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


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12 minutes ago, TwoValves said:

All due respect, these allegations are not even remotely close to Nassar or Penn State.  Those involved children, in unsupervised situations.   The majority of these allegations were in a workplace, involving one adult sexually harassing another adult.  Yes it is bad.  No, it is not the same thing.  

Did you read the entire article ? 

 

In all, nine women have told the Inquirer and Daily News they were sexually harassed or abused by Hopkins, the longtime director of the Allentown-based Cadets. Their stories span from 1980 to as recently as a few years ago and include accusations of lewd comments, groping, and rape. The women ranged in age from 16 to 37 at the time of the alleged incidents.

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The reporting in the article has really impressed me. There has been a range of quality in journalism related to similar stories in the past 6 months, with some demonstrating excellent depth and research, while other comes across more as hit pieces.

This is absolutely the former. They have presented the situation as a cross-generational issue, with individuals who are now senior citizens tearfully recounting the choices they were faced with as well as more recent stories of those put in similar situations. The common thread of all the alleged victims is their shared, undying love of the organization, the hard work and devotion needed to be a part of it, whether member or employee, and how the individual holding all the power left them feeling they needed to comply to not give up everything.

Similarly, the Hopkins behavior is illustrated as being consistent across the decades - abuse of power and control of the subject individual's advancement/success. Whether dealing with corps members directly in his younger years, or with employees who only answered to him (no HR department) in the office in later times, the story is the same.

A devastating portrait. 

YEA has allowed themselves to be indelibly linked to the personality of one individual. It was a dangerous choice which often worked in their favor, but now?  Where do they go from here? The sponsors and bands that compete in the circuit have to be experiencing a collective heart attack.

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6 minutes ago, ohwiseone said:

Two thoughts that are running through my head. 

 

1) Will DCI make a decision regarding The Cadets before season starts? (Doubtful) 

 

2) Will the Fan response be negative with them if they field this year?

 

I believe that no one is guilty unless evidence is proven and produced. However, these are major allegations and if the paper has more accusations and is releasing those on Sunday, then DCI might have to work faster than they anticipated 

 

I don’t want the Cadets to go away, however a change in leadership might be needed sooner rather than later. 

I think DCI’s statement can be read between the lines to say the current director has to go. Will fan response be negative to the corps this summer? These accusations are based on actions that happened in many cases before the marching members were born. Any fan who would not support the kids on the field as a way of blaming them for the director’s behavior would be ignorant. My guess is that if the Cadets is able to field a corps, they will well received if for no other reason, they are beleaguered. My hope is that the many good and talented Cadets alums who have wanted the corps, and there’s a slew of them, will work together to keep the corps alive, and that could happen. Cadets alums are a formidable group, and while GH had his supporters, the loyalty was to the corps first. Since so many are educators, they already know what is expected regarding the safety of young people, this could reassure parents. I hope they are able to group and keep the corps together.

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53 minutes ago, Ediker said:

The Cadets had their chance to get in front of this.  It's ahead of them now.  Every other corps needs to be proactive to protect themselves and the activity.  

They knew it was coming. An email went out to Cadets alums and supporters in the name of a staff member asking for letters of support to be sent to the board last weekend 

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Deleted, I don't want to hijack the thread.  I will never apologize for protecting children.   YEA has had MONTHS.   Their inability to handle this situation is not reason enough for me change my morals.   This is on their hands.

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2 hours ago, chaddyt said:

They’ve had at least 3 months to get out in front of this.

That they’ve done nothing is not a good sign for YEA. 

 One of the victims stated in the article that the reason she did not come forward sooner and report this to those higher up than GH, was her fear that nothing would be done. The fact that the YEA Board apparently knew of these multiple victims months ago, but took no action, tells us that her fears the YEA Board would take no action ( nor DCI ) were in fact justified. The victims were then forced to go outside of YEA/ DCI and to the media to get this out.  Sad, and most unfortunate how the YEA Board handled this when these woman came forward with their individual allegations of Sexual abuse spanning decades with the Executive Director of YEA. My guess, if the Executive Director of YEA does not resign immediately now, the good and decent folks at the Cadets will take the proper steps then to remove their Executive Director while the investigations into this commences... as inexplicably late that decision has been from the YEA Board.

Edited by BRASSO
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1 minute ago, Tim K said:

I think DCI’s statement can be read between the lines to say the current director has to go. Will fan response be negative to the corps this summer? These accusations are based on actions that happened in many cases before the marching members were born. Any fan who would not support the kids on the field as a way of blaming them for the director’s behavior would be ignorant. My guess is that if the Cadets is able to field a corps, they will well received if for no other reason, they are beleaguered. My hope is that the many good and talented Cadets alums who have wanted the corps, and there’s a slew of them, will work together to keep the corps alive, and that could happen. Cadets alums are a formidable group, and while GH had his supporters, the loyalty was to the corps first. Since so many are educators, they already know what is expected regarding the safety of young people, this could reassure parents. I hope they are able to group and keep the corps together.

I agree, and I totally understand from the Fan aspect. 

 

I hope the fans don’t treat the corps any different, it’s hard to know, considering this is really uncharted territory. 

 

 

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Just now, camel lips said:

Did you read the entire article ? 

 

In all, nine women have told the Inquirer and Daily News they were sexually harassed or abused by Hopkins, the longtime director of the Allentown-based Cadets. Their stories span from 1980 to as recently as a few years ago and include accusations of lewd comments, groping, and rape. The women ranged in age from 16 to 37 at the time of the alleged incidents.

Yes in its entirety.   The allegations with 5 of them were employees working in the office - not members of the corps.  3 made claims from when they were marching members in the early 1980's, and the 9th isn't identified.  

I'm not excusing any of the behavior.  Just being clear that it was more of a workplace sexual harassment issue, and not a case of young children being left alone with a predator in situations like showers or exam rooms.  That comparison is not accurate.  

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5 minutes ago, Jeff Ream said:

They knew it was coming. An email went out to Cadets alums and supporters in the name of a staff member asking for letters of support to be sent to the board last weekend 

I didn't get such an email...? I got some silly email about doing a virtual choir thing of the corps song but not about letters of support....

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