Ok here's my two cents. The marijuana doesn't bother me so much for a couple of reasons- aside from the states that have passed laws allowing medicinal marijuana, two states have now legalized recreational use of marijuana (unfortunately not a state they live in). I personally think alcohol and cigarettes are much worse than marijuana- and this is coming from a person who cannot stand marijuana personally (as in when I was younger it was NOT up my alley; maybe my body's natural chemistry, idk) a former smoker (cigarettes), and who still enjoys alcoholic beverages. You know how some people go out with their co-workers and have a drink after work occasionally? I see this the same way with one exception, where it occurred. They were in a car right? That's the problem- they should have done it at home since it's technically illegal in their state. If it was with an athlete or underage coach, then I also think that's a problem (for drinking or smoking pot). Then we have the issue of whether or not it's acceptable to be high at work. Most of us would agree that's not ok (like coming to work hungover, still buzzed, or even drunk). However, I have known several people who can and do function extremely well while being high. Most of them I wasn't even aware were high until sometime later. To be fair though, I don't think this applies to a majority of the population so I don't think it would be acceptable.
Let's through something in the mix for a moment- how do many of you feel about prescription medications? Are you ok w/your coaches taking adderrall, xanax, painkillers, etc. while coaching your kid, even if they're legally prescribed to them? Technically those medications could land you a DUI or DWI depending on different situations.
As long as a coach wasn't under the influence of drugs or alcohol while coaching my child, I wouldn't have a problem what they do on their own time. However, playing devils advocate (bc I'm sure this happens)- how far is too far w/your older CP's? Many coaches are often former athletes of their gyms and know some of the "older" kids on a personal level-maybe they even cheered with them. However, let's say your CP is 16 and coach is 21 and bc they already know one another and/or already friends, they hang out together and the coach drinks and/or does drugs around them; what do you do then? That would be a tougher situation for me, but maybe it's bc my little one is 8 and not a teenager yet.
The pedo thing really bothers me to be honest. Aside from the reasons we all agree upon, I would be concerned having my child cheer at a gym where this happened and I'll tell you why. Unfortunately it is mostly due to the fact that the gym is well known in the cheer world bc of the show, and things today aren't like they used to be. It used to be a lot more possible that mini and youth age kids wouldn't find out about the incident and wouldn't have exposure to the incident. Meaning that I wouldn't have to explain to my child what rape is, what happened to the kid she likely knew (hypothetically if I was a parent at that gym), and the ball of negativity related to social media exposure. Because of social media and the fact that even 8 year olds have IG and Twitter, they would find out...and not in the right kind of way. In the cruel, welcome to the loss of innocence in the real world kinda way. Even if my CP didn't have any social media accounts (and she doesn't), many of her friends still do. No child deserves to have to find out about stuff like this in this manner. Plus it appears that the gym is a small gym and that everyone probably knows everyone- and that woman was the team mom. Even though CTR didn't do anything wrong, as a parent I would still naturally be worried, bc if that could happen right under everyone's noses I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't still be concerned.
Assuming I had an older CP who cheered there- it would be based on some similar reasons. Social media especially. Going to comps knowing people were talking about you as they whispered and walked by would be tough. Having more access and exposure to social media and the negativity surrounding it during something like this would still be hard for an older kid. I would ask if he/she wanted to remain at the gym and if he/she said yes, I'd consider staying if I knew my kid could handle it. If it got out of control and I could tell things were starting to disintegrate, I would have to pull my kid (again, assuming this is an older CP). At any rate, I'd proceed with extreme caution either way.
