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Sexual Assault: Spirit of Atlanta 2021


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This is beyond upsetting.    When will corps be held accountable?
 

the post below has been shared on Reddit: 

 

 

 

Edited by GetOFFmyDot
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this activity is ####ed.i am sure DCI and Spirit will say nothing unless this is seen by enough people.

 

and yeah fix the title

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So many thoughts and questions...  Taking the reporter's account at face value, why wasn't the respondent told to stay away from the reporter while an investigation was going on?  That's de regueur with any investigation.  Or if he was told to keep his distance unbeknownst to the reporter, why wasn't his comings and goings monitored and addressed when he violated the stay-away direction?  I get that you can't immediately dismiss a respondent when an allegation is made, but you can certainly take better care to protect the reporter.  Why wasn't the staff on high alert after an initial report was made?  Why wasn't the fact that the members blocked the bus driver's view during the talent show a tip-off that something wasn't right?

While I acknowledge that I don't know enough about how drum corps operate on tour in the modern era, it strikes me that music educators are ill-equipped to manage issues of member conduct.  Schools and universities have entire departments that are dedicated only to student conduct.  The University where I work has separate departments dedicated to conduct, sexual assault, Title IX reports and investigations.  (Editorially speaking, I think it's a bit of overkill, but I blame ourselves since historically we haven't done an adequate job of monitoring behavior and holding violators accountable.  Finally, the government stepped in to mandate all these measures because we weren't addressing issues ourselves.)  In the new era of accountability in drum corps, do corps have to have a dedicated and well-trained staff member on tour to manage these kinds of situations?  If not, why not?  Seems like the best way to ensure incidents like these stop is to have a DCI staff member on tour who fills this conduct role and reports only to DCI, not to corps management.  The conduct role can then enact protocols developed by DCI when an incident occurs, and if the corps management doesn't comply then pre-determined sanctions can be triggered, like denial into upcoming contests until the necessary steps are taken.  

Again, I'm so out of the loop on how things work on tour these days and what the DCI's new accountability measures involve that maybe there are very good systems in place.  It does seem inevitable, though, that bad behavior will continue until there's a pretty harsh ouch in place for violations, both for the individual respondent and the corps as a whole.

 

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No one should rush to judgment here as this story may not be true.  There are aspects that don't make sense.  If it is true Spirit of Atlanta should be shut down and not allowed to compete for at least one year.  

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I'm sad to hear of this and sorry for the reporter if things were as negligent as described.

But I am also scratching my head. Given all that has happened, or been revealed, in the last 3 three years regarding harassments and sexual assaults, in DCI organizations and elsewhere, how is it so many at Spirit appear to have responded as poorly as described? I understand that there must be a few people out there who are still jerks enough to behave unacceptably (maybe even illegally), and some others who also may not take complaints or allegations as seriously as they should, even today. But up and down the organization? No one in a leadership position at Spirit could recognize the apparent errors? None of them could see that the activities of Rookie Talent Night maybe were things worth squashing in 2021?

Without more info, that just doesn't make sense to me.

If true just as described, however, then I agree with @greg_orangecounty that Spirit warrants suspension, and its staff and leaders should have no future roles in drum corps. Aside from the offenses, they're apparently just not intelligent enough to be in charge of a corps.

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If the events in this accusation can be corroborated then SoA needs to be shut down, perhaps forever, or at least for one year & required to get completely new staff from top to bottom.   
edit.  On further thought I believe that if these accusations are true, SoA should be banned from DCI.  Instructors and Management should also receive a lifetime ban.  And the individuals who participated or condoned the abuse should be reported to the relevant District Attorneys in Alabama.  There is a 36-month statue of limitations for felonies & 12-month for misdemeanors. 

Edited by IllianaLancerContra
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31 minutes ago, mjoakes said:

I'm sad to hear of this and sorry for the reporter if things were as negligent as described.

But I am also scratching my head. Given all that has happened, or been revealed, in the last 3 three years regarding harassments and sexual assaults, in DCI organizations and elsewhere, how is it so many at Spirit appear to have responded as poorly as described? I understand that there must be a few people out there who are still jerks enough to behave unacceptably (maybe even illegally), and some others who also may not take complaints or allegations as seriously as they should, even today. But up and down the organization? No one in a leadership position at Spirit could recognize the apparent errors? None of them could see that the activities of Rookie Talent Night maybe were things worth squashing in 2021?

Without more info, that just doesn't make sense to me.

If true just as described, however, then I agree with @greg_orangecounty that Spirit warrants suspension, and its staff and leaders should have no future roles in drum corps. Aside from the offenses, they're apparently just not intelligent enough to be in charge of a corps.

And the story about phantom from last summer. Sadly it seems dci hasnt learned 

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1 hour ago, mjoakes said:

I'm sad to hear of this and sorry for the reporter if things were as negligent as described.

But I am also scratching my head. Given all that has happened, or been revealed, in the last 3 three years regarding harassments and sexual assaults, in DCI organizations and elsewhere, how is it so many at Spirit appear to have responded as poorly as described? I understand that there must be a few people out there who are still jerks enough to behave unacceptably (maybe even illegally), and some others who also may not take complaints or allegations as seriously as they should, even today. But up and down the organization? No one in a leadership position at Spirit could recognize the apparent errors? None of them could see that the activities of Rookie Talent Night maybe were things worth squashing in 2021?

Without more info, that just doesn't make sense to me.

If true just as described, however, then I agree with @greg_orangecounty that Spirit warrants suspension, and its staff and leaders should have no future roles in drum corps. Aside from the offenses, they're apparently just not intelligent enough to be in charge of a corps.

Years back was on church council when the stories about abuse with priests came out. Just SO many peoples response was “that’s somewhere else ” and “it can’t happen here”. The arrogance and “we never had a problem before (that they knew of) so we’ll keep doing things the same way”. 
And the usual idiots who think MeToo is some kind of overreaction. Just hate to think what went on BITD that didn’t come to light.

Edited by JimF-LowBari
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