Porno Magazine at Pack Meeting

[Eamonn]

Fussing??

Cub Scouts due to their age should be subject to closer supervision than Boy Scouts.

The recommended size for a Den is eight Cub Scouts.

No Den meeting should ever take place without there being two adults present.

Even at a Pack Meeting the Dens should be under the supervision of their Den Leader.

Of course if someone is acting as both the CM and the Den Leader? This just can't happen.

This isn't fussing it's doing things as they should or shouldn't be done.

 

While some Boy Scout leaders might be willing to accept that reading Playboy or a magazine like it, is maybe part of the passage from boy to man? Or while maybe not entirely acceptable? Not a hanging offense!

Young and very young children are not ready to be exposed to this sort of material and should not be exposed to it.

While there might be an explanation of how a young child came to get hold of this? Him bringing it to a place where there are other young and even younger children is totally unacceptable.

The Parents do need to be told.

They need to understand that no matter where it came from (I'm thinking maybe a parent or older brother?)This is not a good thing.

Some people who would do harm to young boys use this sort of material to open the door to sexual exploitation.

Older children are better equipped and maybe more knowledgeable to use the 3 R's of youth protection from abuse.

Depending on where the child got this magazine? It might be matter that is worthy of a police investigation.

The Pack Committee and the CO should be informed.

I'm sure that no CO would ever want young children in a youth program that it is involved with being exposed to even stuff that isn't considered "Hard Core".

Fussing?

I don't think so.

Eamonn.

 

[scottawildcat]

Gee Whiz!!!!....I am a DL and CM because I don't live in an area where we are fortunate enough to have 25 packs with 10 dens each. There is one and only one Pack within 30 miles. The previous year before I became Wolf leader they had one, ONE, meeting and all they did was play Red Light Green Light. At the end of the year the boys were given their Wolf badges (The Wolf leader was also the awards chair). Cub Scouts in the entire community was going down the tubes.

 

This is my first year in Scouts. I agreed to be Den Leader for the two, TWO Wolves in my son's den when no one else would step up. Shortly after I did this, the week after training, I was talking with the CM about getting involved in some activities. He said he didn't have time and quit. Again, no one would step up. I guess we should have just folded the Pack right then. I would hate to violate the hierarchy of Cub Scouts. Also about this time the person that agreed to be Bear leader moved. They had not yet had a meeting and it was the first of October. Once again NO ONE WOULD STEP UP so I did yet again. So, I'm now DL for Bears, Wolves and CM. If you don't like it then call our Charter Organization and have our Charter pulled. (Good luck, I'm on their board) Or, better yet come help me.

 

Since I have taken over these jobs we have held regular meetings. Gone on three campouts, attended resident camp and taken numerous field trips. The Wolf Pack has grown to 5 kids and there are 3 bears. Two of the three Webelos we had quit when they went on their first campout with the Boy Scouts because they had never done anything outdoors.....That's where I'm at now....

 

The "pack" meeting last month was not a typical pack meeting. It was the last meeting of the year and was a pizza party held at a local park. The kids ate pizza and spent a lot of time playing on the playground equipment while I had a meeting with the parents begging them to volunteer. I'm making tons of progress. I've got Tiger, Wolf and Bear leaders lined up for next year. Do any of you want to volunteer to be our Webelo leader???? Apparently it was during this time that the magazine was allegedly brought out.

 

Why was I not informed of this until a month later???? I don't know. You'll have to ask the parents. She told me at a 4H meeting. (No, I'm not a 4H leader) It was the first time I had seen the mother since the meeting. We don't have meetings during the summer. Why the father didn't tell me at resident camp two days earlier, I don't know. I do know that there is no bad blood between the parents or the kids. How any of your could assume that is beyond me.

 

And, no. I don't know what I should do. If I knew what to do I wouldn't have asked. Had I found out earlier I would have talked with the parents immediately but since I didn't find out for a month it becomes a game of he said she said, diminishes the importance, makes it harder to prove and discipline. Rather then lecturing me on the bureaucracy of Cub Scouts perhaps you could offer some advice on how I should handle this situation.

 

I'm done ranting.

[scottawildcat]

OK, I've had time to rant and read the entire thread again with a little less steam coming out of my ears.

 

Why the parents didn't tell me, I don't know. I was told this as an "Oh by the way..." as the mother was leaving the 4H meeting. I talked about it with her for about 20 seconds. She said from how her son described it, it was definitely porn. She may have just found out about it herself. I know she didn't find out at the pack meeting. In fact she wasn't even at the pack meeting. She was singing at the grade school graduation. She is a teacher at the local elementary school and has been for quite a few years. I would think she has dealt with issues like this before....That said, she is also extremely religious and her definition of porn may indeed be Mad Magazine or Maxium. I guess my next step should be to call her and confirm what it was and if it was indeed porn I should then contact the parents of the kid that brought the magazine. But it's been so long that I don't know what "discipline" I can give other than the kid aside at the camp out next month (IN CLEAR VIEW OF OTHERS) and tell him that this is inappropriate and will not be tolerated again.

