Paying the Piper

The parents should pay for the search, the rescue, and the helicopter ride out of the Tennessee forest: reading the newspaper account, there are enough details to suggest that the 14-year-old boy scout (1) ran away because he didn’t want to be camping (2) hoped to collect $5 from his dad if he didn’t have “fun” on the trip (3) heard rescuers’ voices and claims they didn’t hear him call back (4) left the group because he wanted to hitch-hike home (5) demanded a helicopter ride from an area less than a mile from the well-established campsite and (6) wants his teacher to cut him some slack in submitting late work.

The boy ran away, refused to be found, and wants to be rewarded by holding the system ransom for his safe return. The media attention must be “fun,” much more so than the $5 promised by his father. Can we say poor parenting and even worse response to the boy’s demands?

If he ran away, and evidence says he did, including confiding to his tent mate that he didn’t want to be on the trip, then he wasn’t lost: he was hiding and refused to be found.

If his dad agreed to pay him if he didn’t have “fun” on the trip, the boy deliberately manipulated his father to earn a reward.

If he heard rescuers’ voices and didn’t immediately move toward them and continue to call back, then he didn’t want to be rescued.

If his goal was to hitch-hike home from the road the group took into the forest for the camping trip, then he knew where he was and how to get himself out of the area, but chose to prolong the search and rescue.

If he demanded a helicopter ride after his rescue, it’s a ransom that his family should pay for. Perhaps they can call it his reward for not having “fun.”

What this young man has learned is that he can pretty much call the shots about what he’ll do, when he’ll do it, how he’ll do it, and what reward he expects from doing it.

Why do people do the things they do? Because they can.

We fill the air with excuses and call them reasons, but the bottom line is that any of us will get away with as much as anyone else will allow us to get away with. We don’t stop until we run into an obstacle that won’t allow us to continue. No obstacle: no reason to stop.

The boy set up a situation that took time, resources, energy—and a personal toll—on everyone involved in the search and rescue event, as well as the public who was involved via the media. Paying the piper is a small price for the boy's actions.