The Boy Scouts of America is a national organization, and it is one of the largest youth organizations in America. They have numerous branches all across the United States, including in Georgia. A month ago, if you had asked me what I thought of the Boy Scouts, I would have replied with something along the lines of: "I think that they are a great way for young boys to bond and learn leadership skills." I have multiple friends that are scouts and, until recently, I knew nothing bad about the organization.
Today, the Boy Scouts released "more than 15,000 pages detailing accusations of sexual abuse against 1,247 scout leaders between 1965 and 1985, with thousands of victims involved, perhaps many thousands" after fighting in court for decades to prevent the release, arguing that both parties, the victims and the abusers, deserved confidentiality. The lawyer who had filed a civil suit against the Boy Scouts, Kelly Clark, had fought all the way to the Oregon Supreme Court to gain permission to release the files.
When you peruse the "ineligible volunteer" files, more commonly called the perversion files, the data is horrifying. In one case, an assisstant scout master was accused of "overt homosexual activity with underage boys" in 1972. Even though his name was filed as "ineligible", five years later, he was still a scout master for the Boy Scouts, just in a different troop; he was later arrested and charged with multiple counts of sexual assault. Another one, from 1982, was about a scout master who had been accused by parents. He admitted to everything, resigned and promised to take treatment. However, that man had been on the "ineligible list" since the 1970s for previous accusations of abuse, which the parents had not been told. In fact, "this history was [never] shared with the parents" at all.
This is a horrifying side of the organization to view, especially in the case of the Boy Scouts, as they are "an organization that built its name and reputation on trust." Millions of parents worldwide trust scout masters to take care of their sons, and hope that their sons gain some life lessons out of their scouting experience. If we've lost trust the Boy Scouts, what can we keep our trust in?
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/19/us/boy-scout-documents-reveal-decades-of-sexual-abuse.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Today, the Boy Scouts released "more than 15,000 pages detailing accusations of sexual abuse against 1,247 scout leaders between 1965 and 1985, with thousands of victims involved, perhaps many thousands" after fighting in court for decades to prevent the release, arguing that both parties, the victims and the abusers, deserved confidentiality. The lawyer who had filed a civil suit against the Boy Scouts, Kelly Clark, had fought all the way to the Oregon Supreme Court to gain permission to release the files.
When you peruse the "ineligible volunteer" files, more commonly called the perversion files, the data is horrifying. In one case, an assisstant scout master was accused of "overt homosexual activity with underage boys" in 1972. Even though his name was filed as "ineligible", five years later, he was still a scout master for the Boy Scouts, just in a different troop; he was later arrested and charged with multiple counts of sexual assault. Another one, from 1982, was about a scout master who had been accused by parents. He admitted to everything, resigned and promised to take treatment. However, that man had been on the "ineligible list" since the 1970s for previous accusations of abuse, which the parents had not been told. In fact, "this history was [never] shared with the parents" at all.
This is a horrifying side of the organization to view, especially in the case of the Boy Scouts, as they are "an organization that built its name and reputation on trust." Millions of parents worldwide trust scout masters to take care of their sons, and hope that their sons gain some life lessons out of their scouting experience. If we've lost trust the Boy Scouts, what can we keep our trust in?
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/19/us/boy-scout-documents-reveal-decades-of-sexual-abuse.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
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