NewToPosting

I didn't say sponsoring was a problem. It IS a problem if you're their band director. THEN it's grooming. Set up a Google News alert: "Inappropriate Band Director". Watch what comes up!

While a BD who pays for students seems altruistic, make no mistake - if that ever ended up in court for some reason, that would be seen as "Grooming" behavior (potentially). I say this because I know of educators in pageantry who have done things like this and ended up in jail (for "grooming", not for inappropriate contact). It's part of the problem, if we're honest. Yes, a BD should be supportive. No, they should not "gift" things to individual students. That is not a boundary to be crossed. Even if it's with the best of intentions.

Since this incident happened, I have watched this person be announced on THREE drum corps staffs. I totally hear you. My only involvement with this is that I taught the people who were punished by him, so I don't have ANY evidence other than my word. But this is exactly how these people stay involved in this activity.

There's (at least) 2 scenarios: 1- both the staff member and student are of age (in the case I brought up, the people directly involved were over 21). 2- The staff member is of age, but the student is UNDER 18. In the second scenario, I know that WGI is incredibly "by the book" w/r/t contacting police, investigating, etc. I happen to know that they also alert at least local circuits to warn them not to allow those people to participate (if the investigation yielded certain results and there was a *crime* committed). The first scenario is one with a LOT of grey area. So, even though this person falls under Scenario 1, this happened with over-age members. Even though there was DEFINITELY inappropriate behavior and "punishments" for non-compliance of sexual requests that affected under-age members, a police investigation would only get so far (I think?). I'm not sure that Spirit would have known unless they contacted all staff of previous orgs (which is not feasible - this wouldn't have come up in a typical background check). From my understanding, they rectified the situation immediately once they were made aware. I'm not trying to call Spirit out - I think they did and are doing the right thing. Regardless, I'm going to contact MAASIN. I'm also unsure what they'd be able to do. I appreciate everyone's thoughtful comments and dialogue!

Understood. For legal reasons, I'm not going to post that (I know for a fact what this person did and its impact on at least a few people). As slimy as that person is, they are innocent until proven guilty. Apart from naming them online (which I'm not going to do, and neither are his victims), what are the options? He's being kept hush-hush, which isn't helping.

A few weeks back, Spirit announced a new guard designer who had been implicated in previous WGI investigations. Next day, he was removed from the announcement. I brought it up in the staff announcements thread, but everyone acted like I was crazy. Another example of a heinous emotional and sexual abuser flying under the radar. That guy still runs a high school colorguard that competes in BOA and WGI...and again, has been named in complaints to WGI. WGI knows EXACTLY who he is and what he did. Still around. What's the recourse? Should I inform the police? Inform the school district? How can we get people like him out of the activity and KEEP them out?

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Looks like Spirit's staff announcement has been removed.

Congrats!

The reason why I think it's helpful is, until last winter, I had never received any sort of training for any winterguard or drum corps or marching band I taught...ever. I finally got that training in winter and now if I encounter it, I feel empowered to act and will know what to do. To me, that's most important. Empower the people who witness or encounter, but don't know how to act. It's not innate to know, especially in some grey areas (hint: it's almost always grey). The activity won't survive if it's not a safe space - not talking about "snowflake" safe space, I mean an actual safe space where people can trust the process and not leave damaged human beings. We've had enough of that.

Yes, that's why I mentioned having someone with experience with policy writing would be super helpful to the drum corps community (especially since there is someone with drum corps and winterguard experience who has written policies and procedures - not from SafeSport, but with guidance from SafeSport).

It's better than literally nothing - which is kind of the current state. Agreed it's not the panacea, but the application of it (if done correctly) *might* help? Or not...who knows.

Listen to people who are dealing with this in other activities. The person working on this for USA Gymnastics (post-Larry Nassar) is a Star of Indiana alum whose career has been in writing policy that protects children. Implement SafeSport training for ALL (WGI did this last year - part of the training includes how to handle these situations, how you should behave to the reporter, who you need to contact and when).

If they cut THAT, it removes the only interactive component during the competitive portion of their show (a show that is set up to be a new “interactive” format). The set up feels like it was for a different show. I wanted to buy in to the concept, and would have, if there was some next-level interactivity (have the audience pick the next movement, have audience members hum into the app and add that to a soundscape on a loop, pick a seat in the crowd and have one audience member have some type of interaction with a performer in real-time, etc). They are Sssoooo good, though! The whole org should be super proud!! Their show is a bit like Google Glass for drum corps-super cool idea, very bold, we’re all better for it. But it can’t quite do the things you’d want it to do, for various (and sometimes real) reasons. They deserve to be at the top, without a doubt!! I applaud them for pushing the envelope.

Yes, they really need to clean it up, tho.

She did. I took it out because it's not my story, after all. But I know what happened. Beyond gross. I read his posts about the "mutiny" (I don't know if he used that phrase and don't really care - he asserts it's just because people don't like him). I know what my friend told me (2 hours after it happened) and I 100% believe her.

To be clear, I would never do anything of the sort. Humor me, though. Add in a couple of superfluous "Indeed" 's and ellipses when the narration says "Let's a hit a few jazz joints and fuggedahbbout it" and it sounds JUST LIKE a Hoppy blog post (or FB post, or Medium post, or wherever he thinks people will want to read his opinion). I need to pull out my Kerouac books to prove JK actually wrote that. With that said, I'm super happy there's still a Cadets and agree they are MUCH better off!!!! Go Cadets!

It feels like a show GH designed.

One last point, then I'm done 🙂 Back in the day, it was "If you don't get this right, I'm putting you on the sideline". Nowadays, it's "if you're not ready for this part, that's okay...here's what you do instead...keep working on the other thing and when the time is right, you'll get in that section". It's really not that difficult.

Especially when the members pay $5k to march in a specific ensemble for a specific reason. I remember all sorts of colorful language over 20 years ago (I paid $750 to march drum corps). I could NOT imagine paying $5k and encountering instructors who can't be professional at a World Class drum corps. I don't care how "annoying" the members get, or how many times their hand is wrong on count 12. Making things traumatic for students is NOT how it should be done.

10,000%!!!

I could be wrong, but we're not talking about recent age-outs who don't know better and are struggling with new positions of "power". These are "seasoned leaders". A new instructor doing this - could see it happening and requiring some coaching. These people have been teaching in the biz for a good 10 years, at least.

Are the mics too close? What was that popping on the Flo feed?

Of course. But gotta start somewhere. WGI implemented SafeSport, yet there sure was a Timing and Penalties judge in Dayton (this year) that was known to WGI to have done some not-above board things with members. Yet that person still coaches a high school program and dons a WGI polo to serve on a panel. WGI definitely knows...this person was investigated and released from a group for inappropriate contact with members. So yeah...long way to go...but it's a start.