Im writing this to warn others but also so that I can move on.
This is a warning about how things go bad so quickly.
This week we attended Supatramp Geelong where my son was bullied and bashed. Diesel had balls thrown at his head (not in dodge ball) he was verbally abused and jumped on to the point he pushed someone and they pulled him to the ground and beat him.
I emailed Supatramp asking to view the footage and made the point of how difficult it was to see your children at all times in the venue when you have multiple children there I also asked why staff did not patrol the area more often considering how many kids where in there.
Supatramps response was confronting and not factual. All I wanted was what most business do which is "Thank you for your feedback we will investigate further and apologise for what has happened in our venue"
This was my email
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Today at approx 3pm my son was
involved in an incident with a number of other boys that ended with a boys holding him to the ground and beating him. He suffered injuries to his
back and neck. When I questioned one of the boys he lied straight to my face
and said "your kid ripped my shirt, he started it" From the video
footage that was viewed by the manager it appears that my son pushed one of
them first and then the boy let lose on him. Now I don't know how far back
he looked but apparently there was a lot of pushing, kneeing and abusive
language going on before this occurred. This happened out of my sight in the basketball
hoop section of Supatramp and I was sitting outside the dodgeball section
where the other 4 kids I had with me where playing.
I have NO IDEA how this could possibly happen in what I had previously believed to be a family environment. I was sitting front and centre but the mother of these children was sitting in the café area not paying any attention to what was going on. We had been there for an hour, my son had made a friend and they where having a great time until these kids started with this behaviour. There are a number of things that have disappointed me in this experience 1. Your website says children should be supervised at all times. How is that possible with all the walls up that block off sections making it impossible to see your kids unless you follow them. I would follow them but I had 5 kids with me today and they where at different times all over the venue. 2. Why where there so many kids in that section and no staff monitoring? I would also like to see the footage of what actually occurred. I'd also like to know if the kids where kicked out. We are regular visitors to Supatramp but after today this could possibly be our last visit.
I will patiently await your response.
Their response
Hi Jess,
We’re sorry to hear that you
were disappointed with your experience at Supatramp yesterday, however, we’d
like to clarify a few things in relation to this incident which we have
thoroughly reviewed.
The security footage has
revealed that your son did, in fact, start the physical confrontation by
pushing one of the boys – the fight escalated from there. After our employee was made aware of the incident and had spoken to both parties, he
approached the parent of the other boys to remove them from the centre as he
was aware that they had spoken rudely to your son prior to the physical
confrontation. Although we would like to point out that we do not tolerate any
acts of violence at Supatramp and your son should have approached either
yourself or a Supatramp employee to report the other boys’ nasty verbal
behaviour rather than resorting to physical violence.
Our park rules state that
children under the age of 14 must be supervised at all times (ie. parents are
not permitted to leave the centre) however it is only children under the age of
5 that must be constantly supervised (ie. actively watched at
all times). We completely understand that many parents visit with multiple
children and therefore it’s hard to watch them all, it was clear on this
occasion that the other parent, like you, had multiple children and therefore
couldn’t watch them at all times. However, it is also clear that both your
son and the other boys behaved inappropriately and broke Supatramp’s rules.
We are, as you’ve stated, a
family-focused entertainment centre and this is the reason we do not tolerate
any forms of violence or negative behaviour. We believe that our employee was
very fair in allowing your son to stay on, even though he had also acted
aggressively because we understand that he was being spoken to inappropriately
before the incident.
Our airguards at Supatramp
are positioned in multiple areas of the park to ensure that everyone is using
equipment safety and playing fairly, they will always stop inappropriate
conduct when they see it and strive for a fair resolution, however, they are
not responsible for controlling children’s behaviour.
I can confirm that after
speaking to the other parent and ensuring the other children were removed from
the premise, staff tried to approach you to let you know, but you had already
left. For privacy reasons, we do not send out any footage, however, you are
most welcome to come in store and view the footage of the incident yourself.
We do hope that your son has
recovered from the incident and is feeling better. We are most disappointed to
hear that you weren’t satisfied with the way our employees handled this,
considering we did everything in our power to resolve the situation.
Kind regards
Supatramp Geelong
Now I was completely blown away by this email in a bad way but appreciated the opportunity to view the footage. I went down and had a look. The staff where lovely and we talked through what happened and the staff pointed out where things had gone wrong and it was very visible that Diesel was being targeted by these kids. I also pointed out and we agreed at what point Diesel had made a mistake and should have asked for help. During the time I was viewing the Operations Manager entered the building and came to watch me watch the footage. His demeaner was not friendly all of his 6 foot something standing with his chest tall and arms crossed. He was not interested in me or anything I had to say.
My response to Supatramp
To whom ever responded to my
email I don’t know your name as you did not identify yourself,
I’m writing to give you
further feedback on my experience with Supatramp. I attended Supatramp on
Thursday 18th April to view the footage and thank you for the
opportunity to do so. It did in fact prove to be very helpful.
In your email you stated you
would like to clarify a few things in relation to the incident which you had
thoroughly reviewed. In response to that I whole heartedly disagree. When I
watched the footage, multiple boys visibly bullied my son throwing balls at his
head, jumping on his back whilst shooting hoops and targeted him with what
looked like pack mentality for on and off 15 mins. I can see my son walk away
to another court and the boy follows him many times before my son finally had
enough and pushed him. This then caused the boy to become aggressive
physically bashing my child. In the last minutes before my son pushed the boy
you can see the boy on the footage leave and come back with friends and head
straight for my son.
