Community Theater Green Room Discussion Board: Sexual offenders

Message

   This situation has reared its ugly head.  A known sex offender who has participated with us for 15 years and has a stellar record is now in danger of loosing his participation rights with us.   Our policy has been to allow him and any other sex offender we know of to participate fully.  We just contact every parent whose child (under 18) is in the cast or crew to know that he is there, and then allow them to make the decision to have their child continue or not.  Recently, this person was cast in a show with five children.  All but one parent was fine with the situation.  One parent however, is demanding that we fire this person and is threatening public exposure, letters to the editor of the local newspaper, appearing before the city council.. yada yada.  Sigh.

Poll Question: Does your CT allow sex offenders to participate in your productions?
Poll Choice	Votes	Poll Statistics
Our CT does not exclude known sex offenders	2	[50.00%]
Our CT allows sex offenders only in shows without youth.	1	[25.00%]
Our CT allows sex offenders in all shows; we inform parents.	0	[0.00%]
Our CT never allows sex offenders to participate.	1	[25.00%]
You can not vote in this poll

Author	Message
VPA1 Star Joined: 10/20/06 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 54	Topic: Sexual offenders Posted: 9/25/12 at 12:29am
	This situation has reared its ugly head. A known sex offender who has participated with us for 15 years and has a stellar record is now in danger of loosing his participation rights with us. Our policy has been to allow him and any other sex offender we know of to participate fully. We just contact every parent whose child (under 18) is in the cast or crew to know that he is there, and then allow them to make the decision to have their child continue or not. Recently, this person was cast in a show with five children. All but one parent was fine with the situation. One parent however, is demanding that we fire this person and is threatening public exposure, letters to the editor of the local newspaper, appearing before the city council.. yada yada. Sigh.

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75director Celebrity Joined: 8/19/05 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 122	Posted: 9/26/12 at 2:35pm
	After an incident several years ago we developed a policy that states individuals who have been placed on a sexual offender registry may not participate as volunteers within our organization. However, we also developed an appeals process whereby the individual can make their case to the executive committee of the Board of Directors who may make an exception. This was done to allow for circumstances like an 18 year old who dates a 15 year old, the parent disapproves, gets the kid arrested and convicted. Appropriate restrictions could then be placed on the individuals involvement -- i.e. not working working anyone under 18, or not working one on one with a member of the opposite sex. Since implementing the policy we have not had anyone appeal their exclusion, however. BTW I didn't vote in the poll above because I didn't feel the options reflected our policy.
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