Attention Mascots (and teams with one)

[Conor Ryan]

Originally Posted by wireties

You make many excellent points and they are good first steps but a volunteer can find themselves in a sticky wicket. For example the fellow that runs the Dallas regional is a VP from Lockheed. I've worked with him helping to run the quick build sessions and he is one of my favorite FIRST people. He is a fantastic AE and executive but what does he know about the criminality of harassment/assault incidents? Perhaps a preferred sequence is to take these things directly to a law enforcement officer? If it is criminal, it gets handled properly and there is no liability for FIRST volunteers (at any level). If it is not, FIRST guidelines determine the appropriate sanction.

Originally Posted by Jon Stratis

Then I would say allow him to do that - bring the issue to his attention, and encourage him to bring in the police. Regardless of the outcome, he needs to be involved from the beginning in order to manage the interaction and avoid disrupting the event. He can ensure that the police and those involved meet in a more private area to handle things, rather than just calling them in and having it all explode in the pits. We really have to make sure that we're looking at this both from the stand point of addressing the issue AND keeping the event running smoothly, and that would be one of his roles if the police are needed.

At official events, an incident of this type would cause a notification trigger (similar to an incident requiring an EMT). To begin the process to create an event trigger, the appropriate course of action would be to talk to Pit Admin let the know you may have a security incident and would like to speak to the Event Manager or if there is no Event Manager, the RD. Those people have access to the appropriate personnel necesary to address the issue and will bring in the appropriate law enforcement as necessary, additionally they will make sure the process is handled professionally to not cause further issues at the event. These types of incidents are covered in their training and there are document procedures for what they should do in these in these instances.