So again, in response to
your email my son did not, in fact, start the physical confrontation he had
balls thrown at his head and the kid jumped on his back. I am appalled at what
in your email states as it sounds like you are blaming the victim.
At no time on the footage
did I see a Supertramp staff member.
I had watched the boys that
bullied my son running throughout the centre with complete disregard for anyone
else. They ran all over the trampolines directly in front of Supatramp staff
and I did not see them get pulled up for what I know is against Supatramp
rules.
I would like to point out
that I also do not tolerate any acts of violence, I also do not tolerate bullies.
I agree with you that my son should have approached either myself or a
Supatramp employee but I did not see either of those in the footage and he is
an 11 year old boy being bullied by a number of children so I believe he was a
victim who acted in self-defence. I have spoken to my son at length about what
he should have done instead of pushing but I do not believe that he started
this at all.
At this point I’d like to
say I have no idea why you would defend the other parent in my email having
children in multiple places in the centre because I never saw those children
interact with a parent or have a parent or staff member interact with them
either until after the incident. The parent sat in the café the whole time. At
all times I was with 4 out of the 5 children I had with me and my son checked
in with me many times during our time there. I always try to make sure that my
children can see me, and they know I’m watching. I am a vigilant parent.
Up until the time the
bullying started which was 45 minutes into our time at Supatramp my son had
been having a great time and in no way broke any of Supatramps rules. He had
made friends with a lovely boy and they had been having a great time. My son is
a lovely sweet natured sensitive boy whom for most of his life has been bullied
for being overweight. My son also has high functioning autism and spends
countless ours is social therapy and I can tell from the footage that he was
using some of the strategies he has learnt. Unfortunately asking for help has
proven to be a big challenge but I think this may be an experience he can draw
from in the future.
I stated in my email that “I
thought” Supatramp was a family-focused entertainment centre. I believe you
should not tolerate violence, but I also think there should be no tolerance for
bullying. There was also no need to allow my son to stay on as our time was up and
Supatramp are very lucky they did not ask my son to leave because he was not
only spoken to inappropriately before the incident he was targeted by bullies
and I would like you to understand he did not start this.
Your next statement in your
email says Supatramp airguards will always stop inappropriate conduct when they
see it and strive for a fair resolution and that they are not responsible for
controlling children’s behaviour. I disagree with this statement again
wholeheartedly because I watched Supatramp airguards allow many children right
in front of their face running across trampolines and it was, in fact, other
children in the venue that had to break up the boy beating my son. If Supatramp
is not responsible for childrens behaviour whilst in the centre why would
families want to bring their children there, particularly if they cannot see
them at all times. In one sentence you say you do not allow negative behaviour
and the next you say you are not responsible for controlling it.
After speaking to a staff member on
Thursday I was really happy to hear the children had been removed from the
premises. I’m sure you can understand that I wanted to leave with all of my
children at this time as this is not a situation, I felt my other children
needed to be a part of.
Your last comment in the
email floored me. At no time in my email did I say that I was not satisfied with
how Supatramp employees handled this incident. (when I say incident, I am
referring to the aftermath of the physical altercation) I believe the staff member was
extremely professional and kept me updated on what was happening and another staff member stayed
with my son to make sure he was physically ok. Staff reiterated to me after
speaking to the mother that the boy that bullied my son was dismissive and
carefree about what he had done, the bully didn’t care and the staff said it
clearly showed. I truly take my hat off to staff for dealing with what was a
very difficult situation, he remained a professional through the whole
situation. So, I have no idea what alluded you to my disappointment with how staff handled this situation because that is simply not true.
I was extremely disappointed
with your email response as I found it confronting and not factual.
The purpose of my email was
for feedback and as a business owner myself I believe this is a great way to
improve customer experience. Your email response has not only worsened my
experience but has lost you a customer, but I feel you may not care.
This experience has proven
to be a very teachable moment for my family we have had lengthy conversations
about bullying and violence and have done some research into some great reading
resources for our kids. We believe there will be something good to come from
this even though it has been a traumatic experience.
I am hoping that management
from Supatramp will also take this as a teachable moment for their staff. Children
are in your care and Supatramp staff should be much more vigilant because you
are responsible for children’s safety.
If other children at the
venue had not broken up this beating, I would hate to think of the injuries my
son could have suffered and this situation could be much worse. I went out of
my way to speak to those children and their mother to thank them. I hope this
is an experience no other customer at Supatramp ever has to experience.
I would like to recommend that
Supatramp put up TV screens in the café and other areas parents sit that are
out of sight so that parents and staff can closely monitor children. You
already have the cameras and I think it will we good for bullies to know they
are being watched. Safety first.
I look forward to hearing
your response
Within an hour on Good Friday today the Operations manager rang me. He greeted me and asked what I expected from Supatramp. He said we are going around in circles and we cant do anything about this. I explained I was wanting to know that this would not happen again and Id like to know that staff had an opportunity to learn from this. He said " I don't need to explain the way I run my business". I said I was finding the call very confrontational and it was worsening my experience with them as a business. He tried to rain it in and apologised for what we had been through. He even thought the email that had been sent to me was appropriate. I ended the phone call with I hope that something had been learnt from the experience.
This is truly me just venting when emotions are high and I am going to move on now that I have shared my experience. If Supatramp will not improve I hope that parents will be more vigilant after reading this.
Thanks for reading
Jess
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