This past weekend, skating coach Richard Callaghan was accused of sexual misconduct by one of his former students, Craig Maurizi, in an article published by the New York Times and in subsequent television interviews.

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So far, Maurizi's allegations have led to more questions than answers. Is Maurizi asserting that Callaghan committed criminal acts, or that his behavior was merely inappropriate because of their student/coach relationship? If his allegations are true, why did he wait 20 years to complain? If his story is false, why is he lying? Why did Maurizi take his story to the press before filing a grievance with the USFSA? And, now that a grievance has been filed, what can the USFSA do?

Callaghan has vehemently denied Maurizi's allegations and at this time it's not clear whether anyone will ever be able to prove or disprove them. We only have Maurizi's word against Callaghan's unless and until some additional evidence surfaces. In the meantime, not only are the professional and personal reputations of both Maurizi and Callaghan on the line, but the sport as a whole is facing a major public relations crisis.

BEYOND THE SIMPLE SHOCK VALUE of Maurizi's allegations, a troubling aspect of the story is the revelation that rumors about Callaghan's alleged relationship with Maurizi as well as abusive or inappropriate behavior with other students have been circulating in the skating community since the mid-1980s. This has raised another set of questions.

If so many people in the skating world were aware of what was going on, why did no one ever report Callaghan? Why did parents continue sending their children to train with him? And why did the USFSA not do anything about it?

USFSA officials James Disbrow and Claire Ferguson have complicated the situation by making statements to the press like, "There are rumors in this sport, like rumors everywhere," and "We simply can't be looking at all rumors running around left, right and center for 100 years."

Statements like these might lead the unwary to believe that abuse and molestation by coaches, or at least rumors and gossip about such things, are running rampant in the sport of figure skating, but the USFSA doesn't think it has a serious problem on its hands. Needless to say, this paints an alarming picture of the sport.

BUT MANY SKATING INSIDERS AGREE that rumors of abuse or misconduct by coaches are actually quite rare in the skating world. The gossip about Callaghan is an exception that stands out even more because of the extraordinary persistence of the rumors, spanning a period of 15 years.

Recent accusations against Richard Callaghan should prompt the USFSA to clarify its guidelines on coach/student relationships.(AP)

Suzanne Lainson, a sports career consultant whose daughter trained at the Broadmoor Skating Club during the same period when Callaghan was employed there, said: "Like others involved in skating, I heard rumors about Callaghan in the mid-1980s: that he could be tough on his female skaters, that he had been asked to leave rinks, and that he had more than a coach/student relationship with Maurizi [who was in his early 20s at the time].

"Rumors are common in skating and you must maintain a certain level of skepticism. But for as many complaints as I heard about coaches, I virtually never heard accusations of coaching abuse or irregularities. That's what made the Callaghan rumors so unusual. Whether he has been the victim of a long-standing smear campaign or was involved in some questionable practices, I have no idea."

In spite of their dismissive comments about the Callaghan rumors, the USFSA has certainly been aware of them for a long time, and has been taking them seriously for a long time. Ferguson told the Chicago Tribune that the USFSA had previously investigated these rumors six years ago -- without any formal grievance against Callaghan having been filed by anyone. But at that time no evidence was found to substantiate the rumors, and the matter was dropped.

THE USFSA IS ALSO LIMITED IN what they can actually do in cases of coaching misconduct. Coaches work under private contracts with skaters or their parents, and also with the rink or club that controls the ice time where they teach. The USFSA does not license or regulate coaches in any way except to require that coaches be USFSA members in order to receive rinkside credentials at USFSA events. Banning coaches from USFSA membership is the only effective means of punishment at its disposal.

The USFSA's ethics code says: "Any person whose acts, statements, or conduct is considered detrimental to the welfare of figure skating is subject to the loss of privilege of registration."

So, the real question that must be decided is if Callaghan is guilty of behavior that is "detrimental to the welfare of figure skating," not just whether he engaged in behavior that was inappropriate or unethical by abstract standards of personal conduct, or that was harmful to specific individuals.

Maurizi's position seems to be that any sexual relationship between a skater and coach, whether consensual or not, ought to be considered unethical in this sense: "I don't care how old a student is, whether it's a boy or a girl, a coach should never have sex with a student."

But this is not the present reality of skating. There are numerous instances where adults in a position of trust -- including choreographers and agents as well as coaches -- have had sexual or romantic relationships with much younger skaters.

Doug Leigh, the well-known Canadian coach, married one of his students. U.S. coach Peter Burrows is also married to a student many years his junior, but in this case the student is a professional skater who came to him in her late 20s instead of as a young girl. Michael Weiss began dating his choreographer, a woman some 10 years his senior, while he was still in his teens. Nancy Kerrigan became involved with her agent, who was not only much older but also married to someone else at the time, in the midst of the knee-bashing hysteria of 1994. There are other examples as well.

The public reaction to these cases has never been anything more serious than raised eyebrows and an occasional catty comment. In fact, in the case of Weiss and his now-wife, the media has been positively fawning over their relationship in a myriad of up-close-and-personal features that have presented him as a happy family man. Even the USFSA's own official publication has recently run a feature article along those lines.

THE IDEA THAT THE USFSA IS NOW GOING to get into the business of trying to police off-ice relationships between consenting adults is completely ridiculous. Even in situations involving the violation of a private fiduciary responsibility to the skater, it's hard to make a case that such relationships are "detrimental to the welfare of figure skating."

For the USFSA to agree with Maurizi's contention that all sexual relationships between skaters and coaches are unethical would be to overreact to the situation in a way that is inconsistent with prevailing attitudes in the sport.

It is far more likely that the case will come down to the specific issue of consent, and whether allegations of criminal sexual misconduct with underage skaters can be proven. However, at this point, it is not even clear whether Maurizi is claiming that such criminal misconduct took place.

These are many hard questions that the USFSA's ethics committee, and indeed the skating community as a whole, must consider in weighing the charges being made against Callaghan: not only the truth or merit of the allegations themselves, but determining which concerns are individual matters, and which affect the entire sport.

And, perhaps the USFSA also needs to consider whether its own lack of policy about standards of appropriate professional behavior for coaches is in itself detrimental to the sport. It would certainly have been better for the public image of the sport if the USFSA had responded to the current situation with an immediate, strong statement that abusive behavior by coaches is not tolerated, rather than statements that indicate a lack of awareness or concern about such issues.