Incident at Summer Camp

[CA_Scouter]

Hi All,

 

This was a report to me from my ASM from an incident that occurred at summer camp. I am soliciting your opinions on how you would handle this situation.

 

I am deliberatly not indicating what I'm planning to do, as I don't want to interrupt the free flow of ideas, so to speak... :-)

 

Would appreciate that the comments be focused on 'what to do now', as opposed to 'you should have done xxxx differently'. What's done is done, now I need to deal with this mess.

 

 

Looking forward to your helpful and insightful comment.

 

 

 

===============================================================

This is a basic summary of the accounts the boys gave me after the

Knife

throwing incident.

 

Two adults in camp ADULT2 and I. Dinner clean up and cobbler

serving was in process when the incident took place approximate time

was

9:40

 

The only part I actually witnessed was the boys keeping S and

G apart and then the discussion with P, G, S

and K.

 

The incident appears have started over Clay targets. P, WT,

S, and couple other boys found Clay targets off a trail earlier

in

the day. Each boy appears to have known how many clays each had. When

clays went missing out of some of the tents Stephan was accused of

taking them.

 

Because of the missing clays the group of boys, I'm not sure who was

involved besides P hatched a plan to lock S in the

bathroom.

He entered the bathroom with another/others and they promptly ran out.

They tried to shut the door behind them. S tried to block the

door

and had his arm knocked which caused him to drop the clays he was

carrying.

 

S then goes back to his tent and the other boys when across camp

to the tent of P and G. Tents where at opposite sides of

camp. About 150 feet apart. Dining area was in middle of area.

 

Sometime around 9:40pm S crosses camp and stands in tent of

P and G on P'S sleeping bags. P and G

are laying on their sleeping bags. Not sure who call who out, but a

challenge to fight was issued and words exchanged. S leaves and

one of the scouts calls S a pussy, it was not S or

G,(ADULT2 has the boy's name. S pulled his dinner

knife out of his pocket and threw it toward the group of boys at the

tent. It is not clear if it bounced on the ground and then hit

G or if it hit him directly. The knife was throw from a

distance of apx 25-30ft. Knife was given to ASM upon return from

camp today. Knife is standard household kitchen knife. It is not very

sharp but is heavy.

 

S then ran through camp as I was calling for people to come get

cobbler, the group was chasing after him saying you hit G.

ADULT2 and I caught up with the group at S tent, Another scout was

keeping G and S apart and P was telling S to

say he was sorry. ADULT2 and I sent G, P and S to

their tents.

 

G had a small welt on right temple about 2 inches from his eye,

I did not see any broken skin. I suspect that the knife hit with the

handle bottom which was blunt.

P gave this account, G agreed, but I don't know if

G was at the bathroom. This needs to be confirmed. S'S

account had him not stealing the clays, but just hiding them from the

boys. He also admitted to throwing the knife.

 

K came to me after the parties had been talked to and said

that earlier that day S had held the knife to his throat. Due to

the uproar in the camp and the late hour I did not ask K for any

of

the details. K should be interviewed.

 

Camp director was inform of incident. I called SM and left message

about the incident and the plan to remove S from camp. I called

S's Mom to come pick him up, but her car was with her daughter.

She sent person from her church to pick S up. She did

not travel up with Church person to get S.

She faxed release form to District office and

Camp

office about 12:30 and call me to say she had.

 

S exited our camp about 12:45am with the Program Director and

another Staff member as his escort.

 

ADULT2 and I have not discussed this any further with the boys. I did

check on G later in the evening and in the morning to make sure

he was ok and did not show any sign of a concussion

 

[packsaddle]

I'm glad there were no serious injuries. Two things arise in my mind, a need for consequences for the boys and a need for everyone to learn from the mistakes.

You have acted as well as I could have expected so far. In this unit, we would also identify all the boys who were involved in the locked bathroom and tent incidents and have a conference with them and their parents to determine what the parents think would be appropriate action. The situation crossed an important threshold in my mind when the knife incident occurred, but S is already gone.

While the clays themselves are unimportant, it is important to make sure innocent boys are not punished as a result so the joint conference is an important way for all to agree on the sequence of events and the facts that are important, namely, who was inclined to violence and who actually engaged in it.

The other boys besides S who were involved must realize some consequences as a result. I would request that everyone who engaged in violence or was inclined to violence be sent home.

