Let’s start with the simple fact that John Coughlin’s death is a tragedy.

Whatever the circumstances and reasons that led the 33-year-old former national pairs skating champion to take his own life Friday, as his sister’s Facebook post confirmed, they do not mitigate the pain Coughlin’s passing has brought to his family and friends.

And the desire of many people to express their love and support for Coughlin does not mitigate the pain of those victimized by his alleged misconduct, which was duly reported to the organization empowered to investigate it.

Coughlin’s death leaves many questions specific to his case that likely will never be answered and other, broader questions that should continue to be asked.

Yet too many people have felt compelled to draw conclusions based on assumptions, misinformation and misunderstanding.

The only publicly official information about the case is this: Coughlin was placed in restricted status by the U.S. Center for SafeSport last month and then given an interim suspension last week, all after SafeSport received reports of misconduct involving him. Both the restriction and suspension are interim measures SafeSport can apply while investigating and adjudicating a case.

SafeSport spokesman Dan Hill would not comment on the reports.

Safe Sport’s focus is on sexual misconduct and abuse. Its statistics show that 70 percent of the 1,832 total reports the Center received from March 3, 2017 through November 2018 involved allegations of sexual misconduct or involved misconduct prohibited by the SafeSport Code and “reasonably related” to an underlying allegation of sexual misconduct.

Of the 262 cases on which SafeSport had so far rendered a decision of “permanently ineligible,” approximately 90 percent were for sexual misconduct.

Christine Brennan reported Sunday on USA Today’s website that SafeSport had received three reports alleging sexual misconduct by Coughlin and that two involved minors.

Without detailing the nature of the reports other than to say, “Allegations of Misconduct,” SafeSport put information about its actions related to Coughlin on its website. The suspension notice, which superseded the previous restriction, was posted last Thursday and removed from the SafeSport website early Wednesday.

“The Center staff pulls the names of deceased individuals from the database,” Hill explained. “It’s not a historical record, rather a database for current use.”

Safe Sport does not list specific prohibitions or give a time frame to an interim suspension. The prohibitions are specified by the governing body of the athlete involved. U.S. Figure Skating posted those terms on its web site Thursday.

Pending resolution of the case, the prohibitions prevented or had the effect of preventing Coughlin from doing nearly everything he had done in the sport since leaving competitive skating in 2014: coaching, commentating, representing an equipment manufacturer and serving on international and national figure skating athletes’ commissions.

Some criticize a system that allows the person alleged to have committed the misconduct to be publicly identified before the case is resolved, especially if the person has not been publicly charged by law enforcement.

Others have criticized both Brennan and Dave Lease of The Skating Lesson for bringing attention to information about Coughlin’s case that was publicly available on SafeSport’s website – although not publicized, so it went unnoticed for several weeks.

Such criticism is ill conceived.

The intention of SafeSport is to help protect athletes, especially minors, from being abused.

By not identifying people whose actions have generated reports of abuse, the alleged abuser gets potential free rein to continue such misconduct before SafeSport resolves the case, which often is a lengthy process.

“The pendulum swings back and forth on these things,” Hill said. “You can’t chase public opinion. You have to stick to what you were created to do.

“We have to empower people to speak up, and we have to protect reporting parties so there isn’t any retaliation.”

The sexual abuse scandal in gymnastics has led to a national and Congressional outcry about providing more protection for young athletes and supporting athletes who come forward with complaints of misconduct.

In Coughlin’s case, sources have confirmed that the initial SafeSport notice of a restriction, posted Dec. 17, led others to come forward with reports.

The restriction decision was like a restraining order, designed to prevent the parties involved from coming into further contact with each other. Neither the restriction nor the suspension requires final resolution; they are put in place for safety reasons, according to Hill.

Hill added that a determining factor in issuing interim sanctions is whether the individual is in a position to possibly cause harm or whether there are people within the individual’s sphere to whom he or she could possibly cause harm.

Hill reiterated to me what he had first said to USA Today: that the SafeSport investigation into Coughlin is unlikely to continue after his death.

“We don’t know yet, but more than likely there will not be any further investigation,” Hill said Monday. He added Wednesday that the decision on whether to continue has not been made and is not connected to removal of information about Coughlin from the database.

“When it comes to sexual misconduct, these cases rely heavily on testimony,” Hill said. “Without one of the parties, how do we do an investigation? He (Coughlin) wouldn’t get to defend himself or to give conflicting testimony. And it’s not certain that the reporting parties would want to participate at this point.”

Many who have commented on social media about the organization’s actions in the Coughlin case clearly do not understand how SafeSport works. And beyond informing people about that, there is a need for continued discussion about the SafeSport system and its operations since the center opened in March 2017.