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Youth players are particularly vulnerable in locker rooms, changing areas and restrooms due to various stages of dress/undress and because they are often less supervised than at other times. Athlete-to-athlete problems, such as sexual abuse, bullying, harassment or hazing, often occur when a coach or other responsible adult is not in a position to observe – this is especially true in locker rooms. Adherence to a locker room policy enhances privacy and significantly reduces the likelihood of misconduct. Proper supervision of the locker room areas also helps ensure that players that may have suffered an injury during a game or practice have an adult present to confer with regarding such injury.

Locker Room Supervision

USA Hockey is concerned with locker room activities between minor participants; minor participants and adult participants; adults being alone with individual minor participants in locker rooms; and with non official or non-related adults having unsupervised access to minor participants at team events.

It is the policy of USA Hockey that all USA Hockey Member Programs must have at least one responsible screened adult (which may include coaches, managers or other volunteers) present monitoring the locker room during all team events to assure that only participants (coaches and players), approved team personnel and family members are permitted in the locker room and to supervise the conduct in the locker room. Acceptable locker room monitoring could include having locker room monitors inside the locker room while participants are in the locker room, or could include having a locker room monitor in the immediate vicinity (near the door within arm’s length and so that the monitor can sufficiently hear inside the locker room) outside the locker room that also regularly and frequently enters the locker room to monitor activity inside. If the monitor(s) are inside, then it is strongly recommended that there be two monitors, both of which have been screened. A local program or team may impose or follow stricter monitoring requirements. Any individual meetings between a minor participant and a coach or other adult in a locker room shall require that a second responsible adult is present. The responsible adult that monitors and supervises the locker room shall have been screened in compliance with Section III of this Handbook. All programs are responsible to work with their teams and coaches to adequately ensure that locker room monitors are in place at all appropriate times.

Further, responsible adults must also secure the locker room appropriately during times when minor participants are on the ice.

It shall be permissible for a local program or team to prohibit parents from a locker room. However, in doing so the team shall be required to have properly screened adults monitoring and supervising the locker room as required above. With younger players, it is generally appropriate to allow parents to assist the player with getting equipment on and off before and after games or practices and they should be allowed in the locker room to do so.

Cell phones and other mobile devices with recording capabilities, which includes voice recording, still cameras, and video cameras, increase the risk for some forms of abuse or misconduct. As a result, the use of a mobile device’s recording capabilities in the locker rooms is not permitted at any USA Hockey sanctioned event, provided that it may be acceptable to take photographs or recordings in a locker room in such unique circumstances as a victory celebration, team party, etc., where all persons in the locker room are appropriately dressed and have been advised that photographs or recordings are being taken.

All local programs shall publish locker room policies to the parents of all minor participants that are specific to the facilities they regularly use. The local program’s policies shall include the program’s (a) practices for supervising and monitoring locker rooms and changing areas; (b) permission or lack of permission for parents to be in the locker rooms; (c) prohibited conduct, including at least all forms of abuse and misconduct prohibited by USA Hockey; and (d) specific policies regarding the use of mobile electronic devices and phones and prohibiting the use of a device’s recording capabilities. A sample locker room policy form may be found at www.usahockey.com/safesport.

For each team, the coach and/or team administrators shall be responsible for compliance with the locker room supervision requirements of this Policy. A coach and/or team administrator that fails to take appropriate steps to ensure the Locker Room Policy is adhered to, and any USA Hockey participant or parent of a participant who otherwise violates this Policy is subject to appropriate disciplinary action.

Co-Ed Locker Rooms

As a team sport in which youth teams can often include both male and female players, special circumstances may exist that can increase the chance of abuse or misconduct. If the team consists of both male and female players, both female and male privacy rights must be given consideration and appropriate arrangements made. It is not acceptable under USA Hockey’s Sexual Abuse Policy for persons to be observing the opposite gender while they dress or undress. There are a variety of ways to comply with the above tenets, and what works may depend on the locker rooms that are available at a particular facility. Where possible, the male and female players should undress/dress in separate locker rooms and then convene in a single dressing room prior to the game or team meeting. Once the game is finished, the players may come to one locker room and then the male and female players proceed to their separate dressing rooms to undress and shower (separately), if available. If separate locker rooms are not available, then the genders may take turns using the locker room to change and then leave while the other gender changes. When separate locker rooms are used, both locker rooms must be properly monitored. Where possible, when both male and female players are together in the locker room, there should be at least two adults in the locker room that have been properly screened in compliance with USA Hockey Screening Policy.

