BSA Urban Myths--Busted!

[MarinesWife]

Cub Scout packs can only do family camping at sites that have running water and showers.

 

FALSE

 

Look at your site selection form! Water must be provided. And toilets close by. Nothing about showers!!

[Novice_Cubmaster]

Showers at a Cub campout?

What self respecting Cub would shower while camping?

Gotta be a myth.

 

NC

[John-in-KC]

Three weeks ago my son and I went to the gun range to shoot pistols. When he was talking to a friend of his at another troop he was told by a scout that he is not allowed to ever shoot a pistol because he is a boy scout. He just chuckled.

 

That one at least is inside the ballpark. In program activities, Cub and Boy Scouts are not permitted pistol usage, only Venturers.

 

Handguns

Handgun use is limited to the Venturing program.

http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/HealthandSafety/GSS/gss08.aspx

(This message has been edited by John-in-KC)

[Snow_White]

Cub Scout Myths:

 

Scouts must earn their rank badge for that year by the time of the Blue & Gold.

 

The primary purpose of the Blue & Gold Banquet is to provide a "graduation ceremony" for the Webelos II's.

 

 

[packsaddle]

John-in-KC, the other boy told him he is not EVER to shoot a pistol. A dad and his son can go the range any time the dad decides to take him. BSA can't regulate private actions. But you know that already.(This message has been edited by packsaddle)

[Sephrina]

Here's the cub scout myths I was told in my son's first pack

 

You need to wait for all the boys in the den to earn bobcat or rank before presenting it

 

and a leader had to retest the boys on the bobcat requirements (that one kept one boy from earning his bobcat for a year)

 

Karen

[SR540Beaver]

The buddy system extends to tenting and therefore a scout is not allowed to ever tent alone.

[John-in-KC]

pack,

 

Understood. At least in that one we can see where it came from, which is why I sad the myth is inside the park... not I didn't say inside the baselines.

[Knot Head]

You don't "officially advance" until the COH (false)

 

You can't advance two ranks at a single COH (false)

 

You auto-flunk a BOR if not in full uniform including socks (false)

 

You can't have a BOR on a campout (false)

 

 

 

 

 

[packsaddle]

Yeah, I think your baseball metaphors may work better where there is a legitimate baseball team. I'm supposed to pull for the Braves but they just keep letting me down. So I also pull for the Mets...mostly to bug my in-laws (they're Yankee fans).

My daughter has a huge pennant in her room that proclaims "MATSUI" to which I ask, "Matt who?" Such fun!

[TAHAWK]

It is often said that Scouters stand "in loco parentis" to Scouts attending Scouting events.

 

When I have asked why that is said, I am told "because we are like the Scout's parents," an argument that assumes its own conclusion.

 

Are we like the Scout's parents? Do we assume the role of a natural parent, including the obligations of support for and rearing and education of the child to the age of majority?

 

In State v. Noggle, supra, the Ohio Supreme Court held in its syllabus:

 

"1. The phrase person in loco parentis in R.C. 2907.03(A)(5) applies to a person who has assumed the dominant parental role and is relied upon by the child for support

. . .

The term in loco parentis means charged, factitiously, with a parents rights, duties, and responsibilities. Blacks law Dictionary (6 Ed. 1990) 787. A person in loco parentis has assumed the same duties as a guardian or custodian, only not through a legal proceeding. A person in loco parentis was grouped with guardians and custodians in the statute because they all have similar responsibilities.

 

The phrase person in loco parentis in R.C. 2907.03(A)(5) applies to a person who has assumed the dominant parental role and is relied upon by the child for support. This statutory provision was not designed for teachers, coaches, scout leaders, or any other persons who might temporarily have some disciplinary control over a child. Simply put, the statute applies to the people the child goes home to."

 

The Ohio decision was followed by the federal Court of Appeals in cases that did not rely on Ohio law: Powledge v. U.S., 193 F.2d 438, 441 n.5 (5th Cir. 1951) (analogizing persons in loco parentis to natural parents) and U.S. v. Floyd, 81 F.3d 1517, 1524 (10th Cir. 1996).

 

In the Dale v BSA case, the New Jersey appllate court held as a matter of New Jersey law: "Boy Scouts does not assume those responsibilities or those duties. It does not maintain or rear children. A Boy Scout leader may function as

a supervisor of children for limited periods of time; he does not have "the responsibility to maintain, rear and educate" children such that he stands in the place of a parent." The reversal of Dale by the U.S.S.C. did not touch on the New Jersey holding on the doctrine of in loco parentis.

 

IF a Scouter was, in fact and in law, in loco parentis to a Scout, there would be no LEGAL need for permission slips of permission to obtain medical care.

 

Is that enough basis for saying it's a myth?

[emb021]

"The primary purpose of the Blue & Gold Banquet is to provide a "graduation ceremony" for the Webelos II's. "

 

Saw that one claimed recently on another site.

 

Here is what the BSA's Language of Scouting says:

 

"A birthday dinner for Scouting held by Cub Scout packs in February to celebrate the founding of the Boy Scouts of America in 1910 and of Cub Scouting in 1930."

 

My experience has been its the main Pack awards event, where ALL cub scouts are recognized for the awards they got up to that point.

 

[boomerscout]

We're from National. We're here to help you.

[Buffalo Skipper]

There are actually people at national?!? I thougth that was the myth.

[SR540Beaver]

Oh yeah! There are people at national. I saw the building with cars in the parking lot when I went to the museum. The myth is that they actually have names, email addresses and phone numbers and can easily be reached by the average volunteer.