FIRST Youth Protection Program

[Cory]

Originally Posted by magnets

It's sad to realize that people might join FIRST in order to get to kids. Two local teachers got in trouble for something like this. One teacher (a 70 year old woman) paid a kid $20 to clean the outside of his house, and the other became facebook friends with a student. It seems to me like common sense that a 70 year old librarian who worked at the school for the past 30 years and is respected and known by the town wouldn't try to harm a 18 year old kid, but common sense isn't that common .

Change "woman" to "man" and you've just described Jerry Sandusky. Highly respected, nobody suspected a thing, until they found out he was a serial child molester.

Obviously I'm not trying to say the woman in your story was a likely child molester, but it certainly does happen.

[magnets]

Originally Posted by Cory

Change "woman" to "man" and you've just described Jerry Sandusky. Highly respected, nobody suspected a thing, until they found out he was a serial child molester.

Obviously I'm not trying to say the woman in your story was a likely child molester, but it certainly does happen.

I understand completely what you are saying, and I think it is very important to be careful and have common sense when you're dealing with people to avoid bad situations.

It's just my opinion that it's not worth it to live your life in fear of something like this happening. Sure, you should be careful and make smart decisions, but I don't believe we need people making decisions for us about who we should and shouldn't be friends with.


If you start thinking like this, you have to consider everybody you know from the FIRST program as being a potential threat. People who you've known for the past ten years of your life that you care about are a threat. This is a dangerous line of thinking, and it leads to a really sad and boring team, and eventually life. There are people on my team who I trust.

Here's a quick story-
A student on my team who is a big FIRST enthusiast was having a hard time fitting in, both on CD and on the team. A very well respected mentor reached out to him over private messages on Chief Delphi, and helped show him how he needed to behave. After the conversation, the student became a much better team member, and I'm thankful for what that mentor did. If I follow YPP, I am required to report that "incident" to FIRST. I won't, but you get the idea.

[Steven Smith]

A student on my team who is a big FIRST enthusiast was having a hard time fitting in, both on CD and on the team. A very well respected mentor reached out to him over private messages on Chief Delphi, and helped show him how he needed to behave. After the conversation, the student became a much better team member, and I'm thankful for what that mentor did. If I follow YPP, I am required to report that "incident" to FIRST. I won't, but you get the idea.

I went ahead and spent a few minutes reading through the YPP, and I don't see what you described as being an issue. I feel like the YPP actually leaves a little grey area for interpretation.

CD is a forum that is certainly used for "team activities and educational purposes". The mentor was not trying to keep anything a secret, just to protect the feelings of the student. The context of the conversation would likely be clearly interpreted by anyone reading it as appropriate.

You would only be required to report this interaction if you believed that abuse occurred, or if you simply had a question... clearly you don't.

Let's tweak the scenario. Same thing happened, but a less well intentioned adult sends a PM with a few choice expletives about a person's behavior on CD. The student feels threatened by it. The YPP simply provides a tool to report such interactions.

Or, a student becomes "friends" with a Chief Delphi adult. Can they exchange PMs... sure. However, a smart mentor might consider forwarding the PM to the listed adult for that team, especially if it is a repeated thing. Also, watch out for "out of bounds requests". A student might say something like "I'd like to meet up with you at competition." This is an innocent request in most cases, but you would be wise to let another adult know (such as their team's lead mentor) that a student on their team would like to say hello at competition. Then the other team's mentor can at least be aware of the situation, and tag along if they have any reason to suspect an issue. This of course assumes you're meeting them at their team's pit, the inspection station, something clearly in public view.

The purpose of this doesn't appear to be to severely change any behaviors, but to take an appropriate amount of precautions to be able to definitively say that "everything is ok"... instead of just assuming it is.

[magnets]

Originally Posted by Steven Smith

I went ahead and spent a few minutes reading through the YPP, and I don't see what you described as being an issue. I feel like the YPP actually leaves a little grey area for interpretation.

Any adult working with a FIRST team who is aware
of a violation of this Code, or who is in doubt about
whether or not a behavior is appropriate, is required
to immediately consult a team Lead Coach/Mentor (if a
team Lead Coach/Mentor is not the potential violator), or
the hosting school or organization, and if satisfied with
the guidance provided, to act in accordance with it.

and

Engaging in personal exchanges such as phone calls,
e-mail, texting, social networking, etc., with a child
outside the context of team activities, educational
matters, or career concerns.

The content of the messages had nothing to do with education, FIRST, our team, or a career. It was written as a response to a view a student had on something unrelated to robots.

[Jon Stratis]

Originally Posted by magnets

Any adult working with a FIRST team who is aware
of a violation of this Code, or who is in doubt about
whether or not a behavior is appropriate, is required
to immediately consult a team Lead Coach/Mentor (if a
team Lead Coach/Mentor is not the potential violator), or
the hosting school or organization, and if satisfied with
the guidance provided, to act in accordance with it.

and

Engaging in personal exchanges such as phone calls,
e-mail, texting, social networking, etc., with a child
outside the context of team activities, educational
matters, or career concerns.

The content of the messages had nothing to do with education, FIRST, our team, or a career. It was written as a response to a view a student had on something unrelated to robots.