The USA Hockey SafeSport website (www.usahockey.com/safesport) contains sample approaches that may be used by a local program depending on the facilities available at a particular arena.

Additionally, USA Hockey’s Co-Ed Locker Room Policy set forth in the USA Hockey Annual Guide, also addresses gender equity and the need to provide equal exposure to coaching and instruction as it may be impacted by a program’s Co-Ed Locker Room Policy.

A significant portion of USA Hockey participation involves overnight travel for youth teams to games and tournaments. Minor players are most vulnerable to abuse or misconduct during travel, particularly overnight stays. This includes a greater risk of player to player misconduct. During travel, players may be away from their families and support networks, and the setting – unfamiliar locker rooms, automobiles, and hotel rooms – is less structured and less familiar. A travel policy provides guidelines so that care is taken to minimize one-onone interactions between minors and adults while traveling. Further, the policy directs how minor players will be supervised between and during travel to and from practice and competitions. Adherence to travel policies helps to reduce the opportunities for misconduct.

Each USA Hockey local program shall have a team travel policy applicable to youth teams that is published and provided to all players, parents, coaches and other adults that are travelling with the team. It is strongly recommended that a signature by each adult acknowledging receipt of and agreeing to the travel policy be obtained by the local program/team. Some travel involves only local travel to and from local practices, games and events, while other travel involves overnight stays. Different policies should apply to these two types of travel. A sample local and overnight travel policy form for a local program may be found at www.usahockey/safesport.

Elements of all travel policies must include:

Local Travel

The local program, team and their administrators should avoid sponsoring, coordinating, or arranging for local travel, and the parents of a minor player should be responsible for making all local travel arrangements.

The employees, coaches, and/or volunteers of a local program or team, who are not also acting as a parent, should not drive alone with an unrelated minor and should only drive with at least two other players or another adult at all times, unless otherwise agreed to in writing by the minor’s parent.

Where an employee, coach and/or volunteer is involved in an unrelated minor player’s local travel, efforts should be made to ensure that the adult personnel are not alone with the unrelated player, by, for example, picking up or dropping off the players in groups.

Employees, coaches and volunteers who are also a player’s parent or guardian may provide shared transportation for any player(s) if they pick up their player first and drop off their player last.

It is recognized that in some limited instances it will be unavoidable for an employee, coach or volunteer to drive alone with an unrelated minor player. However, efforts should be made to minimize these occurrences and to mitigate any circumstances that could lead to allegations of abuse or misconduct.

Organization/Team Travel

Regardless of gender, a coach shall not share a hotel room or other sleeping arrangement with a minor player (unless the coach is the parent, guardian or sibling of the player).

It is strongly recommended that organizations and teams incorporate a parent consent for any minor player that will travel without his or her parents.

Because of the greater distances, coaches, staff, volunteers, and chaperones will often travel with the players. No employee, coach, or volunteer will engage in team travel without the proper safety requirements in place and on record, including valid drivers’ licenses, automobile liability insurance as required by applicable state law, vehicle in safe working order and compliance with all state laws. All chaperones shall have been screened in compliance with the USA Hockey Screening Policy and all team drivers shall have been screened and the screen shall include a check of appropriate Department of Motor Vehicle records.

The local program or team shall provide adequate supervision through coaches and other adult chaperones (for example, a recommended number would include at least one coach or adult chaperone for every five to eight players). If a team is composed of both male and female players, then it is recommended that chaperones are arranged of the same gender.

Players should share rooms with other players of the same gender, with the appropriate number of players assigned per room depending on accommodations.

