Re: Drugs and Alcohol - Dirty Little Secrets
 

My guess is that they would be fine with that, but our drive team does often drive the robot without a wall between. Using the practice field at competition, testing functions in the lab, etc. I think this parent will eventually remove this restriction once they see a bit more of how we work and the safety precautions we take, but we'll see.

Re: Drugs and Alcohol - Dirty Little Secrets
 

So I see we are back to discussing general mentor behavior :]

If you read the First YPP above (post 79) It says "Alcohol, tobacco, or other controlled substances must not be used during team activities..." It then allows exception for "support" activities. I would not call team dinners while traveling support actives. Hardly a blanket permission to consume alcohol. Realize First policies are guidelines and not hard rules. This is necessary because of it covers policies world wide.

Realize that other parts of the world have different policies, but in the US none of the youth serving organizations i have been involved with approve of the responsible care adults consuming alcohol while in charge of youth. These rules would not necessarily apply to periphery mentors or sponsors. I am not being judgmental in this. If your team's sponsor allows responsible alcohol use, it is not for me to judge.

I a parent comes to me and says "But you knew", I would ask and you didn't? I am not responsible for their child's behavior.

While I try to be a good role model and willing to be a friendly ear for advice, that is really outside my job description. I might take on projects if I think it will be useful. I do help with a team that works with at risk youth. Their job description is different. My hat is of to the mentors of that team and others like them.

Re: Drugs and Alcohol - Dirty Little Secrets
 

I will not accept responsibility to enforce specific parental rules for individuals. If the youth is that immature or the parent that insecure, they don't need to be on a FRC team. YMMV

Re: Drugs and Alcohol - Dirty Little Secrets
 

It's not about acting when individuals are breaking parental rules, it's about acting when the people we care about are putting themselves in serious danger. If you knew a student was hanging on railroad tracks and not paying attention to the trains, wouldn't you stop him or her? Of course you would, because we care about our teammates. The same applies when those around us put themselves in harm's way via dangerous uses of controlled substances, though it is noteworthy that there is a separate (ie. not in this thread) debate to be had about what qualifies as dangerous use.

Re: Drugs and Alcohol - Dirty Little Secrets
 

Say you have a student whose parents have not given their permission for their student to be photographed (maybe they have not filled out a school photo release, or simply told you in person, etc.). Would you reccomend that student not be on the team? Or tell the parents that you will be photographing the student?

Re: Drugs and Alcohol - Dirty Little Secrets
 

We actually almost had this exact situation a while back... A student joined the team, and their parents had filed a no photography request with the school, so we had to be sure not to include that student in any photos. We were prepared for it, although the student ended up dropping after a couple of meetings so it was never really an issue.

Personally, I think that any parents reasonable, safe request should be honored as much as reasonably possible, where it doesn't interfere with normal team procedures. Things like respecting allergies, religious requirements, limiting involvement, photographs... All would, I think, be considered a reasonable request. Demanding that their kid be placed on the drive team, or be made a captain, or other nonsense like that should simply result in a clear explanation of the teams processes and an invitation for the student to enter said process for an equal chance as everyone else.

Re: Drugs and Alcohol - Dirty Little Secrets
 

Black box take soul? :) More seriously the First permission slip includes a photography release. No permission slip, not on the team. So that is a bad example.

In other cases I would tell the parent that I don't supervise to youth to the level to be sure parental rules are followed that is really between the youth and the parent. General behavior and team rules are a different subject. Genuine safety issues like peanut allergies I will try to be aware of, but I am not accepting responsibility for. I have way too much other stuff on my plate.

Re: Drugs and Alcohol - Dirty Little Secrets
 

Ah okay, we have students join the team but don't make it to participate in the actual FRC build and season. So we end up with a period of time where parents have explicitly not signed a school photo form and have not yet filled out the FRC form.

Re: Drugs and Alcohol - Dirty Little Secrets
 

The parent is the parent and I wouldn't actively go against their wishes. We use a lot of media in our outreach, while I expect we could agree not to not star their child, it would be an imposition to the team to say no photos would be published. Not really my part of the sandbox though. I am not sure of the point of some one joining an FRC team and not plan to go to a competition. Maybe have them dress a full costume as a compromise? Ok that was a little snarky. :)