Reply to Wwyd re counselor inappropriate comments?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I’m in the minority, but I’d call the camp director ans say you heard that a couple selon joked about causing a potentially serious allergic reaction in a camper. This is unacceptable. [/quote]

These kids are not 5, they are teenagers. Take a step back. If you really feel something needs to be said, teach the daughter to confront the counselor directly. Otherwise, move on.[/quote]

Absolutely not. This needs to go to the top of the food chain. Food allergy is life threatening and it is a disability. Would you minimize this if it was the same teacher mocking an intellectually challenged kid, or one missing a limb, or one with a terrible facial disfigurement?  Not so funny now, huh?  And none of those conditions are life threatening. [/quote]

If a counselor said “if you guys don’t stop singing baby shark I’m driving this bus off a cliff” I would not think it was a serious problem. It’s a joke. The fact it would be deadly is not really relevant. So you focusing in on the deadliness of *actually doing it* misses the point. [/quote]

No. You miss the point. Life threatening allergies aren’t funny. Especially for the kid who can never eat somebody else’s class treats because of possible cross contamination, who has been reading ingredient labels since they can read, who has to forego or be incredibly careful about “outside” food, who has to carry an Epi Pen, and God forbid they forget it. We’re not supposed to make fun of looks, sexuality, and a thousand other things, but it’s OK to “joke” about deadly assault on a kid if you don’t do it?  Suppose the counselor “joked” that he was going to drive the bus over a bunch of kids, or that he was going to bring a gun so they could play “most dangerous game” in the woods that night. That would be OK, as long as he didn’t actually do those things?

What the counselor did was outrageous, and absolutely indefensible. [/quote]

NP here.  Not really, I think you, PP, are the one missing the point.

We understand that the counselor's comments were insensitive and inappropriate, borderline bullying.  However, I think the bigger point is that when the kids are 13-15, the parents should not be stepping in for behavioral issues like this.  Especially when your child was not the victim.  Instead, you should be teaching your child how to react and behave.  I would be teaching my children not to stand for such comments, especially directed at someone else.  I don't abide by bullying and I teach my kids (who are only 10) not to abide by bullying either.  At 10, I have already taught my kids to speak up when someone is being treated unfairly.  You should be doing the same.

The parents of the child with the allergy are the only ones that should be intervening and only if their child is not or cannot stand up for themselves.  Otherwise, the parents should be teaching their children not to participate in such behavior, not to take such behavior lightly and to speak up and say that the behavior was inappropriate.[/quote]

Get back to me when some counselor decides to suggest to the other kids how easy it would be to have their way with one of the campers after dark. Leaving kids in the position of being expected to correct the person putatively in charge of them is how organizations develop sex abuse and similar problems.

13-15 year olds are entitled to be safe, not to be taking charge of the people who are expected to protect them.

“Insensitive?”  “Inappropriate?” “Borderline bullying?”

Suppose one of the kids had decided just to go ahead and go what the counselor “joked” about?  Where would that fall on your scale of “borderline” behavior?

You want a teaching moment?  Great. When somebody calls Larlo “big nose” or Larla “pizza face,” that’s a teaching moment.

Suggesting life threatening violence to another person isn’t a “joke” or “borderline” anything. It’s a glaring warning sign that the people in charge haven’t adequately screened their personnel and need to fix that immediately.

For most people nuts are tasty and more or less innocuous snacks. There is a very common tendency among the uninformed to disbelieve or minimize the seriousness of nut allergies. Think of it this way:  suppose the counselor had “joked” about seeing how hard he could hit Alexi the hemophiliac with the kickball?  Would that be something the other kids should be expected to correct?
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