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Hey Frank -
Wish I could devote time to replying to this inline -- but gotta get moving
on other stuff tonight. I totally understand the concerns with this. I'm not
sure our club's approach to handling this, save the parents' involvement
with the club alongside any underagers. I know it's not foolproof. We
actually don't have any club members under 18, aside from say the occasional
<10yo belonging to a club member. Perhaps we'd ask for a waiver were that to
happen, I dunno. That said, we're open to people of all ages on a subjective
basis.
-Tim
In lugnet.general, Frank Filz writes:
> I used to be on the side of encouraging clubs to not have age
> requirements, however, under more consideration, I'm more open to the
> idea. In my opinion, the biggest reason is the way our country handles
> child abuse allegations. Because of the legal climate, one is taking a
> very large risk being involved with a "club" that allows anyone under
> 18. Your life can be ruined (and the SC seems to favor permenant
> ruination of your life if "sex" is involved). Your life can be ruined
> even if you weren't necessarily involved in the alleged abuse. Note that
> I am using alleged and allegations in this wording because the fact is,
> your life can be ruined just by accusations being made. It's incredibly
> difficult to fight these accusations (which is what makes the "sex
> offender" status so sick in my mind, people plead guilty just to avoid
> the nasty court battle, and then are permanently branded).
>
> I continue to wonder how much risk I'm taking by being a youth advisor
> at church. We have insurance and rules that minimize the risk, but
> still, what do you do if you're in a room and a kid walks in? Do you
> kick the kid out or stop doing what you're doing and leave to obey the
> rules (that two adults should always be in the room with kids)? What do
> you do when you're about to leave church in the evening and a 13 year
> old girl is standing around alone because her brother got mad at her and
> didn't take her home with him, so she has to wait for mom to arrive
> (this happened to me, I was at church as a senior high youth advisor and
> the girl was there for junior high youth group - the junior high
> advisors should never have left without making sure all the kids had a
> ride)?
>
> The maturity issue is separate, and I think in a more reasonable legal
> climate, it would be easy to take things on a case by case basis.
>
> One thing I would like to see more clubs do though is have "LEGO days"
> at libraries and such. These events could be handled in such a way that
> the library takes most of the risk of having children around (which they
> already are taking).
>
> Frank
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