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Adult Supervision Question


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I have a hypothetical question that I would like opinions on.

 

Situation: A campout with 2 patrols, 4 boys each, and 3 adults. One patrol wants to go on a hike around the lake, the other patrol wants to stay in camp. 1 adult is going to accompany the hiking Scouts.

 

Question: Is this a violation of Youth Protection guidelines, since there is only 1 adult with the hikers? Or is this exactly why YP requires 2 deep leadership on outings, so that the group can split and still have an adult with each group?

 

Thanks.

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Yes, 2 deep leadership is for the outing, not for each activity within the outing. What does apply is the limitation on 1-on-1 contact. So, as long as multiple boys are going on the hike, the leader is okay to go with them alone.

 

Also, some common sense has to apply. I'm assuming this is a couple of miles around the lake. If it were a 10 mile hike, I would suggest it wise to take two or more adults along.

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I agree with EagleInKY. It would be fine. I have seen overzealous Scouters interpret it such that two adults are required on each sub-group on an outing, but I don't see any support for that position in official documents.

 

Oak Tree

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Along the same lines and speaking of over zealous Scouters, I remember a thread here in the forums in the past year or so where the buddy system was taken to an extreme. One scouter said that boys were never allowed to sleep alone in their tent, they must always have a bunkie as a buddy for safety. I can see where you can stretch it to include tenting, but it seems over zealous to me. Usually your tents are set up within a few feet of each other and all you have between you and the next tent is two very thim pieces of nylon that do not inhibit sound whatsoever.

 

In a previous troop I served in, we did not provide tents and the boys were responsible for their own tentage. They were welcome to buddy up if desired, but not required. In the troop I serve now, we do provide tents and sleep three to a tent in the winter, no option.

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Sorry, I didn't mean to hijack the thread. I concur that as long as you have multiple scouts present, a single adult can be with them. You can just never be one on one with a scout. Two adults are always the best option when possible.

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I for one would be uncomfortable sending only one adult on the hike, unless the trail was filled with other adult hikers. The problem is adult protection, and I don't mean that sarcastically. Youth protection is really mislabeled. Its adult protection. Protection from unwarrented claims of impropriety. Plausable deniability. Think of one of those scouts claiming the adult did some misdeed. Without another adult present, it becomes a he said/he said. The fact that there are other scouts won't matter much. I certainly would not want to face that. With another adult present, you have a much better case to defend yourself.

 

I have found myself in the same situation at summer camp. I'm napping in my chair only to wake up to find myself alone with two or three scouts. I quietly get up and find another adult to shoot the breeze with or head to the commissary for an ice cream.

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"Without another adult present, it becomes a he said/he said."

 

It's more than what one boy and one adult says. What are all the other boys that are present saying? It seems unlikely that all the boys are going to gang up on the one adult and accuse him of doing something he did not do.

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EagleInKY, Oak Tree, and others,

You confirmed my own interpretation, thank you. However, my troop contains some of those "overzealous Scouters" mentioned...

 

Tomorrow I depart for a campout with 2 other adults, and 8 Scouts. One patrol is young (1st years) who are eager and enthusiastic, the other patrol is older, jaded, and likes to sit around. There's a 300 acre lake nearby with a 4 mile circling trail. We'll see what happens...

d;-)

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