Women Educational video on preventing the sexual abuse of gymnasts (child safe)

[azara]

I have not been active on this board for the last few months as I have not been involved with much gymnastics lately (not by choice: I moved home). However, when I saw this video about inappropriate touching on YouTube, I thought it was too important not to share. It is child safe and very much worth watching for coaches, parents, and gymnasts alike.



Apologies if it has already been posted!

 

[Jard.the.gymnast]

I saw that too, but was unsure to post. I found it very important. It's that my gymnasts don't speak English, otherwise I'd have shown them too.

 

[gymisforeveryone]

Yes, me too. I wish my gymnasts would speak English too.

We don't have a safe sport system here. I kind of wish we had. There are some things we still allow that the video warns about. Most of the coaches follow their gymnast on Instagram. I don't know about the male coaches though, we only have one here. I think ALL coaches I know have gymnasts' personal phone numbers and talk with the girls in a chat group created for that use. For some time I tried to encourage the girls to send their texts about absences or if they are late or something in that chat group where there are other kids too but many of them still send me private messages and I know that their parents encourage it too. They don't want to text me that their 13 year old is going to be late from practice, they think it's the gymnast's own responsibility to inform me. I try to avoid longer conversations online. If they start to talk about something they want to tell me I set up a conversation time before or after practice.

I try to avoid being alone with a gymnast, but that happens too. Our High School morning practice group has only 3 gymnasts and there has been days when 2 of them have been sick or something and I have ended up alone with one of them. There are other people in the building, but not in the gymnastics area. And there are surveillance cameras too. Of course I know the girls are safe with me and they are already pretty old and mature so I know that there is almost non existing chance of them falsely accusing me of anything. But if the girls were young I would be more worried.

 

[Madden3]

This is excellent. Thank you for posting this! I am so pleased to see this positive and proactive response to the abuse scandal in gymnastics.

My husband is a Boy Scout leader. So I know it can be very difficult and inconvenient to abide by safe practices all the time, especially when parents are asking you to be at an event alone with a kid or give them a ride because they cannot do it. But it is imperative to always use safe practices, and this is why:

Of course, "you" would not harm your gymnast. But what about the next coach? (Or teacher or scout leader etc.) Teach kids (and parents) safe practices by example so they can learn and be empowered.

Second, following safe practices acts to safe guard the adult from false accusations. False accusations happen and not only are they terribly damaging to the accused person (and the accuser, who is often very troubled) but of course they also cause real abuse victims to be disbelieved. So doing everything you can to protect yourself from false accusations is an important responsibility.

As far as communications, could you use a "group" text (parent's and child's number at once) or always use email and cc the parent? My oldest son just started HS and we insist he cc me on all online communication with teachers and coaches. (And expect them to do the same.) Some communication is on an app and that I simply monitor.

As far as language, can you get someone to interpret the video? Find something else (video or written) in the kid's (and parent's) native language?