JimF-LowBari

Thanks, I was in DoD before they had a policy (IOW before Project Tailhook abuse scandal hit) until few years ago. What strikes me is how the policy and training kept changing to keep up with the times or to cover something that was missed. Originally only male harassing female was covered, then oh yeah females can harass men so put that in. Finally same sex harassing and adding prevention of sexual assault (do not take this training after lunch).

Lot of information on the threads about abuse and reporting. But what I haven’t seen is a definitive answer to: After an issue is reported to a corps or DCI, then what should happen according to policy? I’ve seen that DCI is connected to a group (MAASN??) that handles reports. But nothing on what is done with those reports by anyone. Does DCI really have such a huge hole in protection or am I just missing info? Just looks like “ok problem has been reported so that’s all we need to do”

I was talking about organizations that didn’t even do background checks. Usually some religious groups that went with the “God will protect us” mentality. Yes background checks only work after someone is caught and reported. But figure how bad it would be without that check. Biggest problem I see with background checks is places don’t want to report because of the effort or possible legal action

I’d suggest a person at each corps to handle reported issues. And someone who has no connection to the corps (and no connection to DCI) to report to in case of problems with that person or reporter feels nothing is being done. In DoD first person to report to was supervisor. Then an outside agency to contact in case the supervisor was the problem (saw it happen) or abuser had pull with upper management (or was upper management).

Back in 1990s had training from churches insurance company on protection from child abuse. Line that applies here is “abusers are looking for organizations that either do not check for abusers or have holes in their protection policy “. More I read about abusers (staff and members) being able to bounce to another corps….. no wonder this is still going on as much

The problem is the bad ones stay under the radar. Good for Boston for kicking them out but… how do other corps know that their new staff member should never work with young people again? Just too #### much of corps worrying about themselves and not the whole activity. And DCI is useless if they don’t take the lead on this. OK DCI should dissolve itself if it isn’t taking more action.

Wonder if any of this pertains to the current suit against Spirit. How did BD find out and not Crown (if Crown didn’t know). Know it’s a gray area but DCI needs to keep track of staff and members with allegations/proven issues against them.

Have no idea how corps protect themselves so basic question. What kinds of insurance do corps carry and what does it protect against? And what are the corps responsibilities to make sure the insurer will cover a claim? (And probably unanswerable question is if rates are going up with more abuse claims coming out) Only background is dealing with a church and child abuse protection. Our insurer wanted us to come up with a protection policy AND FOLLOW THRU WITH IT. After we would do that our rates would go down (win win for church and insurer)

Oh definitely (humorous) sarcasm… which fit dads personality pretty well. 😆 Getting his DoD records is on my to do list. Also finding more info on Fort Churchill, the DEW line and Fort Belvoir, VA. Kicker is he was a 5’ 6” heavy equipment operator with the Engineers (someones gotta do the dirty work). Thanks for the reminder.

Dad was a Korean War vet and of the generation that didn’t talk about things. Over the years picked out he was in Army Corps of Engineers and was with a formerly all Black outfit (armed forces had been recently integrated). In that group he was a minority. Then on to Fort Churchill Manitoba to work on Defense Early Warning (DEW) line. Yeah nothing interesting 🤦‍♂️ and now too late to ask.

There is an ignore feature that works very well….

Best post I saw about BITD and today was: corps have always folded but in the past there were new corps started to take their place. Today the new corps are no longer being created.

Instead of where is the love, problem is where is the trust. And how a few can spoil things for many

Especially if I agree with it… And that is pretty much on topic with some of the posts I’ve seen over the last year or so (and before)

I was thinking my nephew who is a conspiracy fan. Soon as he says “I read on the internet that…”. I start thinking of excuses to leave.

????????????

Thinking of Cadet DNA here. Around 2009 a member of the (business?) staff left and GH released a statement looking for a replacement. First half was basic want ad and rest was stream of consciousness that basically insulted the young lady. If I was thinking of applying for that job the stream of consciousness stuff would make me think twice.. or more… yeah cringeworthy

Which is often the case when things like this happen in a group. And what struck me in the statement is making sure people know CAE was not running the corps (ok not the name used) when this happen. What legal CYA mandated this?

Just picturing Erie group thinking of this time last year when things were really looking up for the area drum corps wise. 😔

But in Spirit of Atlanta case it was corps members harassing another corps member. So problem either way when you have idiots and no good way to protect people

Years back told someone that corps are one (legal) “oh <crap>” away from going under. Got told I was a fear monger and hated the activity…. If someone who isn’t part of corps management or even a current corps member can see this coming, why is the activity still run as same old same old, it will never happen to us.

Just reminds me that my lawyer gets paid by the hour….

When SCV first announced they were taking year off and needed donations I was checking the corps FB page. Multiple people asked if the shortfall was covered through donations, what would the BoD do to try to make sure it wouldn’t happen again. If there was any response it was after I quit looking

Years back I asked why didn’t people who didn’t make their “dream” corps go somewhere else. Top answers were “for the cost, not worth it” and “only have one year I can March (age or money reasons given) so it’s dream corps or nothing”.

Don’t forget Spirit of Atlanta taking a year off to work on their harassment mess.