oo) Someone told me that Glenn requested that we stop and have a meeting to discuss the issues, and I arranged the meeting. Mike suggested that he lead the meeting, and I agreed to this. Bryce, who is autistic, was very upset by the tension that occurred within the group at this point in the trip. Mike did a very good job moderating the meeting and letting each person have their say and many people spoke, some multiple times. Glenn expressed concern that nothing had been done about Wesley striking him and said that we did not seem to care about the wrong that had been done to him. I said that I took very seriously Wesley’s striking him, but that Wesley was an adult, and my authority as trip leader did not extend to punishing him. Glenn again talked about leaving the group, this time to join another group, but decided not to. Several, including Michelle and Maya, apologized for things that they had said earlier. Glenn admitted that he shared responsibility for some of the conflict that had occurred before the physical altercation. Wesley offered to let Glenn row the kitchen boat through any rapids that Glenn wanted to row from that point forward. After the meeting, things seemed to go better within the group. I could see that members of the group generally made an effort not to take sides against the others. At this meeting, it was decided to divide the group (except for David and Tracy) into work groups, which was implemented that evening and seemed to work well. That night, I passed Glenn on the way to the groover and we spoke briefly. He said not to tell Wesley until the trip was over, but that he would not pursue assault charges against Wesley after the trip was over.

pp) Over the rest of the trip, things went better, although there was certainly some tension and lack of trust that extended through the group beyond Wesley and Glenn. People said that they saw Glenn throw Wesley’s cot on some rocks, and stand on Wesley’s back pack, and someone disconnected our first aid kit on the kitchen boat and put the carabiner that secured it on one of Tom’s water bottles leaving the first aid kit loose in the raft. We avoided a confrontation and moved all of that gear to our raft and had Glenn carry Maya and Ted’s cots on the kitchen boat and our chairs instead. Wesley reported that some of his carabiners disappeared before the gear was moved. Despite what he told me, after the trip was over, Glenn apparently reported the physical altercation to the authorities and accused Wesley of assaulting him. The authorities called Mike, me, and Wesley and took our stories. NPS said that the prosecutor would decide whether to issue a citation against Wesley. If a citation is issued, Wesley may have the opportunity to plea bargain to a lesser charge. If it went to trial, however, other members of the group may have to travel to Flagstaff, Grand Canyon, or possibly even Utah to testify as to what they had seen.

qq) I have thought a lot about what I could have done differently to avoid the conflict that occurred on this trip. I don’t think that the conflict that occurred was foreseeable to any of us, but with the benefit of hindsight, it may have been possible to avoid the conflict. I think it would have been better to have had three rafts instead of four, with four people on each raft. That way, Glenn and Tom, who essentially were David and Tracy’s guests, could have been on David and Tracy’s raft, and Wesley could have been on Michelle’s and my raft or on his uncle Mike’s raft. Three rafts would have been big enough to carry all of our gear, although they would have been more crowded. If that were what we had done, not as many people would have had the opportunity to row the big rapids, but if people got bored waiting for their turn at the oars, they could have kayaked. One thing that we don’t know, however, is whether such an arrangement would have produced other conflicts.