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I am still amazed at the outrage over this petition. It's not even the least bit egregious. This is something LONG past overdue IMHO that if you are going to tout creds as "educational" and "youth" you better CYA and have policies in place. DCI puts all kinds of requirements on competing units, this isn't a stretch or a bad idea even. The amount of butthurt (outrage) seen here over a "petition" (that's not that bad IMHO) seems a tad over the top and perhaps there is more to this than we all know. Thou dost protest too much methinks....or something like that.

Please don't confuse my next statement to mean that I feel attacked by you. I'm not going to ID myself, because then I won't have any ability to turn off any flames or personal attacks that result from people saying I'm just a trouble maker, I should keep quiet, etc. I'm not going to do it. If the fact that I am anonymous is used as an excuse to not create stronger protections for students, then for me that means people's priorities are misplaced. Personal attacks over this issue are unhelpful. People attacking each other over the internet is a short sighted mistake. Those same cross-ways attacks for me serve as justification for staying anonymous. Heck, the FIRST reply to my post was rude.

Hi, I basically don't use DCP because it can get really ugly around here and I have better things to do. I'm anonymous so that I don't get a bunch of personal attacks and bitter remarks thrown at me. Case in point... I know plenty about the topic. I know a corps executive director who had sex with an age-out. I know of male staff members who solicited nudes from male performers. Doesn't matter if they were over 18. Sexual harassment is still unacceptable.

This sort of dangerous thinking is why a petition with over thousand people needs to be generated, imo ....to be certain that this sort of thinking does not become further embraced by the decision makers among the Corps, and among DCI itself. I believe your opinion, garfield ( which you are entitled too, incidentally) is probably shared by too many decision makers at the moment in DCI... and such thinking needs to come to an end. Especially among the adults entrusted with a heavy duty and responsibility to protect the young, the trusting, and the vulnerable above all else. Thus.... the petition.

Over the years I’ve have had numerous conversations with many others who have shared experiences and/or stories that left me SMH in utter amazement. Pretending there isn’t an issue or ignore inappropriate behavior and abuse as if it’s part of what MM’s signed up for needs to stop. If signing the petition will help increase awareness and/or prevents sexual misconduct then that’s a good thing.

Exactly. Anyone that thinks this is about one Corps, or one hire, has been completely misreading and/ or misrespresenting what your petition drive is all about, and why you have not directed this to one Corps. I'm pretty sure 90-95% of the posters on here get that this effort of yours is not a vendetta generated against any one Corps, nor any one Corps Director despite a small handful of posters on here working overtime to caste your petition ( and YOU ! ) in that vein , thus attempting to sabotage it on here right from the get go. That failed, as you were able to come on here and in a civil manner, convincingly persuaded... I would hope most of us... that your petition drive is an honest and sincere attempt to address an issue that many people believe that DCI could do better on. Thank you for your efforts, and in explaining to us why you have initiated this petition drive, and why you intend to send it to DCI themselves. And in your own words. Good luck with your petition, and please keep us informed in a follow up as to what response(s) you receive from DCI with this.

and i'll vouch for this person.

So as a specific example, there was a corps competing in 2017 that hired an instructor who had surrendered their teaching license in a plea agreement after some misconduct. Because of the nature of the plea, the individual isn't a registered sex offender. They were never convicted of any crime. But this individual can't teach in a public school anymore. But there is no such barrier to teaching in DCI. I understand your frustration with my anonymity and my broad petition. I'm anonymous for reasons I think are easy to figure out. My petition is broad because I specifically wanted to avoid naming any names. Yes, there has been a lot of uproar about specific instructors lately. But I don't want to make the petition about one person or one corps. This has to be a team effort. Here's an analogy. There were four major egg producers in the country at one point. Three of them followed all the laws and regulations to a T. Their products were great. One company didn't, and had a huge bacterial outbreak on their eggs. There's no way to tell which farm your eggs came from at the grocery store. So people just stopped buying eggs. One business behaving badly hurt everyone else in the industry.

I'm not sure these arguments are helping the issue anymore. Sharing the petition on social media will be a better use of everyone's time. If someone doesn't like the petition, that's fine. They don't have to sign it.

I also think DCI will respond correctly.

Oh well. I will try to carry on. Some things are more important than trying to curry favor. I’m at that age where I don’t worry very much about being the most popular kid in class.

Interesting that this morning when I signed the petition, there were only about 150+ names. Just checked and it's up to 717. The OP's calm explanations and Terri's courage are what influenced me to be proactive. I love young people. I love drum corps. I want all drum corps participants to have a great experience. So I signed.

"There are none so blind as those who will not see. The most deluded people are those who choose to ignore what they already know." Keep fighting the "good fight", Terri.

Thank you for doing this. It is much appreciated.

Just because you can doesn't mean you should.

Maybe he's thinking retreads of shows from 30+ years ago aren't the way to the future after all.

Fair points... and I have no problem whatsoever with you starting the petition, it's a topic that certainly is important... but I just hope you're not inadvertently muddying the waters here by petitioning some folks who might be wondering why the heck they are named, or angered by that. Sometimes a laser works better than a buckshot-loaded shotgun, so to speak.

thanks John. I applaud the admin team

So, it is ok to give the sex offender, after serving time, a second shot at raping more students but not a third; that sounds like a really great philosophy to say to the second kid who gets raped due to the second chance the offender had to be around students.

