All-Star Industry Photographer Arrested For Child Indecency

To be honest I really don't allow my child to stay with people I don't know very well. Random friends... is a no go.
I am not judging the victim... I'm judging the situation. I'm judging what the meaning of Cheerleading has come to. I guess your talent is now measured by how many ambassador titles you have next to your social media?
To many parents are willing to put on blinders if it means Susie will get 5 minutes of fame.
IMO let's all advocate for our kids and be a little more pro active.
As for the perp I hope he gets everything he deserves and more.
Kudos to the mom for finally smelling the coffee. She has probably saved a lot of victims in the future.

notimeforthat said:

I understand. The chosen special snowflakes that have 35k on instagram are "the certain kids" I'm sure. I have no problem with parents "getting paid" for all the thirsty ground work but when it leads to some seedy speculation then yeah... I'm judging you. Leave the cheer out of your hunger fame and see how you fare.
I'm just over the exploitation of this sport.

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[emoji1373][emoji1373][emoji1373] preach


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Are there no good female photographers? It seems every story is about a male photographer. Maybe they need to hire more women photographers. And parents, be smart.


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cheermammab said:

Are there no good female photographers? It seems every story is about a male photographer. Maybe they need to hire more women photographers. And parents, be smart.


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That's a dangerous mindset. Just because it's a woman photographing a girl, doesn't mean something shady could be happening.

CoachTamara said:

Is he a Rebel photographer or just happens to have some girls with Rebel uniforms?

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Rebel Athletic has never retained any photographic services from Don Sparks. He has never attended any of our photoshoots, live events or model castings. If anyone is pictured wearing Rebel in his portfolio it is because he was hired by that athlete or parent to shoot a professional portrait and they chose to wear their favorite cheer apparel.
We don't have a personal or professional affiliation with him so are unable to comment about the accusations in the news.
As a company we have not worked with many outside photographers and almost all of our shoots for lookbooks and campaigns are done in house by a female photographer. (Although I agree with another comment on this thread that the gender of the photographer isn't the issue).
The most important thing I can say as both a photographer myself, and a parent, is this:
If you choose to allow your child to become involved with modeling, always stay with them for the shoot. And whether your child is modeling or not, monitor your child's social media and cell phone usage.

You are part of a TEAM. You participate in a SPORT. If you want other to think of this as anything other than pageant girls doing flips, act like it. We are breeding an environment for this kind of disgusting behavior.

RandomCheerMom said:

You are part of a TEAM. You participate in a SPORT. If you want other to think of this as anything other than pageant girls doing flips, act like it. We are breeding an environment for this kind of disgusting behavior.

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This is a very interesting comment. I have only done All Start Cheer as a sport with my CP so I don't know about other youth sports. Does this happen in other youth sports? Are softball players, swimmers, gymnasts etc. getting professional modeling photo sessions done, being ambassadors for cheer products, seeking Instagram fame and followers? Or this an All Star Cheer trend?

AnotherCheerMom said:

This is a very interesting comment. I have only done All Start Cheer as a sport with my CP so I don't know about other youth sports. Does this happen in other youth sports? Are softball players, swimmers, gymnasts etc. getting professional modeling photo sessions done, being ambassadors for cheer products, seeking Instagram fame and followers? Or this an All Star Cheer trend?

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Looking at my Instagram feed- no I don't think it is exclusively an AS trend. It comes across as prolific in dance and gymnastics in addition to cheer however it really is everywhere. Having brand amabassadors or doing deals with others with a solid following to feature your product is, to my knowledge, a widely used social media marketing tool. Of course, some are more sophisticated in using it as others, the more subtle and incorporated the feature the less people are aware that it's actually all just advertising and trust that if polly popular has it or is wearing it then it must be good

dawgshow said:

That's a dangerous mindset. Just because it's a woman photographing a girl, doesn't mean something shady could be happening.

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Maybe, but I have yet to hear of a female photographer getting into this kind of trouble. I suppose it could happen. But, haven't heard of it yet.


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Unfortunately you have to always be careful and cautious.

Plane passenger helps cops bust a couple texting about molesting kids - CNN

AnotherCheerMom said:

This is a very interesting comment. I have only done All Start Cheer as a sport with my CP so I don't know about other youth sports. Does this happen in other youth sports? Are softball players, swimmers, gymnasts etc. getting professional modeling photo sessions done, being ambassadors for cheer products, seeking Instagram fame and followers? Or this an All Star Cheer trend?

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Maybe the photography aspect of it is more unique to cheer and other performance sports, but unfortunately youth athletics seems to be a very common method used by predators to find and groom victims in a way that, at the start, is subtle enough it doesn't raise eyebrows.

Here is an article from this year about USA Gymnastics and their less than effective handling of reports of abuse:
Report on Sexual Abuse in U.S.A. Gymnastics Urges ‘Culture Change’ - The New York Times
And anecdotally I tend to notice coaches and teachers being charged with crimes like this most often.

AndyT_T said:

Maybe the photography aspect of it is more unique to cheer and other performance sports, but unfortunately youth athletics seems to be a very common method used by predators to find and groom victims in a way that, at the start, is subtle enough it doesn't raise eyebrows.

Here is an article from this year about USA Gymnastics and their less than effective handling of reports of abuse:
Report on Sexual Abuse in U.S.A. Gymnastics Urges ‘Culture Change’ - The New York Times
And anecdotally I tend to notice coaches and teachers being charged with crimes like this most often.

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And you'd be right to notice because people prone to abusing children seek out those roles. They groom the community to trust in them. There are red flags that will differentiate between a genuine teacher or coach and a pedophile but very few are ever caught.

1 out of every 5 kids has been sexually abused by a trusted adult. I encourage everyone to write down the names of 5 kids they know. Circle one name. It's hard to choose isn't it?

cupieqt said:

And you'd be right to notice because people prone to abusing children seek out those roles. They groom the community to trust in them. There are red flags that will differentiate between a genuine teacher or coach and a pedophile but very few are ever caught.

1 out of every 5 kids has been sexually abused by a trusted adult. I encourage everyone to write down the names of 5 kids they know. Circle one name. It's hard to choose isn't it?

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That's interesting you said "they groom the community to trust them", my sister and I were discussing the movie "Bernie" and she said, "Think about it, pedophiles are just Bernie Tiede's in sexual predator form." It's true, I haven't heard of a situation yet where there hasn't been people that have said, "Well, I find that hard to believe. The parents must have...... The child must have....." Bernie Tiede shot a woman 4 times, put her body in a freezer, went on to spend approx $3.5 million of her money, but the town still loved him, found it hard to believe, and said that woman must have done something to set him off. It's human nature to want to believe that "diabolical" is ugly, with red horns and a pitchfork tail instead of beautiful, charming, popular, fun, quick witted, extremely kind, helpful, and caring.

cupieqt said:

And you'd be right to notice because people prone to abusing children seek out those roles. They groom the community to trust in them. There are red flags that will differentiate between a genuine teacher or coach and a pedophile but very few are ever caught.

1 out of every 5 kids has been sexually abused by a trusted adult. I encourage everyone to write down the names of 5 kids they know. Circle one name. It's hard to choose isn't it?

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Very very good point. People always think of a scary stranger hurting their kids and teach stranger danger and all that but forget to look at all the people they trust with their kids.

It's interesting that you say they groom the community because you tend to think of it on a predator-victim level but they definitely know how to get the community behind them as well.

That 1 in 5 number is terrifying omg