SUNBURY — There are professional limits to what a trainer can do with any athlete, and a Watsontown man, accused of sexual misconduct with two girls, went beyond those limits, according to various health-care establishments and professional organizations.

Matthew Godfrey, 27, is accused of sexual misconduct with two female students at Warrior Run High School, where he’s been an athletic trainer for three years.

He has been free on $75,000 bail since his Dec. 29 arrest and faces felony charges of dissemination of explicit sexual materials to a minor, corruption of minors and two counts of unlawful contact with a minor; and misdemeanor counts

He appeared for a preliminary hearing last week before District Judge Robert Bolton in Milton.

Godfrey’s services were contracted by Warrior Run from Susquehanna Health of Williamsport, which employs 16 full-time, state-licensed athletic trainers, said Tracie Witter, spokeswoman. Of those, 15 work at high schools and one at a college.

Athletic trainers in Pennsylvania are licensed by the Department of State’s Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs Physical Therapy Board, according to Careeronestop, a website of the U.S. Labor Department’s Employment and Training Administration.

The trainers also are certified by the National Athletic Trainers Association.

“Every new athletic trainer staff member is versed in our codes of conduct and understands the conduct required when working with youth and adolescents of both sexes,” Witter said of a policy officially named “Behavior Expectations for Employee Service Partners and Leaders.”

“We instruct and review the development of the proper environment for athletic trainers to practice their trade,” she said of the program, which is run by an outreach coordinator of athletic training services — also a certified, licensed trainer.

Susquehanna Health also follows guidelines established by NATA, which the Pennsylvania Athletic Trainers Society also follows, she said.

“All of our employee service partners are trained regarding code of conduct,” Witter said.

This training is among the first things new employees receive upon hire. They also must sign a code of conduct “to indicate that they understand their responsibilities under the code,” she said.

Any liability issues “are handled by our legal representatives and, as a result, Susquehanna Health cannot comment on them,” Witter said.

She also noted both the Pennsylvania and the National Athletic Trainers Associations have their own respective codes of conduct, which “athletic trainers must abide by these to maintain their licensures.”

NATA declined to comment, citing policy not to comment on ethical issues, said Robin Waxenberg, its spokeswoman.

Jason Erlandson, the northcentral representative for the Pennsylvania Athletic Trainers Association, referred The Daily Item to Susquehanna Health for comment. Erlandson is the athletic trainer for Montoursville Area High School through Susquehanna Health.

Professional athletic trainers are common at schools. “Basically (the athletic trainer is) here for any student with any athleticrelated injury,” said Rod Harris, athletic director and Milton Area School District spokesman. “A lot of schools use them. Every school district in this region has an athletic trainer.”

The Milton Area School District contracts its athletic trainer through Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, Harris said. The school district pays Geisinger which, in turn, pays the trainer, who is not listed on Milton’s athletics website.

Thirteen schools in Columbia, Montour, Northumberland, Snyder and Union counties contract with Geisinger for athletic trainers, 16 of whom work in these districts, said spokeswoman Amanda O’rourke.

Like Susquehanna Health, athletic trainers who work through Geisinger “are instructed to treat all patients in a respectful, professional manner,” O’rourke said. “The only difference in treatment of a minor would involve consultation and gathering consent from parents or guardians before certain treatments.”

In cases where the patient is of the opposite sex or there are privacy concerns given an injury’s nature, “Trainers are instructed to have another professional — a coach or employee — in the room when treating the patient,” O’rourke said.

At Milton, the trainer specifically works with Milton’s middle and high school athletes, Harris said. Milton has used a contracted athletics trainer for the three years Harris has been there, but knows the school district has used one for many years, he said.

“The purpose is to have someone (on staff) with a medical background to treat any injury the athletes may have,” he said. “Most of our coaches don’t have that kind of training” and couldn’t offer physical rehabilitation.

In the Mifflinburg Area School District, the athletic trainer is an in-house staff member, Superintendent Dan Lichtel said, and serves athletics throughout the district.

While the Godfrey case unfolds, school officials deal with the ripple effect in their own districts.

“When I read about something like this, I’m always concerned,” Lichtel said, noting that this incident following the revelation of a child sexual abuse scandal at Penn State in November shows how diligent school officials must be.