Bullying in Scouts and What to do?

[kc9901mom]

An incident happened to one of the Scouts in our Troop at one of the Summer camps this past summer. I am fairly new to scouting and I'm not an ASM but I attended Summer Camp and I am YPT trained. One of our first-year scouts was playing with some other scouts from a different troop during free time. The Scout from our Troop asked the other scouts' if they were from a certain Troop and one of the scouts said that they weren't from that troop, they were imposters, then the scout pulled out his pocket knife grabbed our scouts arm and said - "you know I could have you killed". The scout from our Troop did not report the incident until the next day. He told me about it and I told the Scout that he needed to talk to our ASM.

Our ASM talked to the other Troop's ASM and was told that this wasn't the first incident with this scout and that appropriate actions would be taken. I'm not sure that the situation was handled in the appropriate manner. I am thinking that the scouts involved and the ASMs should have gone to the Camp Director immediately and maybe even involve the police. I mean after all - what the scout did is a crime, right? If you or I were at a Park and someone pulled a knife on you and threatened you, what would you do? Call the police and report the incident, right?

Questions that I have are:
Should our Troop's SM be told about this event?
Should our Troop's SM discuss bullying and what to do if you (the scout) are bullied?

[Fred Johnson]

I'm assuming most ASMs keep their SMs and other ASMs updated on what's going on at camp. He should be told.

I think it's an excellent time for a brief chat during flags. Both about what bullying is, what to do and also discussing that your own troop's scouts are probably not 100% innocent. Also talk about how to recognize it in their own actions too and how to avoid being a bully.

As for how things were handled, sounds like it was handled very well.

[RWSmith]

See: Scouting.Org > Supplemental Training

• Bullying: Prevention and Intervention Tips for Scout Leaders and Parents, BSA Pub. 18-114 (MS Word v97-2003; 13 pages); and
• accompanying PowerPoint Presentation (MS PowerPoint v97-2003; 36 slides)

[kc9901mom]

Thanks for the links. I'm not really sure what to do with them (other than read the material which I have done) since I am not the SM or ASM. I am just a lowly merit badge counselor and a Parent.

This incident happened to my 11-year old son who makes friends with everybody anywhere he goes.