My goal in publicizing this information is to prevent a repeat of a previous case where a mentor banned from FIRST managed to quietly join multiple other teams.
I would also like to repeat a request to FIRST to strengthen YPPYouth Protection Program protections:
Require YPPYouth Protection Program screening of every adult mentor and volunteer involved with teams or events. This is standard in many other youth orgs, and required by law in California, and I cannot understand why it is only a requirement for head mentors
Create and require a YPPYouth Protection Program training of all adult mentors and volunteers. While trainings are never perfect, it is the minimum FIRST can do to make all adults aware of acceptable behavior and how to identify and report concerning behaviors of other adults. FIRST publishes a YPPYouth Protection Program guide that would be a great starting point
Communicate to teams that all adults with any involvement on the team are expected to meet the above requirements. FRCFIRST Robotics Competition has a long history of lax volunteer rules: mentors that join unofficially, teams who only have head mentors in TIMS, offseason events with no formal volunteer registration, and more. While convenient for many mentors, this also makes it very easy for banned individuals to slip under the radar, and really should change
I have sent these thoughts to FIRST at firstroboticscompetition (at) firstinspires (dot) org, and strongly encourage anyone who agrees to do so too.
I don’t have a whole lot else to say right now other than that I hope FIRST implements this. It seems like a fairly simple step to vastly improve the safety of their programs.
I will go on record as saying that it’s also a requirement for some if not all KVs. I have to get YPPYouth Protection Program screened regularly for FIRST–I want to say it’s a 3-year cycle offhand. (I don’t know for sure which KVs and other volunteers get screened–just that in my usual role, I need it.)
As a CA mentor on a school-based team, I also have to get that screening check. I don’t know for sure how often it’s checked, but I would assume annually (based on when the school asks mentors to renew status).
I can speak for FTCFIRST Tech Challenge and FRCFIRST Robotics Competition and say that all volunteers through VMS should go through YPPYouth Protection Program screening. While I can’t personally speak for FLL, but I’d be shocked if they didn’t (given it’s all the same system on the backend).
On top of everything Rachel already mentioned, myself and many others I’ve discussed this with also feel that the FIRST HQ “banlist” we have all heard about for years should be public knowledge for all volunteers, mentors, and students.
I realize there may be some legal implications here, but the safety of our students is worth legal battles.
Back channels should not be the source for mentors finding out about these disgusting perpetrators. If there is in fact a list, we have every right to know in order to shield our kids and other adults too from those who wish to skirt existing systems. If there is no official list, I can assure you people out there are more than willing to compile their own lists for publication, so I’d prefer it come from an official source.
I want to thank @Rachel_Lim for publicly posting this for all to see and starting this conversation.
I also wish the victims of Nick’s actions the best of wishes as they navigate all this. Please know that many people support you and hope you can still find joy in this program in the future.
I sent a link to o this post to the email address you specified, and added this note:
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I have been on zero teams that have briefed mentors or students on YPP. Students regularly message me privately to ask questions and I repeatedly have to ask them to add another mentor to the conversation to stay compliant. This should not be the norm. Every person in the program should be educated as to the realities of any program involving such heavy adult-child involvement, and it’s saddening to see that few people are aware of these policies and even fewer enact them on their teams.
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Extremely few teams properly enforce YPP on their teams, and even fewer let their students know that YPP exists at all.
Please reach out to FIRST so that we can see some real action on this front. Do your best to properly educate your team so that we can stop this from happening. I want to hand out flyers at competitions but we’ll see if that goes through.
This brought a thought to my attention. Is there a protocol for when a student messages a mentor on Chief Delphi? What about the other way around? Should the approach be that a mentor should never message a student on Chief Delphi?
sigh * How much is that legal battle worth to you?
We are all so quick to spend someone else’s money, aren’t we? We all forget that FIRST is not the NCAA. It does not have a $4 billion TV deal. It is not a prestigious university with an endowment of tens of billions of dollars. It’s a nonprofit that spends damned near all the money it collects. Whatever rainy day fund it has is for addressing unforeseeable events beyond its control. It very much controls publishing ban lists.
Remember, coming out of the pandemic, our first-event cost went up to $6000? How much higher should it go? $6100? $6500? $7000? How much more are you willing to pay so that FIRST can afford to defend itself from the defamation suits that would come from posting that list?
A plaintiff might find a lawyer willing to take the case on contingency. Defense lawyers don’t work that way. They charge by the hour and bill monthly. Don’t pay them, and they quit. You’ve no right to a lawyer in a civil case, so the courts grant their motion to leave.
Now how much would you pay?
(Yes, this sucks. And YPPYouth Protection Program can only reveal what’s found in public records. This is the world we live in.)
