krpound

As an ASM in this Scout's home troop and a Committee Member of his Jamboree troop, it's time to chime in. Absolutely, positively, what this Scout (and the others involved) did was wrong. Period. It violated a slew of Scouting tenets and at least one criminal statute. But it was handled by the 4 SMs and PLC then and there. Regardless of what the home troop Committee thinks of the boy, it's over. It is up to his home troop SM to determine if he is still Trustworthy enough to do the job to which he was elected by his peers, and if his leadership potential can be properly channeled to the Good Side. What does the SM think of his SPL's job performance so far? Do the boys in the troop view the problem in the same light as the parents? They are the ones he's leading. If this Scout is penalized, then all those involved should also be penalized. In talking to security staff while working at Jambo, I found that patch stealing was rampant. This Scout had patches stolen from him, and was very upset, so it completely boggles my mind why he would turn around and do the same thing three days later. By the way, the patches he forfeited, of which 99% were legitimately acquired, were probably worth close to 800 dollars. That begs the question of what have we wrought with Scout patches that we can incite such a frenzy surrounding their acquistion? For two weeks I watched boys spend their days trading patches rather than take advantage of Jamboree activities! Let's also not forget that we are talking about adolescent boys who as a rule make bad decisions daily. Our job as Scouters is to guide them through these years and teach them to make right choices. It's why we volunteer one hour a week. "An individual step in character training is to put responsibility on the individual." "Correcting bad habits cannot be done by forbidding or punishment." --Robert Baden-Powell YIS, kp