ACA Home Forums Overnight Supervision and Sneaking out of Bunks

I have a general question for the boards based on overnight supervision and sneaking out of cabins. I am new to my camp and have just taken over in a leadership role. There seems to be a thought pattern among past staff, including some leadership staff that sneaking out is just part of the camp experience. I have also heard since some of our campers are aged 16-18 that there is nothing we can do to control that behavior. I have been hearing statements like “You can’t watch them 100% of the time and therefore you should just accept that this will happen.”
This goes against my experience as a camp director, I however have been out of the mix for about six years. It would seem to me that having campers unsupervised out of their bunks after lights out is a huge liability.
I am wondering what is some other camp’s experiences and how do they address overnight supervision Is there a way to do overnight supervision that doe not completely tax their staff. This is the biggest hurdle it seems as the current staff feel there is no way to do a good overnight supervision without burning and exhausting a portion of the staff.

Any Input would be helpful. I know how I want to handle this but I would like to get a larger feeling for the issue.

Ben, I am shocked to hear this. I agree with you that it is a huge liability. We always have rovers for the hour after lights out. This was usually because the camp staff would meet in the staff lounge for some R&R whole a few of the staff would walk around and make sure that the campers were quiet and going to sleep. The staff got one hour and then had to be back in their cabins. So campers that wanted to sneak out would have to wait at least an hour after lights out and then half to wait fot their counselor(s) to fall asleep.

When I was a unit leader for a middle school "village" (10 cabins) I did a program called the Camp Rangers. During the two weeks of camp the campers that wanted to be a Ranger would have to get up early and do PT (physical training) with me and a couple of other staff. A few times during the session we would take the campers out of their cabins an hour or so after lights out, camo their faces, give them water guns and split into two teams. Then we would play capture the flag in a wodded area away from the other cabins so we didn't wake anyone up.

The Rangers was an optional program for the campers. Out of 100+ campers we would get maybe 15-20 taht participated. They all wanted to earn their Ranger pin so they made sure that they didn't step out of line during camp, because if you got into any trouble you woudl be kicked out of the Ranger program.

Then again you can always place bear traps in front of the cabin doors at night.

I'm also a shocked that Overnight safety of campers doesn't throw up a lot of red flags when your camp staff talk about Sneak Outs. I recommend having zero tolerance for sneak outs, which means clearly explaining the rules and consequences to campers when they arrive at camp. The consequence at my camp is getting sent home. I sent a group of 10 campers home 3 years ago- and haven't had to have that conversation again since then. Just a thought...