Inappropriate adult behavior

I think one of my most ironic experiences in my Scouting carreer
involved "inappropriate behavior" by an untrained adult. Thankfully,
the problem was self correcting.

In our troop our more experienced scouts served as instructors for the
younger scouts. Thus, one of our patrol leaders was teaching a
Tot'n'Chip class on axe safety for two of his patrol members, the safe
way, using the contact method. This PL was not yet recognised as a
qualified instructor for this skill, so the class was under the
observation of the SPL who was considered qualified. The whole thing
was under my observation, because successful conduct of this class was
the last step in the PL becoming recognized as a qualified instructor,
and for the SPL to become recognized as qualified to issue such
recognitions.

It just so happened that this campout was a general father-son campout,
and the SPL's father was also watching. He was not registered as either
a leader or committee member and as far as I know had never been a scout
himself. But he was a hunter and considered himself to be an
outdoorsman, and pushed both the PL and his SPL son aside and stepped in
to demonstrate the efficient way to split a log - stand it up on end and
take a big swing - over the protests of his SPL son. I was walking over
to put the class back in the hands of the PL and SPL when ...

FREEZE FRAME! What happened next? You probably guessed it. The log
tipped over and this man sliced his own leg open with the axe. I can
still hear his SPL son saying "Now do you know why we don't do it that
way, Dad?"

The PL immediately grabbed the first aid kit which the victim tried to
confiscate to administer first aid to himself. The SPL basically sat on
his dad's chest to keep him from interfering while the PL and the ASPL
tended to the injury. I was a certified First Responder and certified
ARC First Aid Instructor at the time, but saw no reason to interfere
myself because the PL and ASPL were doing everything exactly as I would
have done it ... after all ... I trained them ... and if they needed me
I was right beside them. My ASM and I had our hands full keeping the
other parents from interfering ... none of whom had any first aid
training that we knew of, then or later. (I did inspect the dressing
and bandages and double checked that the leg wasn't broken before we put
the victim in the ASM's car for the drive to the hospital, but the boys
did the work.)

While I felt sorry for the SPL's dad, I think it was a GREAT learning
experience for all. The scouts learned why we do things the safe way
rather than the easy way. The SPL, PL, and ASPL gained confidence in
their own abilities; the entire troop learned to have confidence in the
abilities of the senior scouts, and the parents learned that their boys
and the senior scouts are capable of more than they realized. (I *hope*
the SPL's dad learned that the son sometimes *does* know more than his
dad, but wouldn't bet on it.) It was much better than anything I could
have staged.

YiSS;
Mark Ritter - RitterME@stny.lrun.com - Committee Member
Sea Scout Ship 90 - The S.S.S. North Star - New Milford PA
http://www.seascout.net/ship90

• Messages sorted by: [ date ][ thread ][ subject ][ author ]
• Next message
• Previous message