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2 hours ago, Stu said:

Committed murderers who are released are not being hired by the corps; committed sexual offenders have been and are being hired by corps. Thus a DCI corporate policy to forbid corps from hiring murderers is not warranted, but a DCI corporate policy to forbid corps from hiring sexual offenders is more than needed.

Actually, in the early - mid 1970's there was a convicted murderer who directed a DCI member Corps.  But the 1975 'chachos are a completely different topic.

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48 minutes ago, IllianaLancerContra said:

Actually, in the early - mid 1970's there was a convicted murderer who directed a DCI member Corps.  But the 1975 'chachos are a completely different topic.

According to the archives the incident in 1959 and the director in 1975 are the same person. Again, that one-off situation over 40 to 50 years ago is not an example where murderers are or have been knowingly hired by various DCI corps since that incident; especially corps post Y2K. Show us court records of a murderer hired by a corps in the last 35 years and I will take this as a serious basis for argument.

Edited by Stu
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1 hour ago, Stu said:

According to the archives the incident in 1959 and the director in 1975 are the same person. Again, that one-off situation over 40 to 50 years ago is not an example where murderers are or have been knowingly hired by various DCI corps since that incident; especially corps post Y2K. Show us court records of a murderer hired by a corps in the last 35 years and I will take this as a serious basis for argument.

Once seems like too many times, and I don't see why the dates matter.  I would be at least as concerned about a corps hiring a convicted murderer as a corps hiring a convicted sex offender.  Whatever the best way of handling the issue is, it seems bizarre to take one seriously while dismissing the other.

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5 minutes ago, skevinp said:

Once seems like too many times, and I don't see why the dates matter.  I would be at least as concerned about a corps hiring a convicted murderer as a corps hiring a convicted sex offender.  Whatever the best way of handling the issue is, it seems bizarre to take one seriously while dismissing the other.

It's not that I am taking one subject seriously and the other flippantly. But a matter of one is, and has been, a prevelant problem in DCI from 1972 to 2017 and the other was a single one-person situation over 40 years ago. If there were convected murderers on staff over the past 40 years, especially post Y2K, then a 'do not hire murderers' policy from DCI would alsi be warranted. The thing is the general statement I suggested earlier would encompass all convicted criminals.

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8 minutes ago, Stu said:

It's not that I am taking one subject seriously and the other flippantly. But a matter of one is, and has been, a prevelant problem in DCI from 1972 to 2017 and the other was a single one-person situation over 40 years ago. If there were convected murderers on staff over the past 40 years, especially post Y2K, then a 'do not hire murderers' policy from DCI would alsi be warranted. The thing is the general statement I suggested earlier would encompass all convicted criminals.

I think convictions for murder, attempted murder, and possibly assault/battery and domestic violence would be a pretty serious concern also.  And even though I think 1 murder should be enough to show it can happen, I imagine those other things have occurred more often and can't be dismissed as unlikely.  Also important would be any records or information indicating ANY abuse of minors including physical violence or mental cruelty.  If people really believe that a petition of this nature is essential to protect children from sexual abuse, then it seems they would be in support of requiring DCI to have a policy on these other things, too.

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27 minutes ago, Stu said:

It's not that I am taking one subject seriously and the other flippantly. But a matter of one is, and has been, a prevelant problem in DCI from 1972 to 2017 and the other was a single one-person situation over 40 years ago. If there were convected murderers on staff over the past 40 years, especially post Y2K, then a 'do not hire murderers' policy from DCI would alsi be warranted. The thing is the general statement I suggested earlier would encompass all convicted criminals.

I didn't know it's a "prevalent problem ". I heard one example - the person Hopkins hired. If it's a prevalent problem can you educate me by citing some other examples?

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2 hours ago, IllianaLancerContra said:

Actually, in the early - mid 1970's there was a convicted murderer who directed a DCI member Corps.  But the 1975 'chachos are a completely different topic.

 While I get your point, if you are referring to what and who I think you are, the NJ authorities believed they did not have quite the evidence they thought they'd need to convince a jury beyond a reasonable doubt that he was responsible for the young man's " murder" of him.  As such, he was never even arrested, charged, nor went to court on a homicide charge, let alone was " convicted  of murder ". Just wanted to point this out for accuracy's sake ( this is not meant to diminish the central point point here.. ie, that DCI has Corps with current staffers that probably are high risk individuals, based upon their criminal and/ or behaviors around youth in the past. )

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47 minutes ago, HockeyDad said:

I didn't know it's a "prevalent problem ". I heard one example - the person Hopkins hired. If it's a prevalent problem can you educate me by citing some other examples?

This is an honest inquiry BTW. If this is truly a thing that's going on a lot in DCI, that's messed up. Like take matters into your own hands messed up. I hope the person  GH has on his staff sits in a office arranging music and has no contact with the MMs. 

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39 minutes ago, BRASSO said:

 While I get your point, if you are referring to what and who I think you are, the NJ authorities believed they did not have quite the evidence they thought they'd need to convince a jury beyond a reasonable doubt that he was responsible for the young man's " murder" of him.  As such, he was never even arrested, charged, nor went to court on a homicide charge, let alone was " convicted  of murder ". Just wanted to point this out for accuracy's sake ( this is not meant to diminish the central point point here.. ie, that DCI has Corps with current staffers that probably are high risk individuals, based upon their criminal and/ or behaviors around youth in the past. )

NM

Edited by GUARDLING
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1 hour ago, HockeyDad said:

I didn't know it's a "prevalent problem ". I heard one example - the person Hopkins hired. If it's a prevalent problem can you educate me by citing some other examples?

I want to stress - this is not a rampant, wild, out of control problem. Parents should not assume that every student who marches drum corps WILL be assaulted and harassed. I would argue 90% of the performers have no real issues.

As for some examples besides the thoroughly discussed example at Cadets. Someone brought this up:
http://www.crossmen.org/joel-moody-bio

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2010-04-02/news/os-moody-sexy-student-text-messages-20100401_1_text-messages-band-director-female-student

It looks like there were never charges filed. So there's no issue with passing a criminal background check.

Pioneer also had an instructor who was a registered sex offender. His sentence did not bar him from working with young people. So maybe he got caught urinating in public and got put on the list.

I'm also aware of situations where a young-ish staffer got caught with older students. So think 19 year old student, 24 year old instructor. Should the instructor be given a life sentence? No. Should they be able to teach a different drum corps the next year? In my opinion, no.


So again, most DCI instructors are fantastic people. Send your kid off to march. I still believe it will be a great experience. And sign the petition and then ask the directors at whatever corps you kid is marching how they feel about the petition. Ask them what their policies are for sexual harassment. Ask how complaints are documented. Ask what the social media policy for instructors is. Ask about background checks.

If you and every parent of a DCI performer asked these questions, we would see some changes. These individuals that manage to slip through the cracks will find it a lot more difficult.

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