The Cadets and GH history of sexual abuse (news article)

[Jeff Ream]

1 hour ago, MikeRapp said:

Sorry, but YEA was clearly taking advantage of what everyone knew was a very precarious leadership scenario. They could have stepped in and brought accountability to the organization and did not. That is despite almost countless incidents of unprofessionalism and allegations of impropriety. There are victims in this situation, and YEA is only a victim of their own incompetence.

the number one statement i have seen from anyone who has left YEA, even on glass door is they believe in the mission...just not how it was executed. And i think like others have said, they didnt speak up for fear it would kill the organization.

 

i just did a quick count....13 people i know that worked there for a year or less. Number one reason they left...the director. number one reason they didnt speak up...they dodnt want to kill the organization. And, like the victims....who would listen to them? You can go back 20 years on RAMD and see people called the board hand picked puppets.

[dhawtho1]

When one person has the entire entity in his control things like this were bound to happen.  Quite frankly if there was a suspension for a season or worse it would be a HUGE life lesson for these kids on how to conduct business and your personal behavior as adults.  GH failed at both.  YEA and judging for them has ALWAYS been a revolving door

[dbc03]

29 minutes ago, Jeff Ream said:

the number one statement i have seen from anyone who has left YEA, even on glass door is they believe in the mission...just not how it was executed. And i think like others have said, they didnt speak up for fear it would kill the organization.

 

i just did a quick count....13 people i know that worked there for a year or less. Number one reason they left...the director. number one reason they didnt speak up...they dodnt want to kill the organization. And, like the victims....who would listen to them? You can go back 20 years on RAMD and see people called the board hand picked puppets.

Agreed. This is the reason I stopped financially supporting YEA, as difficult as it was I couldn't support an organization that was so poorly run and was obviously abusive (although I didn't realize it extended to sexual abuse.). I suspect I'm not alone. I'm hopeful that this is a turning point where I can support my corps again without feeling conflicted.

Edited April 6, 2018 by dbc03

[Jeff Ream]

14 minutes ago, seen-it-all said:

Leave the Blue Devils out of it.

(Just kidding, of course...though I can't imagine why anyone would state that the Cadets are the most hated corps in the activity. Even the people who had issues with the CEO were decent enough to separate their dislike of him with the corps itself, and have stated on many occasions that they actually love the Cadets in spite of him. Seems like a pretty ridiculous thing to say IMO)

i say that because it became George is the Cadets to far too many people...mainly because he made it seem that way

[Liahona]

It looks like this story has gone national...(not any additional details that we all don't already know)...but picked up by the New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/04/06/us/ap-us-drum-corps-leader-abuse-allegations.html

Edited April 6, 2018 by Liahona

[geluf]

5 minutes ago, Jeff Ream said:

i say that because it became George is the Cadets to far too many people...mainly because he made it seem that way

You aren't wrong.  In fact I'd go so far as to say that the Cadets are the only corps for which most people immediately think "GH".  This was by design, of course.

The instant director-as-corps association doesn't exist for any other group.  Not even BD, and David Gibbs has been running them for over a quarter of a century at this point.  But David isn't a showboater and doesn't put himself front and center of literally everything that BD is about, so the casual fan doesn't really know him.

Even casual fans know Hop. 

[BRASSO]

1 hour ago, Jeff Ream said:

Sundays article with more details of the investigation will be very enlightening. I'm pretty sure multiple people are crapping their pants right now

 its a shame that it took an outside of DCI organization ( the media ) to suspend / resign this YEA CEO, than done so by either YEA or DCI itself. Its a black eye for a niche activity like Drum Corps, and it should have been given a proper addressing within YEA/ DCI first, before it broke in the the front pages of a major Metropolitan newspaper seen by countless numbers of readers. many of whom are unfamiliar with DCI or YEA.

Edited April 6, 2018 by BRASSO

[jeffmolnar]

2 minutes ago, BRASSO said:

 its a shame that it took an outside of DCI organization ( the media ) to suspend / resign this YEA CEO, than done so by either YEA or DCI itself. Its a black eye for a niche activity like Drum Corps, and it should have been given a proper addressing within YEA/ DCI first, before it broke in the the front pages of a major Metropolitan newspaper seen by countless numbers of readers. many of whom are unfamiliar with DCI or YEA.

Unfortunately, Hop *was* YEA. 

...and probably still is. 

[Liahona]

Another article that has resulted out of this...

http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-nws-history-of-the-allentown-cadets-drum-bugle-corps-20180406-story.html

[2000Cadet]

I'm glad he's gone. The white-hot anger inside me wants to say exactly what's on my mind right now, but the filters would go crazy and I would be permanently banned from this site. I hope the Cadets can heal from this, and I wish there was more I could have done. I am in complete solidarity with the victims. It's a sad day but I believe they will get through this. 

 

FHNSAB...