The Cadets are being sued by a former member for alleged sexual abuse in the 80s

[karuna]

3 hours ago, Tim K said:

Have background checks eliminated abuse? No, nothing is fool proof. Have they reduced abuse? The theory is they keep potential predators away, however it is always the case that the background checks along with checking personal references and close supervision are necessary. The supervision is probably the most critical component. Any time you take a training to spot predators, the first thing often mentioned is that predators are usually expert manipulators.

It's a pro forma response that sounds good to school boards and administrators but has not been shown to be particularly effective.  In the band and drum corps world,  many (if not most) of the instructors are already educators in their real jobs.  The training is mostly online courseware which is often considered more of a nuisance than effective education.  And most people who are "mandated reporters"  in fact fail to report anything at all.  

It's a start -- but like most well-intentioned starts its falls very short of accomplishing much.  

 

[karuna]

38 minutes ago, Jeff Ream said:

he's not applying for a mortgage LOL

Where do you think his salary was coming from?  

[karuna]

4 hours ago, IllianaLancerContra said:

We’ll, I’m a retired military officer.  Been through quite a bit to obtain & maintain security clearances.   Most of this, save application fee, in fact.  

It was of course a tongue-in-cheek response.   Uncle Sam put me in the system as well.  

But I respect that you're ready and willing!  Sadly unless the corps themselves were advocating for this sort of program,  it's a non-starter.   It might also be a challenge to implement it in way that was not very disruptive.  There might be a continuous line of complaints outside your door.  

 

[DAL-27]

27 minutes ago, Jeff Ream said:

agreed. the corps tried to take that approach....the Cadets of today aren't the Cadets of the past. Except when you look at all the PR ( and show design) everything is about FHNSAB, maroon and gold, 1934 etc....so the judge said "nope. you're the Cadets or you're not the Cadets".

This is an interesting situation.  The Cadets were at least 3 organizations from '83 to now, definitely more if you go all the way back to the Holy Name Church.  From where I'm sitting the latest Cadets organization took over the 'brand' of the Cadets especially since this latest configuration is under new management/BOD (and YEA was ultimately dissolved).  I could understand not seeing the change over from Garfield/CBC to YEA that way since the management was probably essentially the same but maybe you could make the same argument there as well.

An example of what I'm talking about from a hockey franchise/brand stand point. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Monarchs_(ECHL) This AHL team was originally owned by the Kings organization.  The Kings moved the AHL team (& assets/management) to CA and swapped an ECHL team (& assets/management) to Manchester but the Brand/Name stayed in Manchester they called it a "Franchise Swap".  Then the Brand/Name was sold to new owners.  When the team was no longer viable, a Jr program in Manchester took up the brand "Monarchs" (same logo).  So is the Jr Monarchs program liable for something that happened in 2001 with an AHL team?

I'm not a lawyer so I can't say how appropriate it is (or not), but it definitely has me scratching my head.

[cixelsyd]

5 hours ago, TheOneWhoKnows said:

Sadly, I foresee this being the end of The Cadets. Unfortunately, instead of going after those that are guilty of crimes, we have to tear down the whole organization. 

Then someone explain to me why that is.  Does GH hire better lawyers than the Cadets?  Or are deeper pockets a curse that transcends all else?

[Old Guy]

9 hours ago, LabMaster said:

That is surprising and proof that this is how bad behavior perpetuates.  If this is true, shame on Crown.

I’ve known members who were far from being ideal, then when moving to another « better » corps just morphed into positive members we wish we could have again??!!!

Why they change so drastically was a mystery. Perhaps a better surrounding with lesser tolerance by their peers. 

[Jeff Ream]

4 hours ago, karuna said:

It's a pro forma response that sounds good to school boards and administrators but has not been shown to be particularly effective.  In the band and drum corps world,  many (if not most) of the instructors are already educators in their real jobs.  The training is mostly online courseware which is often considered more of a nuisance than effective education.  And most people who are "mandated reporters"  in fact fail to report anything at all.  

It's a start -- but like most well-intentioned starts its falls very short of accomplishing much.  

 

reporting has finally gotten better. not perfect, but better. hopefully that will help some

[Jeff Ream]

4 hours ago, karuna said:

Where do you think his salary was coming from?  

not in the mortgage industry

[MikeN]

13 hours ago, cixelsyd said:

Then someone explain to me why that is.  Does GH hire better lawyers than the Cadets?  Or are deeper pockets a curse that transcends all else?

The suit is against both the org and 10 individuals (I saw someone on Reddit allege it was the BoD members at the time, including Hopkins).  I'm assuming Ms. W. is alleging that both the individual actors *and* the system they created (the corps) are at fault.  

Mike

[scheherazadesghost]

16 minutes ago, MikeN said:

I'm assuming Ms. W. is alleging that both the individual actors *and* the system they created (the corps) are at fault.  

Weird. That's what I've been saying. ... and encountering fairly continuously when I engage with alum close to VMAPA. Their rants here and in other public spaces only lend further evidence of this.

And, lest anyone get upset, I've also said they have the power to improve.