Bystander Intervention

BY: U.S. FIGURE SKATING’S SAFESPORT TEAM

A powerful tool for preventing the risk of abuse and misconduct is bystander intervention. Bystander intervention is recognizing an interaction that involves potential abuse or misconduct and choosing to respond in a way that has the potential to positively influence the outcome. The techniques outlined in this article can be used by people of all ages in all roles to assist with creating a safe, protective, and supportive skating environment. Coaches and other leaders in the sport are encouraged to talk to young athletes about how they support their peers.

Bystander intervention is never one-size-fits-all. Before deciding to intervene in a situation of bullying, harassment, or any other type of abuse or misconduct, be sure to think about your own safety and wellbeing first.

Ask yourself: What options do I have to intervene? Who else may be able to assist me? How can I ensure I’ll be safe when I do intervene?

The following are the main steps to helping when you witness a situation that involves or has the potential to involve abuse or misconduct.

1. First, take the time to notice the event. Often, we can be distracted by our phones, other people, or other tasks we’re working on. Pay attention to your surroundings and the interactions that are happening around you — you may have the opportunity to protect a person from abuse or misconduct by doing so.

2. Next, take your knowledge of SafeSport policies and determine if a situation you’re witnessing crosses the line of becoming abuse or misconduct. When doing so, always error on the side of caution and don’t allow peer pressure to impact your own interpretation of a scenario.

3. After you’ve determined that a situation of abuse or misconduct has or is occurring, have the courage and the confidence to assist. If not you, then who?

4. Lastly, know how to help. As mentioned earlier, make sure you think of your own safety and wellbeing when determining how to help. Help can be both direct and indirect, but make sure that you do something. Again, if not you, then who?

Additionally, here are some tools that demonstrate a variety of strategies that can be used when making the choice to intervene. Standing up to abuse and misconduct is always the right decision and these tools will help find a strategy that works best for you.

DIRECT. There may be times you feel comfortable and safe directly intervening in the situation. You can start by pointing out the inappropriate behavior in a safe, respectful manner or you can step in and say, “Is everything OK here?”

DELEGATE. It’s OK to feel wary or shy about intervening directly. You can also diffuse a situation by getting help. Help can come from another bystander, a trusted adult, a police officer, a friend, a parent, and so on. If you’re at the rink and witness abuse or misconduct, who would you trust to help you diffuse the situation? Club leadership can often times be a great place to start when you’re not sure who to turn to.

DISTRACT. Creating a diversion to deescalate an abusive or bullying situation is another tactic that can be used. If you’re in a locker room where abuse or misconduct is occurring, tell one of the people involved that you heard somebody in the hall was looking for them. If you witness bullying, you can engage in the conversation to change the topic. These examples will give the person affected by the abuse or misconduct a chance to get away.

The examples above are not intended to be an exhaustive list of ways to intervene, but rather they’re intended to let you think of the form of bystander intervention that may work best for you. To learn more about bystander intervention, visit www.greendot208.org. Green Dot believes that for every act of violence — bullying, sexual harassment, stalking, teen dating abuse, domestic violence — there is a moment when someone can step in to stop it.

When you’re using these tactics or others to intervene in situations of abuse or misconduct, always remember the importance of keeping yourself safe and the importance of reporting. Situations of abuse and misconduct can be reported directly to club or rink leadership, or to U.S. Figure Skating’s SafeSport team. All allegations of abuse or misconduct that are sexual in nature should be reported to the U.S. Center for SafeSport and local law enforcement.

Questions about SafeSport policies, bystander intervention, and reporting can be directed to safesport@usfigureskating.org.