Trainers, traveling to shows with minors re: Safe Sport

[trubandloki]

@Classic

I think what I hope we have learned is that parents should be with their kids. Parents still car pool and drop off the kids at the barn for HOURS. A pedophile gets very familiar with family habits. I also think it’s the kids that travel with the trainer, sometimes the parent is there, sometimes not, that sets up the dangerous environment.

I think in a perfect world all kids would have a parent available to be at the barn 100% of the time they are there, sitting off in the distance not interfering but making sure nothing bad ever happens.

In the real world most parents have more than one kid to get to lots of different activities so if barn time required a parent to be sitting there 100% of the time then lots of kids would not be riding.

[BGZ]

Wow - that is an unbelievable statement. As a parent I would be suspect of a trainer that ignored … and no I don’t always travel with the kid it isn’t because I won’t make the effort to be “ever-present” it is because we have to work to pay for the sport - so it takes a village so it may not be us but there is always an adult from our family - not the trainer. And it is not about the win and never has been. Even if you looked at as totally innocent - it isn’t the trainer’s job to babysit or raise my kid - so even without safe sport I wouldn’t want the kid traveling alone with the trainer - too much pressure.
And I agree with others - it isn’t that complicated.

[dcequestrian]

Same, it makes me sad that its come to this. I can count on one hand the number of times my parents came to a show so I always rode down with my trainer and stayed in her hotel room for sometimes weeks at a time…heck, I even stayed at her house when my parents were out of town! My sister did have soccer coaches, though, that my parents wouldn’t leave her alone with for hour-long practices so I guess it comes down to a judgment call on their part.

[Tini_Sea_Soldier1]

Same… and agreed… I sincerely doubt that my swim coaches or softball coaches would be allowed anywhere alone with us. It’s interesting how the barn world seemed like a bit of an anomaly.
When I first started riding, I rode at a county barn. We all got dropped off and spent the day there… meanwhile… the part-time workers were often working off community service and other minor crimes! Yep… there we were… 12 years old… and hanging out with felons, yet, in reality… we viewed the greatest risk as the newest auction horse that came in off the track that probably had ill-fitting tack and hadn’t seen anything but a racetrack ever. In hindsight, it’s amazing we survived without some serious damage.