Here is our OPEN LETTER to NZRDA. It saddens me to have to put this online but NZRDA didnt step up to the plate and do the right thing - for the skaters, by the skaters. Here is my formal complaint to NZRDA - sent last week and deadline for response passed today. 15 October 2014 OPEN LETTER The New Zealand Roller Derby Association: To whom it may concern, I wish to lay a formal complaint about the Coach of Team New Zealand, Stacey Roper – also known as ‘Pieces of Hate’. This is intended to be an open letter to the Management Board of NZRDA – including league representatives and all their members, Individual members of the Association, Non-skating Officials representatives and Referee representatives. In doing this process I have found it extremely difficult to find either a complete list of people on the Management Board or their email addresses and also a formal complaints process for NZRDA. I suggest that this information should absolutely be easily available on the Association’s website in future. Before I go into detail, I want NZRDA, all 30 of the skaters of Team New Zealand and the Roller Derby community of New Zealand to know my reasons for doing this. While I am devastated that I have not been selected for the final squad of 20 skaters to travel to the Blood and Thunder Roller Derby World Cup, the 20 skaters that have made the final cut have my full support. I do not wish to take anyone’s spot on the team. I believe in NZ Roller Derby, I want the sport of Roller Derby to grow and succeed on the world stage and I believe we can make it the inclusive, friendly and transparent sport it should be – above reproach. The easiest way to do this is to list my areas of concern and explain each one in turn. Stacey Roper’s public post on Facebook: ‘Pieces of Hate Official Fan Page’ On Friday 10th October 2014, 8 days after the final 20 were announced, Stacey Roper made a public post on Facebook which many people, including myself, found extremely concerning. Attached to this letter is the original text written in the Facebook post as well as the subsequent dialogue between Stacey and my partner, Alexia Garbutt. Listed below are my main concerns about the post: 1. Why were comments about the skaters and the selection process made on a public fan page on social media? 2. This was the first time Stacey had given the skaters any idea why they were not selected and it was not sent to the skaters, it was sent those that follow her fan page. 3. Why is the National Coach having a conversation about me on her social media fan page? I am the only skater with hearing loss on the team. While I was not named in the post, it was clear that the post was about me. 4. Singling out hearing loss as a liability is defamation – the communication of a false statement that harms the reputation of an individual. Stacey is in a position of national authority and this statement tells everyone in NZ Roller Derby that I am a liability (to any team I am on) – something that is a hindrance or puts a group at a disadvantage. 5. In this post and in the exchange that followed, Stacey very clearly stated the following: • “If someone cant hear a penalty given to them and needs a team mate to skate over to them and shake their arm to get them off the track before an insub (sic) is given and while they do that they leave their position in the wall creating a space for the opposition to exploit, then we have a serious problem.” • “What I do not like is that everyone has to walk on eggshells around someone because they have a disability. We have very little time together to put the team at its best. These players have so much to take on and remember as it is that expecting them to learn sign language in 9 months on top of that is just not fair.” • “She did the best we (sic) could and I’m real sorry but its called a disability for a reason.” • “And exactly how much time during a weekend am I expected to spend coaching just one player?” These comments suggest that my hearing loss was a major part of the decision not to select me. It also reveals a very negative attitude towards both disability and efforts to work with an individual member of the squad. I would like to clarify that I never asked Team NZ to learn NZ Sign Language or asked for one-on-one time with the Coach. 6. In the post and the exchange that followed Stacey broke my confidentiality by discussing me, my reasons for non-selection and offered to give out my stats if I consented. This is unprofessional and unethical conduct for a National Coach. For breaching my privacy and defaming me by suggesting my disability is a liability in a public post I believe that Stacey Roper should make a full, public apology to me. I also feel that the NZRDA should stand her down as Coach of Team New Zealand, pending the result of an external review into her conduct. Was my disability a reason for my non-selection for the final 20? I would like to ask NZRDA (not Stacey Roper) to provide me with the reasons for my non-selection for the final 20 of Team NZ – as approved by the NZRDA and dated before the announcement of the final team. I am aware that there may be other reasons for my non-selection. However, because I have reason to believe that disability was a key factor I would like to highlight that Stacey’s actions go against the following articles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People With Disabilities, which New Zealand’s own human rights laws are required to align with: - Article 8.c: The portrayal of people with disabilities in the media should at all times align with the Convention ethos – that is, ensuring equality, inclusion and the absence of discrimination; - Article 22.2: The privacy of personal, health and rehabilitation information of persons with disabilities must be maintained on an equal basis with others; - Article 31.1.a: All processes of collecting and maintaining data on persons with disabilities should ensure confidentially and respect for the privacy of that individual; - Article 30.5.a: All appropriate measures should be taken to encourage and promote the participation, to the fullest extent possible, of persons with disabilities in mainstream sporting activities at all levels. I was (partially) deaf at the time of my selection for the training squad. My status has not since changed. This fact is well-known in the NZ Roller Derby community. If my disability was always going to discount me from the final 20, then it was misleading to select me in the first place (even though I believe that I earned that place on the team, regardless of disability). While I have been told previously that Stacey was concerned about ‘my communications’ this wasn’t explained or followed up and she never spoke to me directly about it. Additionally, it is also a well-known that I live with Dyslexia, and that reading and writing are not my strengths. In the private Facebook apology that Stacey sent (attached), she mentions that other people in the team consistently had higher written test scores than me. No effort was ever made to make sure I could take these tests without being disadvantaged. In fact, my Dyslexia was never spoken of by Stacey. As a member of the training squad I have: • Sacrificed paid employment, family time and money in order to be present at all (bar one) of the monthly training sessions held around the country. The last training (held in Dunedin) I missed because I did not have the necessary finances; • Spent around $500 to travel to Auckland and organise my visa from the American Embassy; • Put a lot of time and effort into fundraising so I could afford to go to Dallas. People from all over NZ have donated their money to support me; • Put the NZ team before my home team by refraining from travelling to away bouts in order to meet my financial commitments to Team NZ. If my disability meant that I would never be picked for the final 20 then I have spent the better part of a year and a lot of money working towards a goal that I had no hope of achieving. Regarding the possibility that I have been discriminated against on the basis of my disability from participating, I have begun the official complaint process with the Human Rights Commission and they will be in contact with the NZRDA shortly. Stacey Roper’s conduct and professionalism as Coach of Team NZ I would like to request that the NZRDA immediately begin an independent, external review of the conduct and professionalism of Stacey Roper in this role for the entirety of this year. As part of this review, all 30 members of Team NZ should be interviewed, including members of the administration – former Manager Sarah Andrews Reynolds and Zephyr Edwards. Here are my reasons for this request: 1. All year there has been no clarity regarding roles – who is responsible for what (i.e. Coach, Manager, Selectors, who chooses the Captain) and this has caused major confusion within the team and put most of the control in the hands of one person. 2. I have personally witnessed the verbal and physical abuse of Sarah Andrews Reynolds by Stacey Roper at Team NZ training sessions in front of other members of the team. 3. In June-July 2014 many members of the team worked together on a letter to Stacey detailing concerns and things we wanted to clarify and, as a result the entire team received a warning. Was NZRDA ever aware of any of these issued warnings? 4. In July 2014 I left a training session 10 minutes before a break to meet with television media, Attitude Pictures, a media company that makes documentaries about the empowerment of people living with disabilities. The documentary is about my journey as a Hard of Hearing skater in a mainstream (not disability) sport at an international level. I had informed Stacey that this was happening earlier on (through the Team NZ Manager) however she confronted me in front of them, embarrassed me and then issued me with a warning. 5. Feedback – I do not know of any skater in the squad of 30 receiving official written feedback from Stacey about their game play or things to improve on. I never received any feedback from Stacey in any form throughout the year – bar one occasion when Corinna Hunziker (aka Hurricane Hori) asked for Stacey to be filmed giving me feedback for the ‘All Skates’ documentary she is filming. This feedback came instead via Zephyr Edwards. 6. Her conduct has more often than not been unfriendly, unsupportive, unhelpful and uninspiring. 7. In Stacey’s private Facebook apology, she mentions how other Jammers in the team consistently scored more points and less penalties than me. I do not dispute this, however I have never indicated my desire to be solely a Jammer. I can and do jam when passed the panty by the Bench Manager at Team NZ training, without question. However, I am a Blocker. This is my strongest and preferred position and the position I believed I was selected to perform for Team NZ. 8. A Coach is meant to provide support to every member of their team – according to their individual strengths and weaknesses. As a person with significant hearing loss there are things that can be done which can enable me to participate fully in all aspects of my team. As my Coach, Stacey has never talked with me about: • How to make sure I can participate better in team talks; • How to make sure I can communicate effectively on the track with my team mates; • How we (and I) could prepare for the noisy and fast-paced environment at Worlds; • How we can adapt tests such as the beep-test so that I can know when the beeps are happening; • How I can manage the reading and writing components of my selection given my Dyslexia and if this would be taken into consideration when scoring me on any written tests; • What strategies or equipment I have to help me at Worlds. I would also like to note that I have taken the following measures to ensure that my hearing loss has minimum impact on myself and the team: • I have sourced cards from a Hearing Therapist to hand out to international referees and non-skating officials before games that explain my hearing loss (business-card size); • I have ensured that my helmet and arm-band both indicate that I am a Deaf skater; • I have obtained a piece of equipment called an FM system to take to the World Cup, which would allow Stacey or anyone else to communicate directly to my hearing aid. However, Stacey indicated in her Facebook post that she didn’t have time to spend with me. I am a member of the NZ Roller Derby team. As such, I expect my coach to talk to me and work through these challenges with me. I would like to advise the NZRDA that I am currently taking legal advice on all of these matters. I trust that the NZ Roller Derby Association – as the national body of our sport – will take these concerns into serious consideration and, pending a thorough, independent and external investigation will take the appropriate course of action. Furthermore, I believe that the NZ Roller Derby community deserves to know the outcome of any investigation and that it needs to be done in a transparent and ethical manner. I would like to receive a response from you by the end of the day Thursday 23rd October 2014 regarding the NZRDA’s intended course of action. Yours sincerely, Marcia Taylor (aka Meat Train #4711)
Posted on: Thu, 23 Oct 2014 06:05:03 +0000
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