Regular monitoring and curfew checks should be made of each room by at least two properly screened adults. All coaches, staff, volunteers and chaperones travelling with a team shall be familiar with the SafeSport Program Handbook to monitor compliance with all SafeSport Policies.

The team personnel shall ask hotels to block adult pay per view channels.

Individual meetings between a player and coach may not occur in hotel sleeping rooms.

All players shall be permitted to make regular check in phone calls to parents. Team personnel shall allow for any unscheduled check in phone calls initiated by either the player or parents.

Family members who wish to stay in the team hotel shall be permitted and encouraged to do so.

The team shall make every effort to accommodate reasonable parental requests when a child is away from home without a parent.

Specific travel itineraries will be distributed to parents when they are available and will include a detailed itinerary as well as contact information for all team personnel and chaperones.

If disciplinary action against a player is required while the player is traveling without his/her parents, reasonable attempts to notify the player’s parents will be made before any action is taken.

No coach or chaperone shall at any time be under the influence of alcohol or drugs while performing their coaching and/or chaperoning duties.

In all cases involving travel, parents have the right to transport their minor player and have the minor player stay in their hotel room.

Upon proof of a violation of USA Hockey’s policies regarding travel, the offender will be subject to appropriate disciplinary action.

As part of USA Hockey’s emphasis on safety, communications involving any participant, and especially our minor participants, should be appropriate, productive, and transparent. Effective communication concerning travel, practice or game schedules, and administrative issues among coaches, administrators, players and their families is critical. However, the use of mobile devices, web-based applications, social media, and other forms of electronic communications increases the possibility for improprieties and misunderstandings and also provides potential offenders with unsupervised and potentially inappropriate access to participants. The improper use of social media, mobile and electronic communications can result in misconduct. Adherence to the Electronic Communications Policy helps reduce these risks.

All electronic communication between coach and player must be for the purpose of communicating information about team activities. Coaches, players and all team personnel must follow common sense guidelines regarding the volume and time of day of any allowed electronic communication. All content between coaches and players should be readily available to share with the public or families of the player or coach. If the player is under the age of 18, any email, text, social media, or similar communication must also copy or include the player’s parents.

Social Media

Social media makes it easy to share ideas and experiences. USA Hockey recognizes, however, that social media, mobile and other electronic communications can be especially concerning where minor participants are involved. Coaches are prohibited from having players joined to or connected through their personal Facebook page or any other similar social media application. To facilitate communication, an official organization or team page may be set up and players and parents may join (i.e., “friend”) the official organization or team page and coaches can communicate to players through that site. All electronic communication of any kind between coach and player, including use of social media, must be non-personal in nature and be for the purpose of communicating information about team activities or for team oriented motivational purposes.

Email, Text Messaging and Similar Electronic Communications

Coaches, team managers and players may use email and text messaging to communicate. All email and text message content between coaches/team managers and players must be non-personal in nature and be for the purpose of communicating information about team activities. Emails and text messages from a coach to any minor participant must include a copy to the player’s parents. Where possible, a coach should be provided and use the organization web site email center (the coach’s return email address will contain “@organization. com”) for all communications with the team, players, and player’s parents, where applicable.

Request To Discontinue All Electronic Communications or Imagery with Athlete

Following receipt of a written request by the parents of a minor player that their child not be contacted through any form of electronic communication by coaches or other adults in the program, the local program, team, coaches and administrators shall immediately comply with such request without any repercussions for such request.

Abuse and Misconduct

Social media and other means of electronic communication can be used to commit abuse and misconduct (e.g., emotional, sexual, bullying, harassment, and hazing). Such communications by any employee, volunteer, independent contractor or other participant of a USA Hockey Member Program will not be tolerated and are considered violations of USA Hockey’s SafeSport Program.

Reporting

Infractions of USA Hockey’s Electronic Communications Policy should be reported to the appropriate person as described in Section IV of this Handbook. A USA Hockey participant or parent of a participant who violates this Electronic Communications Policy is subject to appropriate disciplinary action including but not limited to suspension, permanent suspension and/ or referral to law enforcement authorities.