All-Star Star Vipers Measures For Athlete Safety

[Keep_Believing]

Star Vipers measures for athlete safety

 

[CoachTamara]

YES. Good for them, and I hope others follow their lead.

 

[oncecoolcoachnowmom]

These are a good start.

Thing I would also love to see - gyms and schools ending the whole "closed practice" thing.

I feel like most gyms have parent viewing areas from which all areas of the floor are visible to parents and parents are allowed to watch any time. That's great.

But there are still instances and/or times of "no parents allowed" and I feel like we need to phase that out.

 

[Keep_Believing]

I remember someone on the boards sharing, that one of the CEA locations has cameras all over except the restrooms. Parents have a way to log in and watch.

 

[catlady]

These are a good start.

Thing I would also love to see - gyms and schools ending the whole "closed practice" thing.

I feel like most gyms have parent viewing areas from which all areas of the floor are visible to parents and parents are allowed to watch any time. That's great.

But there are still instances and/or times of "no parents allowed" and I feel like we need to phase that out.

100% and kudos to this gym for taking action.

The absolute safest way for all youth sports to keep kids safe from predators, drinking, and drugs is to state parents needs to be present and watching them at all times at the gym and events. Done, that is the absolute safest way to keep kids safe. Emphasis on youth, not college. I realize there are some gyms without the space, or just don't want parents there, but there are many children's businesses that provide cameras for secured online watching and accountability. Even if the USASF and Varsity were to ban every single person ever reported or presumed sketchy from events and gyms, it doesn't prevent predators from contacting these kids via social media, grooming and meeting them anywhere outside of the venue at hotels, parks, cars, etc.

The common thread with the majority of these instances is grooming via social media DM'ing and texting. I find it hard to believe that between tech co's. and cellular/wifi providers there isn't some way that parents could register their minor's phones and somehow flag and send a warning text to parents phones when any type of blackmailing or threatening language is detected. It used to be that kids were vulnerable in a rather small community of school, church and sports, now, they're vulnerable globally.

 

[oncecoolcoachnowmom]

^^^^^This also begs the question:

Do grown adult owners and coaches need to be following kids on their personal IG/Snap/etc?

If you coach, you probably have team groupme, email list, or group text.

All communication really should stay in those platforms. All individual emails or texts should really CC parents too.

When I coached, I kept it all to the group me or if I contacted someone individually, the parent could see it.

Heck, as a school staff member in my full-time role, I can actually get fired for contacting students on their personal things like social media.

 

[oncecoolcoachnowmom]

I also think there are some elements of the comp experience that put kids at risk.

Ex: Little ones running around venues "supervised" by teens. Teens unsupervised hanging out with open aged peeps.

I remember reading that a certain cheer pervert approached teens or groomed them via social media to meet up with him at comps.

There is likely less of that probably now with COVID restrictions and not being able to hang out in venues, but folks really do need to be paying attention to what is happening with their kiddo after they compete/after awards/in the hotels/etc. Gyms also need to be better with "parents need to take custody of their small person after the event" too.

 

[dhubbz]

I remember someone on the boards sharing, that one of the CEA locations has cameras all over except the restrooms. Parents have a way to log in and watch.

Our gym uses Spot TV which allows parents to see each one of the four floors. They can switch between cameras in case their child goes to another area. HOWEVER, it only work during the athletes class time. Something cool about it is that if you try and screenshot or screen record, it will send up a message that blocks the screenshot for safety and privacy reasons.

With all that being said, we do have “closed” practices for the weeks of competitions.

 

[Keep_Believing]

Our gym uses Spot TV which allows parents to see each one of the four floors. They can switch between cameras in case their child goes to another area. HOWEVER, it only work during the athletes class time. Something cool about it is that if you try and screenshot or screen record, it will send up a message that blocks the screenshot for safety and privacy reasons.

With all that being said, we do have “closed” practices for the weeks of competitions.

That is awesome!