ACA Home Forums Ghost Stories and the ACA

I'm not sure if this has been brought up in the past or not but, I have been told that the ACA has banned Ghost stories, is this true? I have searched around the good ole' net and could not find it.

I don't know if that is true or not but it sounds kind of strange. I mean how would they enforce that??

They might say something more like, "use discernment when choosing stories and songs to use at your camp" or soemthing like that...

If they have banned them, good riddance, ghost stories cause nothing but drama even with the older campers. Last summer we had a group of the oldest campers seeing red eyes in their cabin after a ghost story.

I don't know that the ACA banned them, but the trend throughout most responsible camps is to ban them via staff policy.

responsible camps? come on!!

it's not irresponsible to allow ghost stories. it's tradition & fun for some kids. and some of those stories have been passed down for generations.

Well, as long as they are part of tradition, who cares if it scares the kids and has a significant negative impact on their summer.

I think it depends on the story.

For example:
We have a "legend" at our camp concerning one "KiWalker." Folksat my camp will know what I'm talking about. OH, and the little girl in the nightgown from the summer of 04. Both of these scare the pants off of even our oldest girls. So we try not to tell them, but of course the story gets spread anyway.

However, there is a "ghost" who lives in Manor House named John who is really nice and loves his CITs. He's just mischievious, not mean or bad. (But supposedly there is a "portal" to an etherworld up in the crawl space in Manor, which is why it's all boarded up...) And we also have a legend of the Storybook Tree about a girl who got lost on the mountain and a tree protected her or somethign... Don't remember exactly.

So it really depends on the story, even if it is "tradition," you know? THink about the age group you are working with. If it's soemthing that scares you when you're in the woods at night, DON'T tell it. (Unless you don't scare easily, then just think about how scared the girls would be.)

I didn't find anything about it in a search of the standards--no guidelines on stories at all.

I don't think we've ever officially told the staff "no, they're not allowed," but it's probably come up when talking about other things. No one really wants a crying camper. Kids get scared about weird things enough as it is... like, when we sing something in a minor key...

When I was a teenager I made up a ghost story--really, embellished something that had happened in camp history--and scared my fellow campers, but scared myself worse than anyone else.

i know that at my camp we are not allowed to tell ghost stories, even if the kids ask for them. because then a kid writes a letter home, "my counselor told me a really scary story and i had a really bad dream after." the kid might not have told you this b/c he or she was embarrassed to tell you b/c the other kids thought it was "cool" so you didn't know about the situation until the parents call camp and are wondering if their child is ok.

Yeah...no on the ghost stories thing. Unfortunately it's another victim of every little thing being construed as child abuse. So, for the past 10 years or so, I've been trained/have trained that exact thing.

What's hard is enforcing camper to camper ghost stories. But if I ever heard of it happening, we had a unit chat to keep it from happening again.

All of our ghost stories end up as corny jokes. And then all the kids end up saying "That's it!"

We got told during training last year not to spread scary stories because they can be upsetting. There are tales about camp, of course, but they mostly circulate among the staff. Heck, they scare the pants off of me, and I'd rather not spread the fear.

(Haha, Speckles, we're supposed to have a little-girl-in-a-nightgown-ghost as well. And some obligatory ancient Indian burial grounds, too. :rolleyes: )

We generally don't tell ghost stories, we tell stories but generally not anything scary. The CIT's will sometimes tell stories amongst themselves but they are all in high school. They're are so many other good stories that theres no reason to tell a ghost story.

Personally, I like ghost stories. Also though I wouldn't be telling them to anyone under 13 years old. There's no ban of ghost stories, just that you have common sense. And if you're not able to deal with the consequences of your actions well don't tell them. There are multiple "traditions" that some consider bad/wrong. That is another topic all together.

The camp I worked at banned scary stories. Though campers were reading Stephen King and others of that ilk. It's just that when one story starts it then becomes somewhat a practical joke type thing. That they escalate.

Use your common sense folks. Follow your camp rules in regarding these, there is a reason behind it.

Speckles those stories freak me out- and im 23!!

I know they freak you out! They freak out even those of us who have been at camp for years! Why wouldn't it scare international staff members who haven't ever been there before.

We used to have a magic dragon that came to all the camp fires and protected the brownies. He had a special log and everything. I don't know what happeneded to him, his name was Puff, original, I know. He probably flew away. Haha.

Heheh. We have a special Camp Fairy who has much the same job, along with writing encouraging postcards to homesick campers. Maybe Puff and she hang out together in the off-season.

I dont think the ACA has banned ghost stories and my previous camps have not told me to not tell the kids ghost stories

We have a story about a girl with long red hair who is often seen in one of our tent units and if you call out to her, she walks (or runs) off and disappears.

At another camp, there are a bunch of stories about a particular unit being haunted and strange things happening there at night. It's been said that sometimes late at night you can hear horses trotting through the forest. I've also heard tales of flashlights going out when entering that unit even when you have fresh batteries, and I know of one particular counselor who always lost her contact lens when she went there.

These stories have been passed down for ages and I just learned that now one is telling them anymore. I can understand why, but I still think it's a bit sad that the old stories are dying off with the old staff.

CAM people will all know our little camp tale. I believe a counsellor made up a story about "Hobo Jack" to scare the kids into behaving or something like that. It really worked. I remember hearing that they had to tell the kids it wasnt true to stop them from being really scared, but a few of the old campers continue to tell the story to the new campers so theres always the occaisional kid who needs to be explained that hobo jack isnt real.

I won't tell ghost stories for two reasons. 1) The might actually scare the kids and i don't want a scared kid on my hands and 2) i'm really horrible at tellin stories. If a girl wants to tell a story though, i don't mind that, as long as it's not before bed.

I personally love ghost stories, i love being scared haha. I'm sure not all kids would feel the same though.

I won't tell ghost stories for two reasons. 1) The story might actually scare the kids and i don't want a scared kid on my hands and 2) i'm really horrible at tellin stories. If a girl wants to tell a story though, i don't mind that, as long as it's not before bed.

I personally love ghost stories, i love being scared haha. I'm sure not all kids would feel the same though.

I love ghost stories but they scare me so much. It's all good until I can imagine some little girl in a nightgown staring at me when I sleep. I don't tell the camper ghost stories, it's not worth what could happen. We had several ghosts at my camp last summer. Stories were swapped among the staff. While some were obviously untrue, there were some very credible people claiming to have seen the ghosts.

There is a particular cabin at my old camp that was haunted. Campers are NEVER EVER told of camp ghosts (especially in junior where this girl was.)Two years ago a girl at her first summer there, from this cabin (who had no ties to camp before her being there)drew a picture for her counselor of everyone in their cabin. The counselor noticed there was an extra person and asked the camper who it was. The girl said, "That's the girl who watches us sleep."

On a lighter note,my sister goes to Camp Sweeney, for people with juvenile diabetes. THere they have some sort of monster that flies over the camp. Actually it is a volunteer who owns his own plane and he drops sugar free gum from it for the campers. I think that's so cool, and so nice of him. The campers, even the little ones, underxtand he is not an actual monster. He flies over in the middle of the day, so the atmosphere is fine.