Radnor Girls Crew Club (RGCC) is a nonprofit sports organization run by parent volunteers within Radnor Township School District (RTSD).

RGCC offers competitive opportunities for Junior rowers and promotes education about the sport. RGCC is a member of USRowing.

Beginning in 2015, all USRowing member organizations must have athlete safety policies in place to safeguard children and adult club members. Organizations need to certify that they can provide USRowing with a copy of their policy and update their policy annually. The primary aim of the SafeSport policy is to protect children from sexual abuse and harassment. The RGCC Board appoints a safety officer annually who is charged with implementing this SafeSport program and ensuring all members are aware of its existence and provisions for dealing with abusive situations.

Program coaches must successfully complete the online SafeSport training and testing described in the Education and Awareness Training section below.

Misconduct in sport includes:
● Bullying
● Harassment (including sexual harassment)
● Hazing
● Emotional misconduct
● Physical misconduct
● Sexual misconduct (including child sexual abuse)

Coaches, club members and volunteers are required to report abuse or misconduct. To do so fairly, reporters should have a basic understanding of sexual abusers and the "grooming" strategies they use to seduce their victims. With a combination of attention, affection, gifts or preferential treatment, sexual offenders select a child, win their trust (and the trust of their parents or guardians), manipulate the child into sexual activity and keep the child from disclosing abuse.

Bullying, harassment and hazing can involve acts of emotional, physical or sexual misconduct. Emotional misconduct often involves noncontact behaviors that verbally abuse an athlete or deny attention or support. Physical misconduct may or may not involve actual contact and causes or threatens physical harm. Physical misconduct does not include professionally accepted coaching methods of skill enhancement, physical conditioning, team building, appropriate discipline or improving athlete performance.

Contact offenses include but are not limited to behaviors that involve any physical injury, provision of alcohol or illegal drugs or nonprescribed medications that may result in harm to the athlete, or permitting an athlete to return to play prematurely after an injury.

Noncontact offenses include but are not limited to behaviors that may isolate an athlete as an act of coercion or punishment, forcing a painful stance or position, or withholding or denying adequate hydration or medical attention.

Sexual misconduct can include assault, harassment, abuse or any other intimacies that exploit an athlete. In Pennsylvania persons under the age of 16 years old cannot consent to sexual activity with an adult, and all sexual interaction between an adult and a person under 16 is strictly prohibited.

Sexual misconduct can occur even without contact and represents an abuse of authority and trust implicit in the coach-athlete relationship. Especially in the case of Juniors, coaches must be aware of misinterpretation of overly personal interaction. Noncontact offenses include but are not limited to: a coach discussing their sex life with an athlete or asking an athlete about his or her sex life; requesting or sending inappropriate photos or sexually explicit or suggestive messages; deliberately exposing an athlete to nudity (except in shared changing areas); and initiating, inviting or responding to sexual solicitation or any other unwelcome or offensive behaviors that are sexual in nature.
Adults in positions of power, like coaches, must be aware that Juniors may misinterpret or misreport or even fantasize what might seem to the adult to be casual or harmless remarks that are sexual in nature.

Coaches are looked up to for guidance in improving rowing skills, for training and race preparation, and they control coveted boat and seat assignments. They must be cognizant of this power they wield and manage the trust relationship with their athletes with heightened sensitivity and maturity. Coaches cannot always be "best friends" with their athletes, just as parents, at times, cannot expect to be best friends with their children and parent effectively.

Coaches are required to complete the online awareness training offered by the USRowing SafeSport program every three years. The short course teaches about the nature of misconduct in sport and provides actionable information to better protect athletes. A current certificate must be on file with RGCC prior to contact with athletes.

● Visit the website https://safesport.org/
● Register for an account or log in
● Complete the three online units: Sexual Misconduct Awareness, Emotional and Physical Misconduct and Mandatory Reporting
● Save PDF copies of all three certificates of completion and email to [email protected]

Coach employment screening with RGCC includes an application, interviews, reference checks and criminal background checks. Each applicant has an affirmative duty to disclose his or her criminal history. Failing to disclose or intentionally misrepresenting an arrest plea or conviction history in an application or any other information provided by the applicant during the screening process is grounds for non-employment or revocation or restriction of employment, regardless of when the offense is discovered.

Information that could disqualify an applicant includes, but is not limited to, arrests, pleas of no contest and criminal convictions—especially if the underlying criminal behavior involved sex or violence. No decision will be made on an individual’s eligibility for work if they have a pending court case for any of the potentially disqualifying offenses until the pending case concludes.

Each applicant has the affirmative duty to fully disclose his or her criminal history. Failing to disclose or intentionally misrepresenting an arrest plea or conviction history in an application or any other information provided by an applicant during the screening process is grounds for revocation or restriction of employment, volunteer duties and/or RGCC membership, regardless of when the offense is discovered.

Any applicant who has been banned from another sports organization or educational institution, temporarily or permanently, must disclose this information. Failure to disclose is a basis for disqualification from employment with RGCC.

Coaches should view the RTSD Clearances/Pre-Employment website list of requirements.