**IMPORTANT FIRST EMAIL BLAST**/Follow-up to the new FIRST Youth Protection and Adult

FIRST General Forum
1

Subject: IMPORTANT FIRST EMAIL BLAST/Follow-up to the new FIRST Youth Protection and Adult Leadership policy
Out to FLL Teams…

To FIRST LEGO League teams:

We are writing to follow-up on the announcement of the new FIRST Youth
Protection and Adult Leadership policy that was introduced at the end of
October. We have received additional comments on the volunteer screening
system, and have made some immediate improvements in response to that feedback.

TIMING OF THE POLICY IMPLEMENTATION

Several FLL teams responded that the implementation of the policy came too
late in the season. We acknowledge this fact, and apologize that it took
us this long to finalize the policy and screening system. FIRST felt
strongly that the screening process needed to be implemented, even at this
late date, to ensure the well-being and safety of the students and the
protection of team mentors.

ISSUES WITH DOWNLOADING THE DOCUMENT

Some Team Leaders have been unable to download and view the document in PDF
format. In response to this, we have also posted a version in Microsoft
Word format. Both versions of the policy can be downloaded at:

http://www.usfirst.org/volunteers/youthprotect/

TECHNICAL ISSUES WITH THE VOLUNTEERSELECT SYSTEM

We recognize that there are still occasional technical difficulties with
the VolunteerSelect system. If you experience any of these technical
problems, contact the VolunteerSelect Customer Service Line at 800-962-2091
for assistance with system-related questions.

EXEMPTION FROM BACKGROUND SCREENING

As the policy document explains, adults who have already been screened by a
public school system to work with youth are exempt from the background
screening and reference check process. All other Team Mentors are required
to complete the process to participate with a team. Individuals screened by
private or parochial schools, institutions of higher learning, other
organizations or companies are not exempt.

OTHER ITEMS FOR CLARIFICATION

We have made several edits to the policy to provide additional
clarification based on the questions we have received. These
clarifications cover a broad number of items including exemptions, the
screening process, and details about the privacy and security of personal
information. It is also important to note that the policy has been
reordered to emphasize the importance of implementing the appropriate
barriers to abuse within FIRST programs.

Again, we appreciate your cooperation and support in helping FIRST
implement a sound and secure screening process. We welcome your comments
and questions. Please contact us by email ([email protected]) or by
phone (603-666-3906).

2

I’m still a little unclear on this whole thing. I know it protects FIRST in a legal situation but does this really prevent mailicious individuals from participating as mentors? If you don’t have anything to hide, sure you’ll get screened, no problem. If you do have something to hide, you’ll just dodge the screening, and that will be that, and no one will know. How does FIRST know that everybody who is helping is getting screened? How can they know of everyone who is a mentor, since it is based on honest reporting? They can’t. Which brings me to my final question: If a malicious individual (or an individual with a malicious past) does not report his/her participation and FIRST will never know this person even exists, then what good is the screening?

Forgive me if I don’t have much insight into this but this question has been bugging me.

3

they will be doing random checks on teams to see if everyone has been screened, and also from what i have been told, all people who are screened, an electronic copy is forwarded to first when each screening is completed.
~Mike

4

Actually I am surprised that FIRST has to do this. When I was in high school, all mentors, college students, and engineers had to fill out a form for a background check. This just doesn’t apply to my FIRST team, but every adult that is a mentor. I thought it was a federal law or something like that.

5

Kyle…

With all this protection in place…why do I see a story a week about a teacher doing something inappropriate with a student? It wouldn’t matter if it were an intergalactic law, dumb people will do dumb things.

Background checks don’t stop problems like this…teachers, mentors and students who police their own ranks do.

See you on the high ground!

Jim

6

Alright, theyre going to do random checks, so what. This is the organization that consistently does not have enough staff for anything and totally relies on volunteers. How on earth are they going to check 1000 different teams who probably have at least 5-10+ mentors. It just wont work.

Even if they do randomly check, how will they know if all adult advisors on each team even put their names down as advisors. If an adult simply never got a background check and never indicated that they were a part of a team, FIRST will never ever know. What are they going to do, send a representative to every team and have them watch the team all season long to make sure that noone who wasnt screened works with kids?

Basically, a child can still be taken advantage of, molested, etc. and it wont matter to FIRST because they legally covered their backs. Obviously again you can see that FIRST doesnt care about stopping child abuse, they care about not being liable and getting sued for millions of dollars.

Cory

7

Given that teams on average report five “adults helping” and given that FIRST has a whole year to complete all the checks, and given that they work eight hour days and not on weekends, they would have to perform over 2 and 1/4 checks every hour. I don’t really know what to make of that.