Consequences for Code of Conduct Offenses

Illegal or Dangerous Activities

If a person is caught doing illegal activities or actions that pose immediate danger to other campers or themselves, the Three-Step Process for Consequences for Offenders of the Code of Conduct below does not apply. The offender will be asked to leave camp immediately without getting a refund. For a partial list of illegal activities, see PA State Park Regulations.

Incident Report

• We have an ongoing incident report shared document with the date, type of offense, and the names of people involved. This document is accessible to program directors and main staff. Each offense needs to be added to the incident report by the program director. The offenders and their parents should be informed at the time of the offense.
• If someone has a consequence in the incident report that occurred in a previous program, then a new offense will be counted as the second offense, even if it is the first offense in that particular program. Records stay in the report for two years.

Three-Step Process for Consequences for Offenders of the Code of Conduct

First Offense

The camp director will have a one-on-one talk with the offender. If the camp director is a young adult, he/she together with an older co-director, education director, or other parent will talk with them.

Second Offense

• The camp director and, if applicable, a parent will have a talk with the child and the child's parents. If the child is adopted, parents will be called on the phone and the adopted parents will be included in the talk. The child will be told to sleep in the parents'/adopted parents' cabin the next night.
• If the child's offense was during the last night of camp, they will have to sleep in the parent's cabin the first night of the next program they participate.
• They will not be allowed to be a group leader or main staff member for 1-2 years. Exact time to be decided by the program director, based on the severity of the offense.
• They will be told that a 3rd offense will have the consequence of having to leave camp or not be allowed to camp for 1 year.

Third Offense

The offender will be asked to leave camp. The unused portion of the camp fee for any accompanying family member can be refunded. The fee for the offending person will not be refunded. If the 3rd offense happens during the last night of camp, their registrations will be blocked for 1 year unless there is a written apology and promise to follow the camp rules.

Guidelines for Enforcing Curfew

• It is recommended that the program director assign a few reliable people to do night patrol duty on some nights, and especially on the last night. This role is not an official volunteer assignment, and in order for everyone to get enough rest at least some nights, the night patrol people should not be the same people every night. One male and one female person, with one being a young adult and one a parent, would be optimal so they can enter the boys and girls lodges and because of possible authority issues.

• 12:00 am is lights-out time, the latest time when everyone is supposed to go to sleep, and 12:30 am is lodge/cabin curfew. Camp directors can change the lights-out time. (Example: 11:00 pm during a week with younger families.) If the night patrol finds activities after 12:30 am:

1. They record the names of the offenders. The night patrol has the authority to ask everybody for their names.
2. They tell them to go to their lodge or cabin to sleep and ask them to report to the camp director in the morning.
3. The night patrol reports the names to the camp director the next morning and explains the incident.

• The night patrol will check any time after ½ hour after the dining hall is officially closed for missing people in the lodges. The number of people in each building should match the number of people on the list. The list of who is sleeping where can be viewed in the dining hall or can be received from the registrar. This list should be accurate, since participants are asked during registration to report any changes of their sleeping arrangement.
• If there are missing people, the night patrol looks for them. The meadow, the sports field, the dining hall, empty staff buildings and cabins, the pool area, the waterfall just outside of Shehaqua are places where people were hanging out in previous years.

• If the missing people can’t be found, the number of missing people is reported to the camp director the next morning.
• Being caught outside the cabin or lodge after curfew counts as one offense. Being caught a second time later that same night (after having been told to go to bed when caught the first time) counts as a second offense.
• In the past, the park rangers have patrolled the park at night, and they got very upset when they found campers wandering around outside of the camp after midnight.

Guidelines for Enforcing Other Offenses

For offenses other than violation of curfew, such as inappropriate clothing, inappropriate language, or flirting, the camp director and, if applicable, a parent should also have a talk with the offending person and their parents. The Three-Step Process for Consequences for Offenders of the Code of Conduct applies for such offenses, too.