 

 

[Twocubdad]

You can toggle rant on and off with ctrl-shift-F9 or manually type rant /rant and the beginning and end of the post.

 

Don't take the responses personally. After you've been around awhile you will learn there are limitations to the medium which the old timers take as a given. One is that we always have limited information and usually one side of the story. In the case of your initial post, you only gave us a line and a half of information with some fairly fishy circumstances. I think most of us would consider this a BIG DEAL and have a difficult time understanding the parents apparently blew it off.

 

The delay is part of the reason folks are suspicious of the parents' motives. As I wrote before, you are in a bit of a he-said/she-said. Now a month later, what evidence do you have? What were the circumstances of the parent finding the material? What was the boy doing with the magazine? Do you have the magazine? Are we talking Smutt or National Geographic? Without the actual magazine, there is a whole lot of question as to what is and isn't pornographic.

 

If it had been brought to you immediately much of that would have been self-evident. Now you only have the parents' word to go on to make a very serious allegation against someone's son. What do you do if the boys' parents take the attitude "my little darling would never do that!"? Now on top of all that there is history between the two families, you're suddenly in a situation which could tear a unit apart.

 

At this point, I'm not sure what I would do. It would depend a whole lot on the confidence I have in the information the parents provided (and not to beat the point to death, but the delay would cause give me pause. I would probably go to the boy's parents, lay out what info I had and leave it with them. Unless you can answer all the above issues, I don't think you have the evidence for pack to impose sanctions against the boy.

 

And as for holding mutiple positions within the pack, don't sweat it. For a time I was DL for two dens and committee chairman, mainly because I wanted to. But that was only for a short time until I could recruit someone to take the second den. But I remained a DL and CC or CM my whole time I was with the pack. It happens.

[scottawildcat]

Thanks for the advice. The fact that it's been an entire month is what is making this difficult. While I would like to do more I don't feel there is much I can do other than call the parent that told me and confirm what I can and then tell the parents of the kid that allegedly had the magazine and basically leave it up to them. I could say something to the kid that brought the magazine but by that time it will have been 2 months and will certainally be a he said she said thing.

[tonys]

my two cents

tell parent who told you you will keep an eye out.

then You know your boys keep an eye out.

If it happens again then deal with it.

it wasn't a big enough deal for the first parent to tell/call you that day or the next so its not that big a deal.

If she did not find out until a month later again too much time has passed.

my vote is watch.

good luck with getting volunteers.

keep up the good work

 

YIS

Tony

[tonys]

my two cents

tell parent who told you you will keep an eye out.

then You know your boys keep an eye out.

If it happens again then deal with it.

it wasn't a big enough deal for the first parent to tell/call you that day or the next so its not that big a deal.

If she did not find out until a month later again too much time has passed.

my vote is watch.

good luck with getting volunteers.

keep up the good work

 

YIS

Tony

[Lisabob]

I guess I end up pretty much where Tony did. Thank the parent for telling you. Let her know you'll be vigilant. As a teacher, she will probably understand that you can't take something that allegedly happened a month ago and do a whole lot with it. But if the kid did it once, it is likely he will do it again and next time you'll be prepared to deal with it on the spot. (I agree it would be good to find out if this was a Mad magazine type thing, if you can. I don't know that Mad is necessarily appropriate for cub-aged kids, but I would definitely handle it way differently than I would handle other magazines.)

 

I am supposing your pack is taking a breather for the next month or two?? If that's the case, when you start up again in the fall, you might also want to have some kind of "code of conduct" talk with the boys (and their parents) that would include not bringing things to cub meetings that don't belong there. You don't need to be too specific since most of the kids are probably too little to know what you're talking about anyway (I hope!). But the kid who allegedly brought this mag to last month's meeting will know what you mean. And so will his parents, if they were aware of the issue at all.

 

 

[scottawildcat]

We don't have meetings but are doing activities about once per month. We went to resident camp last week, will be going camping next month and have a fun/recruiting day planned for August.

 

I like the idea of a "code of conduct" and will be watching the kid closely.

 

I asked my son about it in an indirect way and he had no clue what I was talking about.

[wolfmama500]

Since you are talking about recruiting, you may want to also plan for a Youth protection refreshing course for the kids and parents at the beginning of the fall, that way it's discussed in front of everyone, explained and included in the Code of conduct and of course stick to the consecuences to any violation of the Code. That will keep the kids from doing it and parents informed of what can happened if their child choose to violate the Code.