Player Locker Room & Cell Phone Policy
MN Hockey has passed new requirements for Locker Room Monitoring in recent years that has required LFYH to revamp how we handle the use of locker rooms both at our home arena, as well as when traveling.
Each team, at the Squirt/10U, Peewee/12U and Bantam/15U levels, is responsible for covering locker room monitoring (LRM) for their own team through the use of volunteers from the team. These individuals must be the same gender as the team as they are required to monitor and must pass a background check and complete SafeSport training BEFORE they can be LRMs. LFYH will reimburse the parents selected for locker room monitoring for the expenses tied to the previously mentioned requirements. LRMs will earn DIBS hours for the time spent as a monitor - typically a team will establish 2-3 LRMs for their team, and those individuals will earn their full DIBS hour requirement for this job. If you are interested in fulfilling this role, please reach out to your Team Manager BEFORE moving forward with background check and/or SafeSport training.
Locker room monitors must:
Be responsible “qualified adults” that are present and engaged in monitoring the locker room.
- Present means physically inside the locker room during your scheduled time before and after practice and games.
- Engaged means actively listening to player conversations and interjecting or changing the topic of conversation when necessary. It also means ensuring that no cell phones or audio/video recording devices are out or within reach of players within the locker rooms.
Personally monitor the locker room environment at all times while participants are present and also make sure the locker room is appropriately secured (locked) during times when minor participants are on the ice.
Be of the same gender as the team they are monitoring. If a team is co-ed, a team monitor of both genders will be required.
Not be alone 1:1 with a player in the locker room unless it is a parent/child. There should be at least two players and the LRM, or one player, the LRM AND an additional qualified adult, such as a coach.
Ensure a player never enters a locker room without proper adult supervision.
- Any individual meetings with a minor participant and a coach in a locker room shall require a qualified adult be with the coach.
Players should NEVER enter a locker room without a coach or locker room monitor present. The Exchange Arena will be locking the doors to locker rooms and players should be respectful of the locked door and NOT enter until an assigned adult is present. When traveling to other arenas, player’s should also wait until the assigned adult is present to enter the locker room. Any player found in a locker room unsupervised will lose locker room privileges and potential further disciplinary action for future violations.
In the event a player is ejected/removed from a game, one of the team’s coaches will escort the player to the locker room. The player’s parent, or whomever drove the player to the game, must meet the player and coach at the locker room. Since the player is not allowed in the locker room alone, the player will need to remain in their equipment until two certified adults, or their parent, are available to allow the player to enter the locker room and get undressed. The player must leave the locker room immediately after getting dressed in street clothes.
Finally, due to new rules passed by the MN Arena Managers’ Association and supported by MN Hockey, NO player is allowed at the arena more than 30 minutes before practices and 45 minutes before games- UNLESS ACCOMPANIED BY AN ADULT OR COACH. This rule applies to ALL arenas in the state of MN. Any unaccompanied minor will be subject to disciplinary action up to loss of locker room use, practice time and/or game time.
CELL PHONE POLICY
LFYH prohibits the use of cell phones and other mobile devices with recording capabilities, including voice recording, still cameras, and video cameras from being used in locker rooms without specific approval from the team’s locker room monitor and/or coach. Approval will only be granted when all persons present in the locker room are appropriately dressed and have been advised that photographs or recordings are being taken and the coach or a LRM is present. In the event the team has music they would like to play during their time in the locker room, they can create / share a playlist with the LRM to be played from a single device controlled by the LRM.