Netflix’s ‘Cheer’ is rated TV-MA, and that’s a problem
I’m sure I’m not the only one who stayed up late last night to watch the second season of Cheer. I also imagine I’m not the only one who struggled to sleep after being faced with the reality of our sport. Guys, a documentary about cheerleading is TV-MA. My 11-year old can’t watch her favorite sport on TV because it’s too mature for her with sexual abuse and child pornography. Not only did it make it hard to sleep, but it had me up at 5 a.m. ready to start a movement.
I’m not blind to the fact that there are gym owners who may be reading this who are the problem. If you are the problem, confess it and turn yourself in. The embarrassment and shame you feel is just a fraction of what your victims felt. While your actions may never be understood, your confession will be respected, and your victims will finally be able to start processing what happened to them.
If you know about abuse, and you’ve been keeping it quiet, you are also part of the problem. It is not your job as an adult to keep secrets – not a child’s secret nor another adult’s secret about a child. It is your job to advocate for children who don’t have the means and maturity to advocate for themselves. Stand up and do what’s right.
If you’re like me, and you’re angry about what you’re watching, then you’re right. The part I best connected with was the part where the sweet college cheerleader coached her minis and then sat in a circle laughing at the end of practice. That’s the cheerleading I know and love. That’s what our sport needs to be known for, but that can only happen when we’re doing our job 100 percent of the time. Our #1 job: Protecting children.
Every day you get an email from me designed to help you get one step closer toward earning your freedom and building profit, but none of that matters if you’re growing a program coached by the wrong people.
I’m here to tell you that YOU are the only one who can change it. YOU are the only one who can make a difference. YOU are the only one in your gym who can protect children.
When you don’t know how to properly hire staff, child predators become coaches.
When you don’t have systems, child predators get alone time in the gym with children.
When your finances aren’t in order, you’re too worried about the electric bill to recognize what’s happening in your own gym.
When you’re marketing wrong, you’re endorsing child sexualization and inviting the wrong people to work for you.
When you manage your time poorly as an owner, you’re too busy with insignificant tasks to see what’s happening right under your nose.
You are the only one who can fix our sport. One gym at a time. One college and high school at a time. One coach at a time. It starts at the top.
I don’t know about you, but that show woke me up, and I’m ready to make a change. I believe that change starts with gym owners who have their ducks in a row – who understand that our first job is to protect children, and our second job is to coach them.
The instances that happened in that show (and so many other instances we don’t even know about) are happening under our noses at competitions, in gyms and on social media between coaches and children.
Citing the USASF’s social media policy in your staff handbook isn’t enough.
Telling coaches they can’t do private lessons alone in the gym isn’t enough.
Increasing the bottom age on your teams isn’t enough.
It’s a start, but it’s not enough.
You have to get your gym in order now so you can make this your mission. If your #1 goal as a gym owner isn’t to provide a safe environment for children, then you need to pack up and sell your gym today. You need to get out of cheerleading and stop working with children. But if you’re like me and you watched a story about a couple kids who loved cheerleading until they became victims and then “lost their community” when they finally had the courage to speak up – your heart is shattered. You have probably been in cheerleading long enough to know the whispers and pointing in the gym and at competitions – that’s real.
Don’t rely on USASF policies and reporting procedures to keep kids safe. The USASF is not in your gym alongside your coaches and athletes. The USASF is not enforcing the 3-person concept in your gym by cancelling private lessons that don’t meet the requirement of having a parent stay. That’s your job, and no one can step in and do it for you.
So, gym owners – who is going to take a stand? Who is going to put children first and get these people out of our sport? It starts with you.
