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LukeBK Offline OP
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I was once offered a job as a CIT Director at a GS camp. When explaining the job to me they made it clear that I would also be in the cabin with the girls supervising them. I would have my own room and bathroom but I would still be responsible for what happened inside the cabin and would be in there during rest period and cabin cleaning ect. There would be no female co counselor in the cabin. They explained that I would be expected to be in the cabin at least cabin care right after breakfast, rest period, and lights out time.

I ended up turning down the job because I felt uneasy with how it was presented to me. Over the last 15 years I have been in girls cabins before as a director. (I have also chased more than one bat or mouse from a cabin.) Just the idea of being a male in a cabin with girls every day made me feel uneasy. I was about to jump at the job because the pay was decent but the living conditions made my uneasy.

It maybe because of a experience early in my camping history where a staff member was falsely accused and even arrested. It took many months for the truth to come out and his name was cleared legally but always tarnished.

Now I have worked at camps that did cabin moms for young boys cabins. (5 and 6 year olds.) Where a female staff lived in her own room with privet bathroom and was teamed up with a male staff member. She was in the cabin at all times with the kids and it worked well. But I was 26 and these where 16 and 17 year old girls.

Now just in case you think I miss understood... I thought the same thing but they made it very clear how the cabin arrangement would work.

Would you work where you lived in the cabin with the opposite sex. Would you even work at a camp that was a solo sex camp of the opposite gender?


Last edited by LukeBK; 06/04/14 11:27 PM.
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Wow, I too would be uneasy at that situation. I don't think I would take that job as a girl in a teen boy cabin or as a guy in a teen girl cabin. I think it's sad that there is more concern with guys in regards to girls than girl staff and boy campers since it happens both ways, and even among same sex. But, it still is more taboo and much quicker to accuse. It only takes 1 kid saying that anything inappropriate happens and the career is over even with clearing of charges.

Part of the reason I would not work with a teen boy camp is that I don't work well with teenagers, especially guys. I work best with younger kids. Actually, now that I say that, I worked with a male cocounselor in a boys special needs group ages 11-21, but I was there from breakfast to the end of evening programming. They put one of the male lifeguards in the cabin for nighttime and I slept in a staff cabin next to that cabin. Also, these kids had developmental delays that put their developmental age at somewhere around 8.

For the sake of argument though, I would work as a program staff at a male camp, but not as cabin staff. The second the kids realize that you "can't" go into the bathroom it becomes a place for wrongdoing. There are just too many situations that could happen, especially with no same gender co-counselor.

I have been a counselor for 6-9 year old boys multiple times. My camp has no real problem with it, especially if they need the male staff in the older units. These kids are still young enough to appreciate the "mom" at camp even if they would never say it! And it's not inappropriate at this age. They change in the cabin's bathroom or shower stall, or at the very least, in the bathroom area so I can't see them. But I do that with all my groups since there are windows in the cabin and because I just don't want any allegations of looking by me or the other campers, and it takes away the kids looking at each other's bodies and comparing or teasing as much as it can.


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I was the waterfront director at GS camp, but I did not and would not be alone in a girls cabin without a female counselor ever. I had my own room in the main lodge/health center and I did meals with the campers, and all camp activities but would never put myself in the position of being in a unit tent or even unit campsite unless it was a previously arranged unit event like a campfire.

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I've had coed cabins before.....was a CIT/LIT Director a couple of summers ago. Although yeah I was responsible for supervising while they were inside the cabin...I also had a female co-director and never had to sleep in the same cabin as them or anything like that. It was also easier for me because we were never in our cabins besides at night time to sleep....for rest period we would pick a place on camp and relax there as an entire group, including my female co-director and our boys.

In your situation, yeah I would have declined it as well....just seems like too much of an unnecessary risk to put yourself in. Personally, I also don't think I would ever work at an all girls camp either, although I know tons of guys that do. I'm just more of a coed camp person.

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That does seem like a very odd situation.

My first camp was a GS camp. The director was male, and he of course lived in the directors' cabin. He would go to some of the units at night to check in or read a bed time story for the younger girls. Since I have left, the camp has hired a few male staff as life guards or water front staff. I my knowledge, those staff didn't live on camp. They were local staff who came to camp each day.

Currently we have a rather large group of male staff at camp. They do not live in bunks and are not even allowed in the area of camp where the bunks are. They have their own separate area of camp.

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Yea, any situation where you are sleeping in the same building as them, without any female adults, seems odd. It's such a quick path to lawsuits or misunderstandings. I wouldn't have taken it.

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I've done GS camp and they've hired male staff in the past. The male staff had their own sleeping quarters far away from the girls. I could see why this would make you uneasy, especially since there was no female co-counselor and they wanted you with the girls all the time. I don't blame you for not taking it.

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I feel the same as campingqueen. I would never take a job like that myself.


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I also think (and this is as a guy) that putting that you worked at a GS camp on your resume may cause others concern that there is something pervy about you.

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LukeBK Offline OP
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The more I see people falsely accused of different things the happier I am that I didn't take that job.

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Absolutely. That could have been a disaster in the making. You would have been one upset teen away from the end of your career. At one of my camps I wasn't allowed to take my 8 6 year olds of the same gender as me (female) back to my cabin without our roommate group or my co-counselor there. The only place we could be if we did not have our co-counselors because they were on their 2 hours off besides programming that had a program staff (art, pioneering, challenge course) facilitating was the meadow because there were 3 or more program areas in the meadow. You know how hard it is to do rest hour with 6 year olds in a busy grassy field?!?!? No naps for them ever... or really even quiet time. You also know how hard it is to find enough program staff facilitated activities to fill 4 hours per day with 6 year olds?! Impossible. There weren't that many time slots open for us to do that much art! I had one co-counselor who didn't speak enough English to have gotten the job in my opinion (a LOT of think on your feet problem solving happens that she didn't understand and couldn't reply to) so that whole week I took 2 hours of meadow time every day so she could have another staff member with her at all times. Thank goodness I know a lot of meadow games- both run around and quiet kinds!

anyway, off topic! Safety and protecting yourself and your campers is key, so I am glad you had the idea to stay away from that position!


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You've got to watch out for yourself first. Horrible thing to say (because it's always about the kids/children), but it only takes one accusation to doom a career forever.

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You can have a false accusation with a camper that is the same gender as you as well.


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