As you said, the mentor used the PM to show the student how they should behave. I, personally, would classify that both career concerns (you need to know how to behave appropriately) and as a team concern, as the student is a representative of the team.

[sanddrag]

For Team Main Contacts (and I'm assuming Alternate Contacts), when you log into TIMS, you are forced to watch the video before it will continue to the next page. Just a heads up.

[sanddrag]

So I'm going through the process, and was not pleased by Pages 3 and 4 of the Privacy Policy (PDF) on the Verified Volunteers website.

I will most certainly be sending an opt-out e-mail and I recommend every else do the same. Pretty shady to involuntarily be opted-in to selling your information to advertizing companies and debt collection agencies.

Okay FIRST, can we now get a Mentor Protection Program that protects us from having our personal information sold by your volunteer verification company?

Also, it doesn't work in FireFox. Chrome seems ok.

[Gregor]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

So I'm going through the process, and was not pleased by Pages 3 and 4 of the Privacy Policy (PDF) on the Verified Volunteers website.

I will most certainly be sending an opt-out e-mail and I recommend every else do the same. Pretty shady to involuntarily be opted-in to selling your information to advertizing companies and debt collection agencies.

Okay FIRST, can we now get a Mentor Protection Program that protects us from having our personal information sold by your volunteer verification company?

Also, it doesn't work in FireFox. Chrome seems ok.

From page 4.

If you wish to opt-out of sharing your Personal Information with third party marketers for their own and third party direct marketing purposes, please send an email with your name and address to TheAdvocates@verifiedvolunteers.com.Information Security.

If I'm reading that correctly, by default people's information is being forwarded to third party marketers.

[sanddrag]

Originally Posted by Gregor

If I'm reading that correctly, by default people's information is being forwarded to third party marketers.

That's how I read it, and I don't like it.

[techtiger1]

I mean you guys are reading into this like your information isn't public already. Cell phone companies sell your info to 3rd parties all the time and pretty much everyone here has some form of social media. The real test will be to see if the opt out actually works. Meaning that FIRST is actually protecting your information rather then just covering themselves legally. Which at the end of the day is all the YPP and this other stuff is.

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by techtiger1

I mean you guys are reading into this like your information isn't public already. Cell phone companies sell your info to 3rd parties all the time and pretty much everyone here has some form of social media. The real test will be to see if the opt out actually works. Meaning that FIRST is actually protecting your information rather then just covering themselves legally. Which at the end of the day is all the YPP and this other stuff is.

Sorry but, no. Even if other people are selling my information I don't have to like it or allow everyone else to do it.

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by techtiger1

I mean you guys are reading into this like your information isn't public already.

No, we're reading into it like it's our information and it should be private by default.

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by magnets

be careful and have common sense when you're dealing with people to avoid bad situations.

Originally Posted by Jon Stratis

just keep your eyes open and follow common-sense guidelines.

There is no common sense when it comes to law and lawyers.

Originally Posted by Jon Stratis

we maintained the "two mentor" rule. It protects the students, and it protects us.

Indeed. Protect yourself from false claims, protect your kids from real claims. Try really hard to avoid situations where it is one's word against the other's.

That being said, also read whatever it is you write and imagine how it could be re-interpreted in court. leave no room for later re-interpretation where possible.

[donkehote]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

So I'm going through the process, and was not pleased by Pages 3 and 4 of the Privacy Policy (PDF) on the Verified Volunteers website.

I will most certainly be sending an opt-out e-mail and I recommend every else do the same. Pretty shady to involuntarily be opted-in to selling your information to advertizing companies and debt collection agencies.

Okay FIRST, can we now get a Mentor Protection Program that protects us from having our personal information sold by your volunteer verification company?

Also, it doesn't work in FireFox. Chrome seems ok.

Has there been any update on the opt out process? It seems totally wrong to have to opt out of having your information sold to third parties. Has first changed anything? Im curious, and after having conversations on the YPP recently, i thought id bring this up again.

[Karthik]

On October 17th we received an email from FIRST's YPP Screening account that said:

Originally Posted by Non-Lead Coach/Mentor Screening - US and Canada

Non-Lead Coach/Mentor Screening (Team Volunteers) is recommended but not required.

Lead Coaches and/or Lead Mentors may request screening for their Team Volunteers at no charge to those volunteers.

Simply follow the steps below if you would like your Team Volunteers screened by FIRST:

· Invite the Team Volunteers to your team via your TIMS account.
· Send an email to: yppscreening@usfirst.org
o List FIRST, LAST name and EMAIL ADDRESS.
· FIRST will generate an email to your Team Volunteers inviting them to go to the FIRST account with the contracted screening agency for either the US or Canada.
· FIRST will send you confirmation of Team Volunteers who have passed screening.
If you have any questions, please send them directly to yppscreening@usfirst.org.

We followed the above indicated steps on October 29th, and followed up again on November 7th, but have yet to receive any communication from FIRST. Have any other teams had success with the Non-Lead Coach/Mentor Screening process? I'm sure they're very busy with screenings, but I always get nervous when this much time passes without a confirmation email.