[SCA-BMDL] Fw: Disastrous New Youth A&S Policy for Pennsic

[Kate Patterson Neely]

This was posted on the SCA card weaving list. Can anyone verify it's accuracy? 
If so, should we have a coordinated Barony response?

Ceindrech merch Elidir
 Make Your Voice Heard. Enroll in http://www.ProgressiveSecretary.Org. 



----- Forwarded Message ----
From: owyn_sca <kevins.studio at gmail.com>
To: SCA-Card-Weaving at yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tue, July 6, 2010 12:23:04 AM
Subject: [SCA-Card-Weaving] Disastrous New Youth A&S Policy for Pennsic

Just saw this on LJ.  I think that this is an issue of critical importance, and 
needs to be addressed - en masse - by the SCA as a whole quickly.  Before it is 
too late, ideally.  Please forward this to as many lists and locations as 
possible.

(start quote)
New Pennsic University policy this year:

No youths under the age of 18 may attend activities in an A&S venue without
a parent or legal guardian.
Among other things, that means classes in public A&S tents.

Someone wrote to the Pennsic Mayor, and his response was:
"As an official staffer, please refer them to Mistress Chai, Deputy Mayor of 
Cultural Affairs. She and Ardenia, Deputy Mayor of Event Resources and
Society Youth Officer, worked this policy out after much deliberation."

Chai is at culturalaffairs at pennsicwar.org
Ardenia's is eventresources at pennsicwar.org

In another e-mail, someone suggested the following addresses as well.
SCA Board of Directors:
Ombudsman for Legal Committee:
Baron Aaron Palomides of Buckminster
Aaron L. (Rusty) Lloyd
alloyd at director.sca.org

Ombudsman for A&S:
Dux Lucius Aurelius Valharic
Tom Noble
tnoble at director.sca.org
(end quote)

Folks, this is a disaster in the making.  I'm relatively sure that this idea was 
originated with the very best of intentions.  We all know where that paved path 
leads, however...  The effects of this decision will be far reaching and could 
endanger the future of Pennsic and even the SCA as a whole.

My understanding is that the reason this decision was reached was not because of 
teens acting out in classes (teachers can always opt to have their classes adult 
only, and can have problem people removed - adult or child - if need be).  
Rather, it sounds likely that it was related to ongoing concerns about child 
safety and the whole mandatory background checks to run childrens' activities 
thing.  Folks, the A&S tents are about as public as public gets.  Kids are 
probably safer there than they could be just about anywhere else.  They are 
*certainly* safer there than wandering around Pennsic aimlessly, bored, with 
nothing to do because they've been barred from most of the SCA-oriented 
activities.

I see a host of negative effects springing from this.  Parents of children will 
now be forced to choose: go to a Pennsic where their children are not allowed to 
do one of the most important activities - or skip Pennsic and go somewhere else 
for their family vacation.  Bundled into that decision will be the question of 
"what will my teen be *doing* instead during all those hours when s/he would 
have been taking classes?"  This decision changes Pennsic from a family-friendly 
event, critical to the growth and future of the SCA given our current 
membership, to an event almost actively hostile to families.

It also screams to teens that we don't trust them.  And that they don't matter.  
Right now, those teens and pre-teens are our *future*.  They represent the SCA 
that will be, in ten or twenty years.  But only if we nurture them.  Only if we 
show them how much fun it can be.  Only if we treat them like they matter.  
Decisions like this actively push these kids away from us.  This will breed 
nothing but frustration, anger, and resentment.  We will lose them.  And in 
doing so, we will lose the future of our Society.

Lastly, despite this policy there will still be hundreds and hundreds of kids at 
Pennsic.  Many of those would have been taking A&S classes for much of each 
day.  With this decision, they cannot.  Frustrated, bored, what are they going 
to do with their time instead?  I'd suggest that having packs of bored teens 
wandering around (more packs?) aimlessly can't be good for everyone's stay at 
Pennsic.  And even more importantly - it puts them at *substantially* more risk 
for a host of problems than they would be at if they were in the structured, 
supervised continuum of A&S classes.  This decision, rather than reducing risk, 
exposes kids to dramatically more danger.

I'd like to ask everyone who cares about the future of the SCA, who cares about 
our children's ability to participate in the SCA, and who cares about the safety 
of our children, write to the above emails and ask (nicely, please, but FIRMLY) 
that they remove this rule.  Now.  This year.  Not next year - and certainly not 
after they've moved this from a "trial test" to a mandatory rule at all SCA 
events (which I hope is not planned, but you never know).

We need to nip this in the bud.  Please help.

Owyn Claerwyn
Seneschal, Mountain Freehold
Concerned SCA Parent



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