"Guardianship" papers

[Twocubdad]

Does anyone hav a form they use to officially assign guardianship of a Scout to another parent?

 

We had a issue on a recent Webelos/Boy Scout campout where the "Smiths" "assigned" their son, "Bobby", a Webelos Scout, to be supervised by another parent, "Mr. Jones". Mr. Jones and his Boy Scout-aged son camped the first night but then decided (or may have planned all along) to go home the second night, leaving Bobby under the "supervision" of Bobby's 15-year-old brother who is a member of the troop we were camping with. (Are you with me so far?)

 

Apparently Mr. Jones had cleared this with the troop Scoutmaster (who doesn't understand Cub family camping rules) but didn't mention it to any of the pack leaders. When the Cubmaster and I realized what was going on, we immediately recognized that Bobby needed to go home. We then found out that the Smiths were out of town. Bobby's grandfather, listed as his emergency contact couldn't (or wouldn't) pick him up until morning. At that point our only option was to turn Bobby over to the sheriff's department or make the best of the situation. We had plenty of adults to be two-deep and Bobby did tent with his brother. An uncle did pick him up early the next morning.

 

We've decided that from now on unless a parent is physically on-site with their son, we will require written permission for the Scout to be assigned temporary guardianship by another parent. The form will be required to be signed by the parent, the guardian and the tour leader. We will probably tack-on the appropriate rules and regs from the G2SS to be sure everyone understands them.

 

Does anyone have anything like this? If not, can anyone suggest the verbage we need to include?

[Fat Old Guy]

I've thought of this in the past. The best solution is to go talk to a lawyer, not just someone who stayed in a Holiday Inn Express. I believe that there are varying forms of guardianship such as temporary and special circumstance. I had a friend in high school who wanted to go to School A but lived in School B's district but within walking distance of the district line. His parents gave the grandparents temporary guardianship and his legal address became the grandparents.

 

Talk to a lawyer. Talk to a couple lawyers.

 

 

[Bob White]

I would somply ask the parent to give a a wriiten note as to who the non-parent guardian of the child will be for the event and have the parents and guardian sign it. Then I would remind the guardian of their responsibilities for the child for the duration of the event.

 

Mr. Jones obviously did not realize what his duties included prior to to the event.

 

Bob White

[Twocubdad]

Not only did Mr. Jones not understand, but the parents thought Bobby's older brother constituted satisfactory supervision (wrong). The Scoutmaster thought the general troop leadership was sufficient for a Cub Scout (wrong) as did Mr. Jones (also wrong). Lastly, the three of them made this arrangement without notifying the pack leaders -- who, oh-by-the-way, were responsible for Bobby. -- were unaware that they had worked all this out without understand in the rules. We knew Mr. Jones was responsible for Bobby, but he had been gone from camp for several hours before the Cub leaders were aware of it.

 

In addition to what ever consent or appointment of guardianship language the document may contain, part of what I want to accomplish is a paper trail so that the parents all understand the rules and responsibilities and the pack leadership clearly knows who is responsible for each child.

[evmori]

Take him to the sherriff!!!!! Huh!!!! You've got to be kidding me!!!!

[Twocubdad]

Actually, Ed, that was my first choice, but the Cubmaster talked me out of it.

[Fat Old Guy]

Gee TwoCubDad, how can I get my kid into your unit?

[evmori]

I gotta ask - why?

[Twocubdad]

Because youth protective services is closed on weekends?

 

Ed, you've become much too reliant on the little smiley faces to detect when people are being sarcastic!