To add some perspective here, it seems to me the risk in any kind of outdoor activity must be taken into account by children and adults who participate in them. No organization is immune to accidents caused by human error or negligence. Does that mean we should ban them? Get rid of the Boy and Girl Scouts? Outward Bound? How about Catherine Freer Wilderness? A boy died there after a tree branch fell on him. Ruled an accident but common sense seems to dictate you don't set up a tent under a big tree covered with SNOW. CFW is touted as one of the safest wilderenss therapy programs and plenty of ed cons refer parents to them I would imagine. A young girl also died in one of their programs, Erica Harvey. Forced wilderness therapy programs are a bad idea, IMO. Kids have no options in the middle of nowhere and when they have died, no one is ever held accountable, except in civil court. The penalities just aren't severe enough, IMO.
Out of curiousity, I searched for any reports of fatalities and serious injuries in Boy Scout programs. Not sure about other camps, or OB, but I think I did read somewhere they had never had a child die from heat stroke or dehydration in 45 years. Well, there is always a first time and tragically, it looks like that may be what happened with Elisa Santry.
Boy ScoutsYour search for ACCIDENTS AND SAFETY in Boy Scouts returned 10 articles
ARTICLES ABOUT THE BOY SCOUTS
Page: 1 Newest First | Oldest First | Closest Match 4 Scouting Deaths Are Ruled Accident
RICHMOND, Va., Jan. 7 (AP) - The electrocution deaths of four Boy Scout leaders at the National Scout Jamboree last summer were found to be accidental, an Army spokesman said Friday.
January 8, 2006 News
MORE ON BOY SCOUTS AND: BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA Questions Remain as Scouts Try to Deal With Four Deaths
By FELICITY BARRINGER
Officials in Virginia began investigating how electricity from a live power line killed four leaders of a Boy Scout troop.
July 27, 2005 U.S. News
MORE ON BOY SCOUTS AND: ELECTRIC LIGHT AND POWER, ELECTROCUTIONS, BUSH, GEORGE W, BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA, VIRGINIA, FORT ASHBY (W VA), WASHINGTON (STATE), ALASKA Electrical Accident Kills 4 Boy Scout Leaders in Virginia
By MICHELLE O'DONNELL; MICHELLE O'DONNELL REPORTED FROM NEW YORK FOR THIS ARTICLE, and LISA BACON FROM FORT A.P. HILL, VA.
Four volunteer Boy Scout leaders from Alaska were accidentally electrocuted as they set up camp on the first day of the scouts' national jamboree.
July 26, 2005 U.S. News
MORE ON BOY SCOUTS AND: FORT A P HILL (VA), ELECTROCUTIONS, VIRGINIA, ALASKA Bad Weather Delays Search For Boy Scout
By ANN FARMER
The search for the body of a Boy Scout from Staten Island who fell off a boat during a whale-watching expedition off Cape May, N.J., was postponed yesterday after eight-foot swells made conditions dangerous, officials said.
May 2, 2005 New York and Region News
MORE ON BOY SCOUTS AND: RESCUES, WHALES AND WHALING, CHILDREN AND YOUTH, BOATS AND BOATING, JOHS, NICHOLAS, CAPE MAY POINT (NJ), NEW JERSEY, STATEN ISLAND (NYC) METRO NEWS BRIEFS: NEW YORK; Boy Scout Is Wounded On a Camping Trip
Stephen Schuster, 13-year-old Boy Scout, is struck in side by stray bullet while on weekend camping trip in Old Bethpage Restoration Village Park on Long Island; police speculate that bullet came from nearby rifle range
May 4, 1998 New York and Region News
MORE ON BOY SCOUTS AND: FIREARMS, SCHUSTER, STEPHEN, OLD BETHPAGE RESTORATION VILLAGE PARK EARNING IT;Doing Good May Be No Shield When Bad Happens
By DEBRA NUSSBAUM
IN Richmond, a man who was a volunteer with the Red Cross drove a woman to a medical appointment. In Oregon, two men accompanied a Boy Scout troop on a camping trip. Though the three men were unpaid workers, giving their time for what they considered good causes, they were all eventually sued after someone in their care was injured in an accident. The suit against the Red Cross volunteer was dismissed. But a jury in Portland, Ore., ruled that the Scout leaders, Howard J. Ryburn and Craig A. Nordling, were negligent when a boy was paralyzed during a touch football game on the 1991 camping trip, and the two men were hit with a $7 million judgment in 1994. Though the Boy Scouts and its insurance paid the judgment and the legal costs for both men, Mr. Ryburn, who is 28, said he would not be a volunteer for a while.
May 19, 1996 Business News
MORE ON BOY SCOUTS AND: SUITS AND LITIGATION, VOLUNTEERS, NORDLING, CRAIG A, RYBURN, HOWARD J, BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICABear Mauls 2 More Scouts
AP
Officials at a Boy Scout ranch are tightening security after five bear attacks in two weeks, including weekend incidents in which two boys were mauled. In the latest incidents, 14-year-old Kevin Unruh of Salina, Kan., and Joey McKinney, 13, of Danville, Ark., were attacked by a black bear early Sunday while camping seven miles from the headquarters of the Philmont Scout Ranch, a 215-square-mile Boy Scout camp that draws scouts from around the country. Officials killed the bear.
July 30, 1986 U.S. News
MORE ON BOY SCOUTS AND: BEARS, BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA, CIMARRON (NM)Sourly, the Poles Offer Blankets to New York
AP
Poland, irked that an American donation of powdered milk carries the condition that it must be distributed by non-Government agencies, said today that it would give 5,000 blankets and sleeping bags to the homeless of New York City - and insist on the same condition. In response, Mayor Koch said blankets and sleeping bags were not needed, especially to make a political point, and suggested they be donated to the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts instead. Jerzy Urban, the Polish Government's chief spokesman, said Poland would require that the blankets be distributed by private charities rather than by American Government officials.
May 14, 1986 World News
MORE ON BOY SCOUTS AND: SLEEPING BAGS, RADIATION, GIFTS, ATOMIC ENERGY, MILK, CHERNOBYL NUCLEAR POWER PLANT (USSR), DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES, FIRES AND FIREMEN, HOMELESS PERSONS, EXPLOSIONS, POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT, GRAPHITE, ELECTRIC LIGHT AND POWER, BLANKETS, FOOD CONTAMINATION AND POISONING, KOCH, EDWARD I, BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA, GIRL SCOUTS, NEW YORK CITYHiking Scout Falls to Death
UPI
Henry J. Herrman, a 16-year-old Boy Scout from Red Lion, Pa., slipped on a ledge while hiking on the Philmont Scout Ranch and fell 70 feet to his death, officials said.
July 1, 1985 U.S. News
MORE ON BOY SCOUTS AND: HERRMAN, HENRY J, BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA, PENNSYLVANIA
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