An update of this incident

I have now seem the document produced by the investigation into the incident by the scout association and here are the findings

1 It has been alleged that leaders were aware of my son drinking in his own tent earlier that evening.

Well if that is the case (which i know it is not) Why when i was ten feet from his tent all evening did one of these responsible leaders not tell me about this and if i could not be found then either of the other two leaders on our site.

Was this alleged very serious alcohol incident reported as should be done ? i wonder why not also who were the leaders that witnessed it.

2 Bill was not invited to the mess tent.

Well first of all anyone that is involved with cub or scout camps knows that leaders and young people wander from site to site during the course of a weekend seeing friends that they may not have seen for weeks or months catching up on the gossip ect and this is encouraged.

However if this seemingly inhospitable group did not want bill there then any one of the adults present could have asked him to leave they clearly did not otherwise he would have left.

3 Bill helped himself to the alcohol

Firstly i have a letter from county advising me that it was clear the young people were invited to drink alcohol

My son as most people that know us and him will know that he would wait until offered anything food drink ect he would not ask and most certainly would not help himself without permission

But of course also there were four allegedly responsible leaders present and any one of these could have and most certainly should have said no you cannot drink they clearly did not otherwise he would have not ended up drunk and ill for a week.

4 The group of leaders who say they cannot be sure but guess it was about 10.30pm  to  11.00pm when bill went down there and that the Group scout leader had gone to bed by that time.

The really strange thing is that when my wife approached the group scout leader the next morning with the adc cubs as a witness he admited  seeing him and said to my wife i did not realise he was your son (as if this would make any difference)as to who’s child it was.

Also this group of leaders say they are not sure about the time and had clearly been drinking for a few hours but my wife and i are crystal clear about the time but this has been discounted and also we have two witnesses (one adult leader and one 16 year old young leader who saw the group scout leader there but have never been asked despite several attempts to get district and county to do so).

So a vey poor attempt to discredit my son and put the blame onto him but the facts still remain that they were the responsible adults and at any time could have put a stop to it or even more importantly stopped it from starting.

These findings were used as a basis for dealing with the incident and a letter was sent to the group reminding them of the scout alcohol policy and that we need to move forward from this isolated incident and to keep up the good scouting.

Well far from isolated if you look at the previous page

So this information was used to discredit Bill and in doing this it makes it look as though that not only is he lying we are as well.

Bill has now given up as a young leader upset at how this has gone with adult leaders lying  to cover themselves and getting away with it and the fact that the District commissioner says i now cannot have a warrant or certificate to work with the young people of Thurrock until this is sorted out.

Now the problem there is that i have had my two chances at this and The scout association will not reply to any letters or talk about it in any way so the only way i can see of me having a warrant again would be to roll over and  forget it ever happened !

The leaders involved in this have never even attempted to apollogise.to us or Bill

[Home] [About Us] [Catalog] [Services] [FAQ] [D M S CARS] [Alcohol incident] [Alcohol incident 2] [The Final Straw]