000 cash bail. His preliminary hearing was scheduled for Friday.

How to keep kids safe

Here are recommendations from the Beau Biden Foundation, which was formed after Biden’s death in 2015 to honor the former Delaware attorney general’s passion for protecting children from abuse.

• Organizations should not allow staff or employees, or any adult not pre-approved by a parent to transport their child.

• Under no circumstances should parents allow their child to have contact one-on-one with adults in email, texting or social media. In other words, no adult-coach, teacher, instructor, etc. should ever text, email or engage in social media with a child directly.

• Organizations should not permit their employees to engage in that conduct because it leads to a situation where children can be groomed and abused. Every youth-serving organization should have a mandatory third person on all communications and/or software that allows for observation of all communications between adults and children.

• Adults must model good practices online and in their communications and importantly organizations must advise the children and the parents that no staff or volunteer is permitted to to have these types of access to children.

• Parents must talk with their children openly, honestly and frequently regarding personal boundaries and inappropriate and illegal behavior, and must prepare children to respond and advise parents that someone is engaging in uncomfortable conduct or crossing boundaries with them.

More: Gymnastics, cheer gym owner charged with having sexual relationship with underage athlete

The Beau Biden Foundation conducts trainings and assessments to help organizations, children and families have these conversations and to create model policies and procedures around children. If the organizations your children attend do not have these safeguards, it must be demanded.

"I can tell you that after many of our sessions we have organizations, parents and children come to us seeking further assistance," Dailey Lewis said. "Once everyone knows how to keep children safe, is aware of permissible behavior, and knows the rules, we have substantially improved the safety of children."

Send tips or story ideas to Esteban Parra at (302) 324-2299 or eparra@delawareonline.com.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: What to do to avoid child from becoming a sexual abuse victim