FIRST Youth Protection Program

[Jon Stratis]

Nothing in this says you have to think of people as threats... just keep your eyes open and follow common-sense guidelines. Two or more mentors at every meeting. Meet in public places. Keep communications as public as possible, and on-topic. You make it habit, and its something you don't think of anymore. The team still has fun and you still get to know the students and other mentors very well (after all, you see them more than your own family!). You're just more aware of how things might look to an impartial third party, and make decisions to make things more open and more public.

As an example, at the MN State Championship last year, myself and another mentor were the last to leave, along with two of our students. We walked them to their cars together (which weren't all that close to each other), and then both took the long hike to a different parking lot in the other direction to get to our cars. It wasn't a question of trust - I have complete and total faith in the mentor I was with, and know both of the students well enough to know nothing bad would happen. Despite that, we maintained the "two mentor" rule. It protects the students, and it protects us. Doing it with people you completely trust also makes it easier/more natural to do it with people you don't know as well or have a weird feeling about.