We’re just getting started. Share, share, share!

I see the petition is up to 906 signatures. I signed it when it was in the 20s. I wasn’t paying strict attention but I am going say I was number 27.

The only potential announcement "hint" I've heard about so far is from Pioneer.

Howdy Brasso, According to THE ACADEMY's recent announcement: "Lead Staff In Place For the 2018 Season." Quote: MICHAEL KLESCH will serve as "Music Designer, Brass Arranger. This will be his 7th season designing for THE ACADEMY, having previously designed the 2009, 2010, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 season for the Corps."

I was referring to the OP, Stu. And someone messaged me about your lovely “barf” comment, George. Is that all you got? Because it’s kind of weak.

I am quite honest as to why I use a pseudonym on DCP, and will state it here again. I do not want any of my personal beliefs or statements to be taken, at all, as being endorsed by or the position of the organization in which I am on staff/board.

Lots of people don’t use their real names on here. I do. I don’t understand why this is a thing when there are hundreds of pseudonyms on here. Some people with pseudonyms are given credibility and others are not? Odd.

Credibility based on name and status is not always a good thing. Ask the Duke La Cross players, who were falsely accused, how they feel about the world giving automatic credibility to well-known personalities!

removing my 3 post

Sometimes not using a name is the better choice. Otherwise people will character bash

Look, if it’s only 1%, that too #### much if it’s you or your kid.

Other than GH, Shanefield, Shane and the design team, we have no way of knowing. Too often in some posters' idle time, what designers refer to negative space and most of us call silence, the bored imagine great epics of their own imaginative thinking. For instance, NYC might have told GH he made too much noise pre-season last year, so be quiet until all ducks are in a row for '18.. They might not have been pleased with the DCI scores attained by the corps or the 7th place finish. They might have disagreed with what selections the corps wanted for the summer season and what the Philharmonic wants to push for the 100 birthday concert (which seems more obvious when the corps has already announced a June DCI tour to California rather than the originally announced June concert with the NYPhil at Central Park as given in the Cadets' press releases last season.) Or they might have been embarrassed by and did not want in any way to be in the shadows of the going ons with GH, YEA and Allentown as recounted on by DCP and reddit posters. And of course, maybe BAC made the NYPhil. a better $$$ offer. We don't know. No one on DCP knows 100 % sure about what has not been announced. The poster's comments may be true but may also be false and nothing more than bored, even paranoid speculation. Wait another week. I'm sure that come auditions on 11/12 there will be more substantial fodder for rumors, maybe even a press release.

let us PRAY!!

I really do understand that this is more difficult if you know and like a person who is doing something inappropriate. I’ve been there. A person of authority in a corps I was associated with was having a relationship with a member. He was asked to resign. She was not a minor but she was his subordinate, it had bad optics, but I was still upset. After much thought and contemplation, I realized that it was inappropriate and as much as I liked him, he had to go. I believe they are a married couple now.

Everything Must Change is Jazz (BD 2017)

your rationale is flawed for the reasons i listed about what DCI does when they step in to address financial issues with corps.

I totally, completely, 100% understand how the DCI BoD works. DCI's mission is to promote and facilitate the activity. It is an extension of the will of the directors of the member corps. If those directors choose, they can require ALL corps to have a satisfactory policy on sexual harassment or be barred from participation. You're partly right on one thing. I am trying to create a movement for change.

I'm 100% aware of how DCI actually works. Dan Potter and Tim Hinton were tagged to try to draw visibility, since petitions work via lots of public pressure. It's not enough for one corps to get it right and others to get it wrong. It's also not enough for one corps to fire a problem staffer and that person just works at another corps. So no. I'm not taking it to one single organization.

Here, here!

Buddy Boy.....the Riff story

if the kids experience is the utmost importance....and DCi has stepped in several times to help the kids...why not on this issue?

Can someone summarize the argument against signing this petition? From what I gathered, it seems people don't want this issue brought up because it reflects poorly on DCI and particular corps. But the point of the petition is to avoid that in the future, isn't it? That is, the petition requests higher standards to ensure protection of the marching members. Am I missing something here? What is the material objection to this petition?

I hope this post doesn't bother the decidedly intellectual goings-on in the thread. Apologies in advance. News Meet the (crossmen) 2018 Percussion Staff! http://www.crossmen.org/news#Section33238830

Am I the only one that finds it annoying that each one of these newsfeeds starts its own topic? They flood the topics and push down and out of sight the topics started be human beings. If it's just me, I'll shut up now. If not, could there be a solution?

Southwind has an open application process here.

Hey, everyone, Just as a reminder, DCP's Community Guidelines, which everyone agreed to when they registered, say If you have an issue or comment with a single member's post, feel free to discuss the post in the thread. If you have an issue with a single member, period, take it to PM. Posts attacking members in our threads will be removed, and the authors either suspended or removed from DCP altogether. Thanks, and as always, feel free to send me any questions, comments or concerns that you might have. Mike New DCP Community Administrator mike@drumcorpsplanet.com www.drumcorpsplanet.com