Who Is Watching The Camp Counselor?

Brien Roche

Child Abuse In Camps

In this age of summer camps of all types ranging from sports camps to computer camps to mathematics camps it is important to know who is the camp counselor who is  going to be dealing with your child and who is watching the camp counselor. 

Camps can be held to certain professional standards and it may be appropriate to ask what standards this camp adheres to and what proof they have of compliance with those standards. 

Background Checks of Camp Counselor

In that regard it is certainly appropriate to ask what type of a background check has been conducted on each of the counselors that will be in contact with your child.  It may also be worthwhile to take a look at the Facebook or MySpace page of any such counselor. Are the counselors high school students,college students or beyond? Asking for a specific biographical sketch of each counselor certainly is not unreasonable and the camp’s failure to volunteer this may say a great deal about the people that run the camp.

Another factor to look at is the ratio of counselors to campers.  The American Camping Association requires a specific ratio at all times. 

The physical layout of the camp may also be important in terms of whether there are areas on or near to the camp where inappropriate behavior might go on that would not be seen by other adults.

Any parent is well advised to look at these factors in making a decision as to what is the right camp to choose. 

See also clergy negligence on this site. See also the pages on Wikipedia dealing with professional negligence.