Unsupervised 12/13 year olds overnight camp
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Anonymous
| Seems like if there are certain sleeping and safety standards that apply to a young girl's sleeping arrangement at a Scout property during a summer camp, the same standards should apply if the young girl is being used as an assistant at a more-public location. The detail about the safety standards is probably beyond this posting, but a lesser safety standard seems to have been followed here. |
Anonymous
You can't lock kids in from the outside! Crazy |
Anonymous
No, the exact same standard is being applied at both places. In Girl Scout camping, adults do not share tent or shelter space with girls. In a large cabin, adults do not sleep in the same room as girls. This rule holds whether the girls are at a Scout property or at a more-public location. It is up to the parents to decide if the camping and tenting arrangements are suitable for their own child's age and temperament. (As far as I know these are also the rules for Scouts BSA (Boy Scouts) . For Cub Scouts children may tent with their own parents, only.) I don't think it is unreasonable for OP to be slightly uncomfortable with her daughter spending the night at a public campsite in a cabin with only other 12 year olds. I'm not saying it is a dangerous situation at all, just that she's not crazy overprotective. Some parents and girls might just not be ready for that at age 11. It sounds like the adults in this situation aren't that close by but are two cabins away and that the bathroom facilities are open to the public. Taking another 12 year old as a buddy in the middle of the night to pee at a public campsite might not be what these PAs are ready for. |
Anonymous
| Seriously, what day camp is this? All the aids go home every night at the GSCNC day camp my daughter goes to. There is a one night sleepover for aides with adult supervision. |
Anonymous
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OP, I think you really need to work on your fears about this situation because the exact same setup is used by so many organizations, like sports teams, band, other school groups, and other types of camps.
I have 4 kids who have all been to a variety of sleepover camps and none has ever allowed an adult to sleep in the same room as the kids. A few of the summer camps my kids attended didn't even have the old school set up from my days of an older teen counselor in each bunk. I have two in sports and when they travel as a team, the kid can only share a room with their parent. My DD going without me on a trip couldn't even share a room with her BFF and her BFF's mom, a woman she's known since she was 4. When my kid in AP bio went on a week long camping trip with his teacher and a few chaperones to a public camping area, it was the kids alone in their tents and the adults in their own tents. |
Anonymous
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There seems to be a focus on whether this particular event satisfied the technical requirement of a policy. I'm taking the word of those who say the policy was satisfied. However, just because a policy is technically satisfied does not mean this was advisable.
Given the public and uncontrolled access to this cabin by unknown persons, the distance of the adults (and the fact that the adults would not easily monitor or hear things from inside another cabin at some distance) and the relative youth of these Scouts, I would not do it and believe the OP has a justified point. If this were on controlled access Scout/Church property or if the Scouts were a bit older I might think differently. Let's face it, there are some common sense problems with this. A common sense solution would be for the adults to sleep in a tent immediately in front of the cabin occupied by the girls. |
Anonymous
I'm not suggesting I'm being rational. lol That event hit close to home, so I can't get it out of my mind. And for the Ted Bundy reference (previous poster), I don't think I will ever let my child live in a basement apartment! |
Anonymous
I know, I remember when it happened. I was 10 years old and headed out to Girl Scout overnight camp myself for the first time -- it must have made national news because we heard about it in New York state. Meanwhile, one year at my Girl Scout camp two campers were struck by lightning in the tents a few years later! it was so so horrible. Thankfully Girl Scouts have a very good safety record and these incidents are very unusual. |
Anonymous
| My daughter first went to Girl Scout camp when she was 7 or 8: it is always the case that adults don’t sleep in the cabins, even at that age. |
Anonymous
| This sounds totally normal to me, OP. |