Is this a child protection issue

[Elisheva]

My dd is 7. During her swimming lesson today there was a man in swimming trunks sat on the side of the pool watching the swimming lessons. During swimming lesson times the pool is closed to other swimmers. I asked at reception and they said that the man was cooling off after using the sauna, which is in a room off the pool.
The children sit on a ledge during their lessons while waiting for their turn and the man was sat next to them.
Parents are not allowed poolside during lessons, and currently (because of covid) parents of children over 8 are not allowed to watch from the gallery.
The staff member said that there was nowhere else for the man to sit, that him being in trunks was irrelevant, and that it was no different to the parents watching from the gallery.
I am very uneasy about this situation. I know that the man was doing nothing wrong but it seems to be a situation that could be taken advantage of. I’m not sure whether to take it further and email the centre manager.
What do you think?

I wouldn’t be happy with some random being able to sit near my kid but not me.

I've not read all the thread, sorry.

OP I work in a role requiring safeguarding training. You were right to notice this individual's behaviour and also the loophole that allows him to do what he did. Safeguarding training teaches you that nobody is above suspicion. The flip side of that is it implies to us all, so there's no point anyone getting massively offended on this man's behalf.

The centre should have noted your concerns - when something is inconclusive like this that is all an organisation can do. If the man makes a habit of doing the same thing every week, that can be noted too and perhaps becomes more of a concern. But the centre should also reflect upon the procedure and rules around what people are allowed to do.

A paedo local to me was caught filming teenage girls getting changed. He slid his phone under the cubicle wall. (Mixed sex changing village - v prevalent in London). Turns out he also ran a soft play and had installed cameras in the ladies loos to film mothers and preschoolers on the toilet. And guess what? Turns out staff at the pool HAD NOTICED HE ALWAYS SWAM & SHOWERED AT THE SAME TIME AS LOCAL SCHOOL KIDS but hadn't felt empowered enough to treat that as a concern. Because, of course, he was perfectly entitled to swim at these times.

That case barely made the news beyond locally, because men doing this shit is so depressingly common. The changing village & showers at the pool are still mixed sex because safeguarding women and children is really quite unpopular at the moment.

I'm really glad that there are people out there like OP daring to notice stuff.

Where do people normally sit after using the sauna?

Would you act differently if the person was a female? I think this is ridiculous. I come from an environment where using sauna is very common (way more than the US for example) and people mix in there and out of sauna in pools and cool-down areas. Naked. Yes. Both sexes, old and young.

But this man was just sitting, and it happened to be a swimming lesson for kids. I think this country has a problem if he is seen as guilty just from sitting by the pool.

@AsYouWishButtercup

Children are precious to their parents, not other people and certainly not random people using the same public facilities. No one else’s children are precious to me

If you don’t think all children are precious enough to be shielded from any safeguarding risk possible you shouldn’t be a parent.

Grant other children equal courtesy you’d wish your own child to have in your absence.

And FYI a 7 year old and a 17year old aren’t comparable. Why not? They’re both children and the reward for most moronic question goes to????

@ArachnidArachnid

Where do people normally sit after using the sauna?

If the pool is closed they go home surely

@OnlyFoolsnMothers you walk straight out of the sauna into your car?

@maddy68

You're mad. He's just paid to use the sauna. That's part of it.

Why would you think that's a child protection issue?

Because whilst this individual was most likely just a very normal man who was trying to cool off there’s also the possibility that the local paedo night time his sauna trips with swimming lessons every week because ‘he’s just cooling off.’

This thread REEKS of naivety. Any stranger can clearly walk into the leisure centre and watch scantily clad children swim, unaccompanied by their parents. That’s a safety risk how is it not unless a DBS check is required on door of said leisure centre?

My DH is in the police and some of the stories he has come home with BOGGLES at the lengths that sexual predators can and will go to to access unaccompanied children and how quickly abuse can happen. The individual is wearing t-shirt or chest covering? Minute cameras can be installed into them? Glasses? Same thing? Child gets out the pool to go to the toilet? Count to ten and follow them. The risk is not worth the pittance that a leisure centre would lose closing the sauna for the duration of swimming lessons or limiting cooling down to showers only.

Might* and excuse my appalling grammar.

[quote girlmom21]@OnlyFoolsnMothers you walk straight out of the sauna into your car? [/quote]
Shower and Changing room in between

@ImSureISaidNo

I disagree. He could have taken a shower.

The shower temperatures aren’t changeable at any swimming pools I’ve been to.

This thread REEKS of naivety yep- and the god for it we offend an adult brigade- fact is most adults understand the limitations and boundaries around children.

This is a complicated one.

It's very difficult to judge if you weren't in that situation to observe the man's demeanour.

It depends on so many factors. What was his body language? Did he stare at the children? Did he engage them in conversation?

