Back in the old days terrible things happened to our youth but we didn’t know it, people weren’t watching or looking the other way ( eg Catholic church) that is not the world we live in and I am okay with that. The days of blind faith that everyone has the best of intentions toward our youth have gone – because it isn’t true and it takes just one child that we know to go missing or be harmed to change that. We know so much more about the effects of abuse these days. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advers...eriences_Study
I , like many of you, was left to roam the neighborhood all day, with one house or another hosting lunch and only at dinner would we be missed. People hitchhiked around the country, people left keys in the car and houses open in many communities. That is not the world today. FBI National Crime Information Center’s Missing Person File. In 2014 there were 466,949 entries made by law enforcement for those younger than 18.
I spent 2 ½ years working with youth in middle and high school as an AmeriCorps mentor. The training we received ( plus full DoJ checks) and enforced were put in place to protect first the students, then us and finally the organizations under whose banner we operated. We received training as mandated reporters and I had several occasions to make those reports to CPS/law enforcement. We had a dozen systems in place so that when we were meeting one-on–one or as a group there was little chance of misinterpretation of the activities we were doing. This was to assure a line of trust from students through to parents, guardians and administrators that was of the highest order.
It is true that our contacts are shorter and commonly in groups. Pilots are pretty busy in our small planes so that the possibility is low but the general public doesn’t know that. Parents send their kids to fly in tiny planes with total strangers. Parents are much more anxious these days and building trust is the first step to make that easier. This enhancement to the YE program is part of the trust cycle.
I know that many of our pilots/volunteers will feel put out and leap to the conclusion that they are not trusted. This is a natural reaction ( see posts above) but it’s not about you, it’s about the kids and their parents. Many of us have difficulty with change and this is a bit of a grief cycle to deal with. I hope that those members and chapters will have a chance to work through the feelings and return. If not, you can be very proud of the work you have done, the fostering of love of aviation and supporting career paths in the field . Young Eagles- the world’s greatest outreach program.
We already know that there will be tweaks to this program and our constructive feedback will make it better and more functional.