LOCKER ROOM MONITORING POLICY PURPOSE

PURPOSE 

The following guidelines are designed to maintain personal privacy as well as to reduce the risk of misconduct in locker rooms and changing areas. 

FACILITIES 

The following is a description of our practice and competition facilities to allow athletes and their families to plan their use: 

CCA practices at Plymouth Whitemarsh High School.  This location has a changing area/locker room dedicated to our athletes. However, the area could be shared with other sports programs.  As such, there are likely to be people who are not associated with CCA in the changing area around the time of practice.  During most practices and meets, the locker room/changing facilities are closed to the athletes.  As such, athletes will be expected to come dressed for practice and to change/shower at home.  Deck changing is prohibited.

MONITORING 

General Policy Considerations 

Coaches and staff make every effort to recognize when an athlete goes to the locker room or changing area during practice and competition and, if they do not return in a timely fashion, we will check on the athlete’s whereabouts. 

CCA has staggered practices, with different groups arriving and departing at various times. It is therefore not practical to constantly monitor locker rooms and changing areas over this extended course of time. While we do not post coaches inside the locker rooms and changing areas, we do make occasional sweeps of these areas, and/or leave the doors open when adequate privacy is still possible. Coaches conduct these sweeps, with women checking on female locker rooms, and men checking on male locker rooms. 

Legal Guardians in Locker Rooms or Changing Areas

Parents are prohibited from entering locker rooms and changing areas unless it is an emergency or truly necessary (e.g., a child’s disability warrants assistance). In those instances, it should only be a same-sex parent. If this is necessary, parents must let the coach or administrator know about this in advance. 

Undress

An unrelated Applicable Adult must not expose his or her breasts, buttocks, groin, or genitals to a minor athlete under any circumstance. An unrelated Applicable Adult must not request an unrelated minor athlete to expose the minor athlete’s breasts, buttocks, groin, or genitals to the unrelated Applicable Adult under any circumstance.

One-on-One Interactions

Except for athletes on the same team or athletes attending the same competition, at no time are unrelated Applicable Adults permitted to be alone with a minor athlete in a locker room or changing area, except under emergency circumstances. If the organization is using a facility that only has a single locker room or changing area, separate times for use by Applicable Adults must be designated.

USE OF CELL PHONES AND OTHER MOBILE RECORDING DEVICES 

Cell phones and other mobile devices with recording capabilities, including voice recording, still cameras and video cameras in locker rooms, changing areas, or similar spaces by a minor athlete or an Applicable Adult is prohibited.  The USA Swimming Athlete Protection Policies prohibit the use of such devices in the locker room or other changing area: 

305.3 Use of audio or visual recording devices, including a cell phone camera, is not allowed in changing areas, rest rooms or locker rooms. 

www.usaswimming.org/protect