It would also be a good time to discuss all of these things with the troop...a good object lesson from which the other boys can learn. I will be interested in reading the other responses

[LongHaul]

>>I would request that everyone who engaged in violence or was inclined to violence be sent home. >the group of boys, I'm not sure who was involved besides P hatched a plan to lock S in the bathroom. >Not sure who call who out, but a challenge to fight was issued and words exchanged. S leaves and one of the scouts calls S a pussy, it was not S or G,(ADULT2 has the boy's name.>The situation crossed an important threshold in my mind when the knife incident occurred>S then ran through camp as I was calling for people to come get cobbler, the group was chasing after him saying you hit G.

[packsaddle]

LongHaul, I believe we're thinking along the same lines here. I was indefinite in that statement because I don't know the specifics or facts. The meetings could clear some of that up though. Hopefully everyone will learn from this and perhaps grow up a little.

[evmori]

What a mess! I would agree that all involved in the bathroom incident should be sent home since that seemed to be what set off the knife throwing incident. But since camp is over now, sending them home isn't an option. Maybe a short suspension from all Troop & Patrol activities would be appropriate for all but S since he was sent home from camp.

 

Good luck & keep us informed as to the outcome!

 

Ed Mori

1 Peter 4:10

[GernBlansten]

Oh, am I glad I don't do summer camp anymore.

[Lisabob]

Serious as this incident with the clays, name calling, and knife throwing is, I am more alarmed that this boy may have held his knife to someone's throat in an incident earlier in the day. If true, to me it suggests that this boy is a very serious safety risk to others in the troop and would make me begin thinking of removing him from the troop. At the very least, I'd expect this boy to have "minders" with him on future camp outs.

 

As for the knife throwing and the surrounding issues, I agree with what pack & LongHaul have said.

 

[Its Me]

 

Without the knife this a low grade incident.

 

Boys poperty is missing. The boys should have known not to even the score themselves.

A prank is panned. A seemingly benign retalatory act but again this should not have happened.

More property is damaged. To this point, if S did not take the targets he has done nothing wrong.

S challenges other boy to fight. Maybe S's first mistake.

Boy accept challenge. Another mistake.

S pulls a knife. Big Mistake!

S throws the knife in direction of other boy to do harm. The Biggest Mistake.

All chase S. Non issue.

 

Although mistakes were made by P & G they weren't enough to send a kid home from summer camp. I agree that more conversations are needed. That P & G and all need to be counciled and should be required to write open letters of apollogies.

 

S needs more. Maybe even kicked out (consider history in troop). Ceratinly banned from one or two camp outs, plus write letters and add on communitty service.

 

 

[hops_scout]

I think we need to start from the very top...

 

"The incident appears have started over Clay targets. P, WT,

S, and couple other boys found Clay targets off a trail earlier

in

the day. Each boy appears to have known how many clays each had. When

clays went missing out of some of the tents Stephan was accused of

taking them."

 

So each one of them is guilty of stealing??? CA_Scouter does not mention why the clay targets were there, but it would be my guess, if they found several, that they were placed there for a reason. I highly doubt that reason was for the boys to pick them up and keep them.

[FScouter]

Surely they didn't steal the clays? Likely they found them scattered across the shotgun range and were simply cleaning up the environment.

[hops_scout]

FScouter, that sounds like another violation.. I don't believe that they should be downrange on the shotgun range, right?

[evmori]

Yeah they found them scattered across the range! What were they doing on the range? At our summer camp, if you are on the rifle or shotgun or archery range without permission, you go home. No questions asked.

 

Ed Mori

1 Peter 4:10

[Vicki]

Thanks, Hops. I was just spooling down the thread wondering how those clays just happened to wander out into a random group of boys' hands myself. The ranges I've been on (granted, limited) the clays are either in the shed or downrange, either one of which should have been off-limits.

 

Most I've ever had to do was confiscate a knife once and stop a fight another time (both NYLT, not my home troops). I feel lucky, reading this. Definitely S goes home, but I think I might have stopped right there to find out what happened, no matter how late it was. All good ideas given to handle it now that it's after the fact.

 

Vicki (fixed a typo, again)(This message has been edited by Vicki)

[CA_Scouter]

Re: the last few comments on the clays being found at the range.

 

I never indicated they were found at the range. Yall are speculating instead of evaluating the facts as I know them and have presented them. The issue of the clays is relatively minor compared to the subsequent actions of the parties involved ( please don't argue this point, its not the focus of this thread ).

 

I'm looking for comment on what actions you would recommend taking with S, P and G.

 

 

thanks

 

 

[hops_scout]

CA, I think you're missing the point of the clays being brought up...

 

No matter where they were found, the clays were the big connection that led to the knife incident.