Attention Mascots (and teams with one)

[dubiousSwain]

Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber

It's a issue of mentors/parents not telling their students "don't be a [expletive] creep. I've had young ladies who were just as inappropriate as young men.

Thank you. I totally agree that one of the most effective measures in this situation would just be a daily reminder to mascots to not get carried away and to keep their hands to themselves. High school kids often have trouble discerning the boundary of funny and creepy, I know I do. Robotics competitions are a fun time for most FIRSTers and its easy to get carried away.

TL;DR Guidelines help.

[StillDefective]

Originally Posted by Al Skierkiewicz

I would like to make an observation here. Many of the people I have seen in the costumes are not trained and therefore have little or no experience. They are merely "lent" the mascot costume by their school and a student(s) is asked to volunteer to wear the costume. Consequently, the wearer often doesn't know how to handle movement in crowds and may not know where parts of the costume may make contact with animate or inanimate objects in confined spaces. Pros at theme parks are given extensive training on how to move, interact with patrons and always have a handler whispering in their ear and assisting them as they move through the park. If you think something was inappropriate, please report it. If you don't want a hug, please say "No Thank You" or simply wave as I do.

^This right here. I don't want to take away from the point here, because it is wrong to grope and such, and if a mascot does it intentional they should be promptly dealt with, but it may not ALWAYS be intentional. When you get a brand new car, and are driving it for the first time, you don't want to immediately go and parallel park, because you don't know the size and area of the car yet, same with costumes, some of the incidents might have been unintentional. It's rude to generalize and blame immediately

I like the idea of name tags that the mascots MUST wear at all times with their real name and team number on them, in addition to a "mascot meeting" type event, because then they have immediate identification for the mascot in question and some form of training. It's wrong to bar mascots from giving hugs or, because I am not in to the spirit side very much, but I'll give a mascot a hug, but they should also know when to not give a hug and when it is too long.