Obviously this is terrible if true. Nether link posted here is working for me, and Google only returns a different child predator with the same name from a number of years ago. I’d love to see more specifics about what the charge is and what evidence they have before sharpening my torch and lighting my pitchfork.
Note: no matter the details of this specific accusation, I still agree all volunteers and mentors should have to do YPP. Here in Israel a police background check is required for all volunteers and mentors.
I can already tell your post is going to detract from the gravity of this topic, so congratulations.
I’m not an attorney and I doubt you are too (at least it isn’t in your signature) so all I will state is that publishing a list for facts and truth is not vulnerable to defamation when it is available for the intent of keeping someone from participating in a private engagement. FIRST events are not public even though they are typically open to the public. Without inviting harassment of the person on sex offender lists, posting their existence is not illegal, for example. This would be similar.
I’m sure you’re posting this to emphasize that yes the reality sucks and there would be legal battles, but come on man, this post is so tone deaf that I’m actually shaking my head right now. Yes, I’d still pay $10k+ if it meant fewer perverts interact with my kids and adults on my team. Hilarious to see concerns of money coming from someone on a team that regularly attends more events than anyone else in FRCFIRST Robotics Competition.
Or maybe I need to take a breather and amAndyMark reading this totally wrong. The concern about money is just sad after you’re told a very well known mentor and alum has been charged with 4 felony counts of misconduct.
Our team is making a point of focus to implement a strong push for everyone to have YPP and training moving forward. Everyone who wants to work with our team has to have a law enforcement background check done through the school, but we’re going to have everyone do YPP as well as all of the associated training.
Simply start a new search using the case number or defendant’s name given above.
I strongly support Rachel’s suggestions to FIRST HQ and will be pushing harder towards 100% screening and training coverage for the adults on the teams I support.
Yes, this has been circulating around many different groups within FRC for the better part of the last 8 or so months. It is now posted since charges were finally shown on public record as filed.
I do as well. Furthermore, I’d like to see them adopt some process around ensuring mentors are affiliated and screened, or at least known, by the schools and associations that have teams. How this works for community based teams is an interesting one but it does seem like the PDPs could help with that. This could be as simple as asking for a scanned ID card or an attestation document.
I’m all in favor of 100% YPP screening and training for mentors, to include technical mentors, business/writing/logistics mentors, and “team moms”. [I currently go through this or a very similar process three times as a federal employee, church volunteer, and FRC volunteer. It’s a pain, and I wish it could be consolidated but I get why it’s not. If you can come up with a single process that pleases all three, you’ll be my hero,] I’m having difficulty imagining how to implement this given the mostly free-rein model of FRC [which I trust that many of us want to preserve].
First, you have to define how much involvement requires YPP. A parent who drops off and picks up their child[ren] and once in a while spends a few extra minutes watching a demo, and/or who attends competitions mostly in the stands is clearly not a mentor. My strawman proposal is any adult (including college age) person who regularly spends more than one hour per week at team meetings or build sessions should receive YPP screening and training, I’m putting that out there for discussion and refinement.
Next, you need to require and encourage teams to participate. What carrot do you offer? What stick do you use? Currently, most FIRST events are open to the public, including the pits. Should FIRST do the work to issue team badges for local events like they do for CMP? And have all such badges clearly marked as one (or more)of student team member, YPP screened mentor, YPP screened volunteer, and other, and forbid “Others” from working closely with teams? And then find enough volunteers to roam the pits and maybe the rest of the event to enforce it? If somebody has a way to make this work, I’d dearly love to hear it.
Finally, there’s some practicality. My two most recent years as FRC mentor, there were several times when I was the only adult there (not planned, but turned out that way). I made sure I was never alone with a single student. If it had happened with an FLL or middle school FTC group, I would have placed some phone calls and canceled the session. With High schoolers, I’ll admit that I carried on. Given that this situation happens, FIRST should also provide some training to students to get them to report uncomfortable situations. At all levels.
461 has been putting together an adult volunteer handbook, inspired by the 1678 handbook for the upcoming season that addresses adult participation in our organization (FLL through FRC). The document is mostly fleshed out but we’re still working on enhancing/rewording some areas. Currently our list of requirements to become a adult volunteer are as follows:
FIRST Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Training: Strategies for Inspiring Success. This training is intended to help us create a diverse, inclusive and equitable team, as well as equip us with specific strategies to support community outreach, student participation, persistence, engagement, and success. The three-part training module course can be found in this link: Training on Equity, Diversity & Inclusion | FIRST
Sign and return the current season’s Westside Robotics Volunteer Contract. This can be found at the bottom of the Volunteer Handbook.
All the above requirements should be current. If any requirements need to be refreshed, this should be completed by the end of October each season, or within two months of the requirement expiring.
I’m curious what else the community thinks we could include to avoid situations like what is linked in OP’s post. Any suggestions on how we could improve/enhance this?