Hello,
My name is Wade Parkin and I am SafeSport Coordinator for STMA Youth Hockey Association. SafeSport is an USAHinitiative aimed at creating the safest possible environment for all participants in USAH and Minnesota Hockeyprograms, particularly related to off-ice safety, by creating a mechanism that creates and centralizes policiesprohibiting abuse & managing hockey environments, mandates education and awareness training, enhancesscreening protocols, and establishes reporting, investigation and response to violations which may occur. Thepolicy applies not just to players, but all participants in any of our programs all the way down to spectators at ourevents. USAH has given this initiative the very highest priority and views it as one of the most important programsit has undertaken, and Minnesota Hockey agrees.
REPORTING:
People reporting SafeSport violations can contact USA Hockey SafeSport, the Minnesota Hockey SafeSportCoordinator, or the association SafeSport Coordinator. Violation reports received by anyone else should beimmediately forwarded to the SafeSport Coordinator. Once the report is received, Minnesota Hockey will workwith the local coordinator to investigate the allegations. It is important to note that one of the goals of SafeSport isto insure that participants can feel comfortable with reporting abuses without fear of retribution. The reportingprocess allows for transparency, investigation, and action intended to be objective and neutral with the conclusionbeing reasonable, proportional, and fair. No reporting party should ever experience negative ramifications forbringing a report of abuse to our attention.Some examples of abuses that were investigated last season:
1. Parent threatens parent.
2. Parent threatens coach.
3. Coach threatens parent.
4. Board member threatens board member.
5. Coach threatens opposing player after game.
6. Coach threatens own player.
7. Parent assaults their own child on bench.
8. Minor official assaults minor official.
9. Racial slurs.
10. End of season team hazing.
11. Assaults and bullying in unsupervised locker room.
12. Inappropriate photos/images taken in unsupervised locker room.
13. Coach threatens referee.
14. Referee threatens referee.
These incidents were real and in some cases quite serious and are provided to give a snapshot of what is not onlypotentially a SafeSport violation, but something that could cause great physical or emotional harm to ourparticipants.
Thank you all for your participation in this program and thank you for helping keep the greatest sport as safe as we can.
Sincerely,
Wade Parkin
612.386.7202