Scouts to review own safety handbook

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Link To Article Print Article Email Article Article Last Updated: 06/24/2005 01:36:56 AM

Scouts to review own safety handbook "Guide to Safe Scouting" says: Don't mix younger with older teen Scouts together at outings By Christopher Smart The Salt Lake Tribune

In the wake of the Brennan Hawkins ordeal, the Utah Boy Scouts organization will review whether to enforce the organization's guideline that suggests younger boys not be included in activities organized for older Scouts. "Our safety and camping committee will look into it. This is definitely an issue," said Kay Godfrey, a spokesman for the Great Salt Lake Council of the Boy Scouts of America. "The nature of [the Hawkins] event is something we have to address. We will take a look at how we can ensure a stronger safety net around our youth." Hawkins, 11, attended a three-day camp-out June 17-19, which drew about 1,500 Varsity Scouts, 14 to 17 years old, at the East Fork of the Bear River Boy Scout Reservation in the Uinta Mountains. He was the guest of his 11-year-old friend Brian Christensen and his father, Martin Christensen, a Scoutmaster for a Bountiful troop. Hawkins wandered away from the camp Friday evening and was missing for four days and four nights. But the ordeal had a happy ending Tuesday just before noon when Hawkins was spotted by searchers near Lily Lake. He had wandered over a ridge and into another drainage several miles from camp. Such an outing requires the supervision of about 250 adults, said Godfrey. Many Scoutmasters bring their wives and that can involve children, too. A handbook called The Guide to Safe Scouting says the practice of including younger boys on such outings is a "disservice" to both age groups: "If a well-meaning leader brings along a child who does not meet these age guidelines, disservice is done to the unit because of distractions often caused by younger children," it reads in part. "A disservice is also done to the child, who is not trained to participate in such an activity and who, as a nonmember of the group,

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may be ignored by the older campers." In recent memory, the guideline has not been enforced in Utah, Godfrey said. "We have not cracked down on keeping families out of there," he said. "But we might do that in the future." Keeping various age groups separated in Scouting just makes sense, said Taylorsville Scoutmaster Mike Dawes. "That's a great rule," he said referring to the Safe Scouting handbook. "There is a huge difference in development between 11 and 13 year olds. And just as big a difference between 13 and 15. Mixing them together is just not a good idea." Still, excluding family members from such outings can be difficult, said W.D. Robinson, a former Salt Lake-area assistant Scoutmaster. Even so, Hawkins was in a setting that was not appropriate for younger Scouts because leaders were focused on the older kids. "Their mind-set was not on keeping track of 11-year-olds. They were in the mind-set of looking after 15, 16 and 17-year-olds. If I have a group of 11-year-olds, I'm going to be a lot more cognizant of what they're doing." But because the Boy Scouts is a volunteer organization, rules and regulations are not always followed to the letter, Robinson noted. "They are training volunteers to do these things," he said. "And it's a challenge to get everyone up to snuff."

© Copyright 2005, The Salt Lake Tribune. All material found on Utah Online is copyrighted The Salt Lake Tribune and associated news services. No material may be reproduced or reused without explicit permission from The Salt Lake Tribune.

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SUNDAY June 26, 2005

Scouts to review own safety handbook

"Guide to Safe Scouting" says: Don't mix younger with older teen Scouts together at outings
By Christopher Smart The Salt Lake Tribune

In the wake of the Brennan Hawkins ordeal, the Utah Boy Scouts organization will review whether to enforce the organization's guideline that suggests younger boys not be included in activities organized for older Scouts. "Our safety and camping committee will look into it. This is definitely an issue," said Kay Godfrey, a spokesman for the Great Salt Lake Council of the Boy Scouts of America.

"The nature of [the Hawkins] event is something we have to address. We will take a look at how we can ensure a stronger safety net around our youth." Hawkins, 11, attended a three-day camp-out June 17-19, which drew about 1,500 Varsity Scouts, 14 to 17 years old, at the East Fork of the Bear River Boy Scout Reservation in the Uinta Mountains. He was the guest of his 11-year-old friend Brian Christensen and his father, Martin Christensen, a Scoutmaster for a Bountiful troop.

Hawkins wandered away from the camp Friday evening and was missing for four days and four nights. But the ordeal had a happy ending Tuesday just before noon when Hawkins was spotted by searchers near Lily Lake. He had wandered over a ridge and into another drainage several miles from camp. Such an outing requires the supervision of about 250 adults, said Godfrey. Many Scoutmasters bring their wives and that can involve children, too.

A handbook called The Guide to Safe Scouting says the practice of including younger boys on such outings is a "disservice" to both age groups: "If a well-meaning leader brings along a child who does not meet these age guidelines, disservice is done to the unit because of distractions often caused by younger children," it reads in part. "A disservice is also done to the child, who is not trained to participate in such an activity and who, as a nonmember of the group, may be ignored by the older campers."

In recent memory, the guideline has not been enforced in Utah, Godfrey said. "We have not cracked down on keeping families out of there," he said. "But we might do that in the future." Keeping various age groups separated in Scouting just makes sense, said Taylorsville Scoutmaster Mike Dawes. "That's a great rule," he said referring to the Safe Scouting handbook. "There is a huge difference in development between 11 and 13 year olds. And just as big a difference between 13 and 15. Mixing them together is just not a good idea."

Still, excluding family members from such outings can be difficult, said W.D. Robinson, a former Salt Lake-area assistant Scoutmaster. Even so, Hawkins was in a setting that was not appropriate for younger Scouts because leaders were focused on the older kids. "Their mind-set was not on keeping track of 11-year-olds. They were in the mind-set of looking after 15, 16 and 17-year-olds. If I have a group of 11-year-olds, I'm going to be a lot more cognizant of what they're doing."

But because the Boy Scouts is a volunteer organization, rules and regulations are not always followed to the letter, Robinson noted. "They are training volunteers to do these things," he said. "And it's a challenge to get everyone up to snuff."

The current head of Utah's Boy Scout units is a Christian who is somewhat newer to the postion replacing a Utah native.

The relevance of this fact to Scouting safety escapes me. Are you suggesting that the new Director is slack on safety because of his religion, or that the previous Director was slack on safety because he was born in Utah, or ... what?

Aside from that, there have been several accidents/losses involving Boy Scouts in the last week or so - natural enough, it's camp season - and all of them featured violations of BSA safety guidelines. The rules are there for a reason, folks!

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