Swim Team Co-ed "shave downs" banned!

[Queasy]

Link The last two paragraphs are hilarious.

Swim-team ritual ended after outcry
By Connie Skipitares
Mercury News

Campbell officials this week quickly put an end to a longtime ritual among city-sponsored swim teams. Teenage boys and girls will no longer hold coed ``shave-downs'' at the Campbell Community Center.

The action followed complaints from parents of girls on a 6- through-8-year-old swim team who walked in on teenagers shaving themselves and their teammates in the girls locker room. The teen boys and girls, 14 through 17 years old, are members of the Campbell Wavemakers Senior Division Swim Team.

``Every one of those girls was traumatized,'' said the mother of one 8-year-old who did not want to be identified. ``My daughter doesn't want to go back to swimming now. She says to me, `Mom, when I go in there, there's only supposed to be girls, not boys.' ''

Some parents and at least one Campbell City Council member are calling for the ouster of the swim coaches, saying they should not have allowed the shaving. A handful of parents have withdrawn their children from the city swim program.

``What happened was totally inappropriate,'' said council member Matthew Dean. ``I don't want to see people shaving down like that in a public facility. No boys should ever go into the girls locker room, ever.''

Most swim coaches tell teen swimmers to shave down -- that is shave their legs, arms, backs and sometimes their heads -- the night before a big swim meet, to enhance performance. But swimmers are urged to do it at home, not in the team's locker room, Dean said.

Dean said one parent told him that his daughter, who is 8, glimpsed one male teen ``who found the event stimulating. I can't imagine the effect that has on an 8-year-old girl.''

Claudia Cauthorn, Campbell's director of recreation and community services, said parents and coaches of the teen swim team had been told about the shaving and approved of it. She said there was adult supervision while it was taking place and an initial investigation by the city showed there was no inappropriate behavior.

But two parents of 8-year-old swimmers who walked in on the shaving after their daughters ran out and begged them to come in said they saw no adults in the locker room. The coaches were outside by the pool, they said.

The incident took place Jan. 17. In a letter sent to parents on Wednesday, city recreation officials described the incident as ``swimmers shaved themselves, with some young swimmers receiving assistance from the older ones.'' Recreation officials apologized in the letter ``to any participant and parents who may have been uncomfortable with the shave-down.''

``All the swimmers had swimsuits or shorts and T-shirts on,'' Cauthorn said. ``It was unfortunate that the team was supposed to be in the locker room for 30 minutes, but it went into 35 minutes. That's when the younger children came in. It wouldn't have been an issue except that the younger ones walked in.''

Cauthorn said the city plans to investigate the incident further in light of e-mails and calls being sent to city council members and the city's staff members.

Council member Jeanette Watson said she thinks the incident has been blown out of proportion. ``While I can see that an 8-year-old can feel like she's going through an eye-popping experience with something like that, I still think it's overreacting.

``And I think it's unfortunate that it's going to end,'' she said of the shaving, ``because it's a wonderful team-building event. That's a shame.''

 

[Czar]

:Q

 

[blakeatwork]

damn... i don't let my fiance near me with a razor.... i'd be damned before I let some hyped up swimmer start dragging a sharp piece o tin across my rump...

 

[BooneRebel]

``All the swimmers had swimsuits or shorts and T-shirts on,''

It's not like it was coed naked shaving. (which I took it to be from the tone of the article until I got down to the bottom). I don't see anything wrong with it. At the very most they oops by having the guys in the girls locker room, but to say that the coaches need to be fired is just grandstanding by the City Council

 

[brxndxn]

Stupid stupid parents...

They're not even part of the damn team.. Why the fvck does everyone want a say in something they have no place in?!

 

[Fausto]

Originally posted by: axiom
boys in the girls lockeroom. They don't call it the 'girls' lockeroom for nothing. Let the consequences roll. The parents have every bit of a valid, logical argument. If the school wants to offer coed lockerooms then create a coed lockeroom. If it's happening and they know about it then the school is sanctioning coed lockerooms. Don't be stupid.

You first.

 

[BDawg]

This is blown way out of proportion.

 

[KC5AV]

Yeah... they should have been in the boys locker room. That would have solved everything.

 

[imported_Pablo]

Originally posted by: KC5AV
Yeah... they should have been in the boys locker room. That would have solved everything.

LOL

Even when i was 8 years old i don't think i would have complained about girls being in the guys locker room

 

[BD2003]

Traumatized? Geez, overreacting much?

 

[Bignate603]

If they did it in the boy's locker room there would be no 8 year old boys complaining...

I think it's out of proportion. I've been on swim teams before. We all worked as swim instructors over the summer and during breaks would often sit in guy's locker room under the showers with guys and girls, wearing suits of course. Nothing happened. It was just a nice place to sit and talk.

The coach probably did not officially agree but looked the other way and let it happen. Tradition on teams is tradition. You let it happen if it doesn't hurt anybody because the team ends up stronger.

 

[Double Trouble]

What the hell is the problem with these people? Don't they have real problems? Am I the only one who has more important issues to deal with than whether there were some boys in the girls locker room getting ready for a swim meet?

Traumatized??? Are you kidding me?

 

[Kenazo]

man, sounds like I should have been on the swim team.... then i got to the end of the article and found out they were all wearing swimsuits. oh well.

 

[Deeko]

Yea...traumitized for life

 

[Bitek]

Ha Ha Ha! Makes me think of that scene in Fight Club where Tyler splices in a frame of a big hiary cyock into a Disney film, and the little blond girl starts to cry when it flashes on-screen. Bwuwahhhahaha!:Q

 

[WinkOsmosis]

That article makes it sound like they were shaving their no no areas! :Q

Why are these people so insane? Those little girls sound like nuts. "There were only supposed to be girls there".... they are going to have issues when they get older and it's not because of seeing boys in the locker room.

 

[FuZoR]

awww... should have joined the swimteam hahahaah ;-)

so the kids walked in a bunch of teens shaving in there bathing suits... big whoop it was a mistake that they took longer then it should
oh well.

 

[Skyclad1uhm1]

The parents are probably smelling cash. Hell, the parents would probably shave eachother without clothes on for cash.

 

[ShotgunSteven]

Holy sh!t, I hope the President lays down the law on this during his State of the Union Address!

 

[LethalWolfe]

If this is what traumatizes the youth of today I don't think the US has much more time left as a superpower.


Lethal

 

[Anubis]

they had clother on!!!!! whats teh big fukin deal

 

[Tab]

My god, I wish I was on that Swim Team. I mean, naked shavings.... oh yea!

 

[Nemesis77]

this seems appropriate

 

[DaiShan]

Where to begin where to begin... Ok lets start with the little girls being upset about seing boys shaving. I don't know if they know this buy guys swim in speedo's, for really big meets I would use a paper suit, which just barely covers all the essentials. They saw nothing in the shave down that they would not have seen else-where. Now, the swimmers should NOT have been shaving down at the pool, it is a sanitation issue and is banned at most sanctioned events. You shave at home or in your hotel room. That is the real issue here, not the fact that little girls saw boys shaving down, whats next, are they going to ban Speedo's? Now this quote bothers me, I would expect my city councilmen to be more insightful that this

``What happened was totally inappropriate,'' said council member Matthew Dean. ``I don't want to see people shaving down like that in a public facility. No boys should ever go into the girls locker room, ever.''

What about life-guards? Janitors? They have totally missed the real issue of sanitation.

 

[DaiShan]

Originally posted by: KC5AV
Yeah... they should have been in the boys locker room. That would have solved everything.

LOL good point, I can't imagine any guys complaining over this, and if they did, I'm sure they would be dealt with lol