Complaints and Walkouts

I have mentioned before how much I appreciate that Sahia is volunteering in the boxing gym.  She has more patience with most of the youths than I do.  She is very encouraging towards them, and Sahia is firm but fair.  Her teenage children, Noel and Mikaela, are well-raised, thoughtful, and considerate.  Although they were not official park district volunteers, they helped out with the younger kids as well as the teens.  Unfortunately, once the spring session ends next month, they will no longer go to LaFollette Park.

It started during a sparring day several weeks ago.  Not every youth is able to be evenly matched during sparring sessions.  Several of the youths told Sahia and I they wanted to spar, but they were nervous about who they might face in the ring.  Noel and Mikaela agreed to do light sparring with those kids to ease their fears.  Neither of the teens was going to go full force with any of the younger kids.  Noel and Mikaela kept their word under the watchful eye of their mother and myself.

One of the kids who sparred with Noel was told by Sahia to keep their mouth closed in order to keep their mouthpiece in place.  I told the kid the same thing after Sahia pointed it out.  The sparring session went well.  However, the kid left the gym early without a word to Sahia or me.  Woman's intuition kicked in; I knew something was wrong, but I couldn't figure out what it was.

I found out soon enough.  The parent of that kid showed up the next time the gym was open to complain.  They felt Sahia -- who was not in the gym when the parent came in -- was being hard on their kid.  I explained about the rule involving the use of mouthpieces.  The parent then complained about Noel and Mikaela being allowed to spar with the younger kids.  Technically, the parent was not out of line with being concerned.  The boxing classes are divided into age groups for good reason.  But I explained why I made the decision to allow that and how everything was carefully monitored.  I thought the conversation went well and everything was fine.

The next time I arrived at work, the field house supervisor informed me that the parent had called him that morning to complain.  Once again, I had to explain what happened. I've had jobs where I've had to deal with parents before, so I don't necessarily get flustered when parents raise sand.  However, my supervisor doesn't want to deal with incidents that arise out of parents complaining about anything.  Noel and Mikaela would have to fill out volunteer applications.  Fine, that could be done.  Until the applications were approved, the teen siblings could not be allowed to volunteer.

It finally appeared the matter was solved.  But people don't often account for others' feelings in matters.  Noel and Mikaela had reached out to the kid in question long before that sparring day and had been very supportive and nice to them.  I didn't know they had done that on their own.  That is why it hurt me when they said they were not going to return to LaFollette's boxing program after this session is over.  Two of my best fighters are walking because they didn't appreciate how things were handled by the parent in question.  They felt like they had been stabbed in the back as well as been subject to slander.  Things might have been better if the parent had included Sahia, Noel, and Mikaela in the conversation, not just me.  Why that didn't happen, I don't know.   In a gym where the program, frankly, keeps floundering due to various issues, losing supportive people is a knockout blow.