How often does this happen? Is this a regular occurrence or a one-off?

Also, if people don’t want other people to think their behavior is dodgy, they shouldn’t act in ways that make them look like it might be.

Not all of us thinking using a public swimming pool and wearing trunks in the pool that children they don’t know are also in, is ‘dodgy’.

How can we uphold safeguarding when so many people don’t see a problem with a half naked man being where he’s not supposed to be

He’s exactly where he’s supposed it be and is half naked because it’s a swimming pool. It seems like the staff may have cocked up keeping the private lessons private, this isn’t his fault

If you don’t think all children are precious enough to be shielded from any safeguarding risk possible you shouldn’t be a parent.

@Arethechildreninbedyet why have you literally made up what I said? What an odd thing to do. Unless you can tell me where I said children don’t deserve to be safeguarded?

@OnlyFoolsnMothers

And FYI a 7 year old and a 17year old aren’t comparable. Why not? They’re both children and the reward for most moronic question goes to????

That doesn’t answer my question. In this context of safeguarding, how is a 7yo different to a 17yo?

[quote girlmom21]@OnlyFoolsnMothers you walk straight out of the sauna into your car? [/quote]
I think the fundamental problem may be that the lessons aren’t as private as the OP thinks. Many public pools have roped off sections and have lessons in certain sections whilst the pool remains open to the rest of the public. Yes, shock horror, adults are allowed to swim in the same water as children they don’t know in many places!

This thread REEKS of naivety. Any stranger can clearly walk into the leisure centre and watch scantily clad children swim, unaccompanied by their parents. That’s a safety risk how is it not unless a DBS check is required on door of said leisure centre?

Oh the irony of someone thinking a DBS check is the solution to catching out predatory men.

When you go on holiday, are you nervous that so many strangers - Statistically speaking one of whom will be a pedophile - by the pool as your children swim half naked next to them? Or do you, like normal people, accept that there’s little that can be done and we will never know, so you just keep and eye on your children and hope they tell you of anything dodgy? Same applies to pools at home surely?

@OnlyFoolsnMothers

This thread REEKS of naivety yep- and the god for it we offend an adult brigade- fact is most adults understand the limitations and boundaries around children.

Tell ‘em why a member of the public can’t sit near children - how is that crossing a ku dart of any kind?

*boundary not ku dart 🤦🏼‍♀️

@PaleGreenGhost

I've not read all the thread, sorry.

OP I work in a role requiring safeguarding training. You were right to notice this individual's behaviour and also the loophole that allows him to do what he did. Safeguarding training teaches you that nobody is above suspicion. The flip side of that is it implies to us all, so there's no point anyone getting massively offended on this man's behalf.

The centre should have noted your concerns - when something is inconclusive like this that is all an organisation can do. If the man makes a habit of doing the same thing every week, that can be noted too and perhaps becomes more of a concern. But the centre should also reflect upon the procedure and rules around what people are allowed to do.

A paedo local to me was caught filming teenage girls getting changed. He slid his phone under the cubicle wall. (Mixed sex changing village - v prevalent in London). Turns out he also ran a soft play and had installed cameras in the ladies loos to film mothers and preschoolers on the toilet. And guess what? Turns out staff at the pool HAD NOTICED HE ALWAYS SWAM & SHOWERED AT THE SAME TIME AS LOCAL SCHOOL KIDS but hadn't felt empowered enough to treat that as a concern. Because, of course, he was perfectly entitled to swim at these times.

That case barely made the news beyond locally, because men doing this shit is so depressingly common. The changing village & showers at the pool are still mixed sex because safeguarding women and children is really quite unpopular at the moment.

I'm really glad that there are people out there like OP daring to notice stuff.

I'm safeguarding lead in my school and stand by my previous comments. Your anecdote is also completely irrelevant, and your choice of language makes me doubt you've ever had safeguarding training in your life. If you have, then you need retraining.

Tell ‘em why a member of the public can’t sit near children - how is that crossing a ku dart of any kind? because it was closed to the public for lessons. Ok it’s a women’s only swimming session can a man sit on the side post sauna? I mean you surely don’t think every man is a rapist do you?

That doesn’t answer my question. In this context of safeguarding, how is a 7yo different to a 17yo? seriously question that you are being serious here. A 17yr old is shrewder and more aware of danger, a 17yr old has more legal freedoms for that reasons- oh and a 7yr old is more like to be preyed on by a paedo….how much more sickening detail do you require?

No one should be going from the sweaty sauna into the pool. That's gross and not the point of a swimming pool unless he's showered first, in which case, he could have used the shower. If the pool isn't open to other adults, including parents during that time, I think it's an issue. I don't know if it's a safeguarding issue, but there shouldn't be one rule for one person and another rule for everyone else. If the pool is otherwise open to general use, I think it's fine (still gross though).