My kid is on of those reviled individuals ... a rink rat. In the period she's been doing this, she's put broken arms in slings, assesed head injuries, bandaged up slashed legs, arms, faces; picked up broken teeth; scraped fallen toddlers up off of the ice, helped shaky skaters navigate onto the ice; been caught in the middle of screaming domestic arguments; helped with crowd control when a bunch of people wanted to video someone in analphylactic shock. She's also been berated for asking people to skate politely, not perform crack the whip, not slide across the ice in their shoes, do figure skating activities (not allowed on our public ice), skate the wrong way ... ask kids to stop using the pylons as bumper cars ... And she certainly doesn't yell, she speaks to people politely and discreetly and smiles when she does it. Usually most people are good, but, some aren't. She does a good job, by all reports.
The rink rats don't have an easy life of it. And they're usually not very well paid. She gets the arguments all the time of "but, it's not busy - why can't I (insert here).". The problem is that if someone catches her letting people do "x" she could lose her job; it also sets her and the other rink rats up for "but, [insert description] let me do it last week!". So, being consistent is important. Her other thought is that the adults on the sessions are role models for the kids. If the kids see adults breaking rules, then, they figure it's okay for everyone to do it.