Today, the Oregon Supreme Court ordered the release of some 20,000 pages of Boy Scouts of America records regarding suspected of confirmed sexual abuse by BSA volunteers and staffers, reports Yahoo News. The names of those involved—both victims and alleged perpetrators—will however remain confidential.
The BSA fought to keep the documents, dubbed the “perversion files,” sealed—saying they were “maintained to keep out individuals whose actions are inconsistent with the standards of Scouting, and Scouts are safer because those files exist.”
In 2010, the files were admitted as evidence in a civil trial against the Boy Scouts, which found the group was liable in pedophilia case and required to pay some $20 million in compensation.
“The released documents represent the largest and most comprehensive data collection system on child sexual abuse maintained by an organization in the nation,” said Paul Mones, a lawyer for several abuse victims. “Not even the Catholic Church has such a system.”
How about we take this to the next level?
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Last year, four Oregon men sued the Boy Scouts in separate cases for more than $5 million each over childhood sexual abuse they say they suffered at the hands of a pedophile knowingly appointed as their scoutmaster in the 1970s.
Mounting litigation against the Boy Scouts has tarnished the wholesome image of a 100-year-old largely volunteer organization that prides itself on building good character, citizenship and personal fitness among the 2.7 million youth—mostly boys aged eight to 17—who are its members.
The documents reveal that an average of about 60 molesters within the ranks of the Boy Scout were uncovered every year from 1965 to 1985.
So openly gay scouts and leaders are banned, but child molesters get a wink and a nod? That doesn’t sound very character-building or morally straight to us.
Triple S
hehe, BSA means Bull Shit Artists 😛
Daez
Why is it that every homophobic organization or person has so many skeletons in their closet, one of which is usually their “love” of little boys?
Dr. Dick
Somebody call The Vatican, tell them they’ve got some competition……for biggest nest of perverts
B
There’s a legitimate reason to redact names – some of the accusations may be false. The interesting question is what was reported to the police. If they uncovered 60 molesters per year on the average, there should have been 60 reports to the police on the average as well. How many of those reported to the police, if any, were convicted?
How about not redacting the names of convicted child molesters who are named in those files and just redacting the names of innocent individuals?
Steve
I have had conversations with people who sit on the BSA board, and with high ranking officers. These files are not just documentation of cases of child abuse. The purpose of the project is to exclude both child abusers and homosexuals. (They don’t think there is any difference.) They keep a list of names. The documents are just the files that support the list, so they can defend any exclusion action if they need to…
If you have ever written a letter to BSA, to suggest that homosexual or gay people should not be excluded, then YOU are on the list. If anyone has ever mentioned your name, said that they think you might be homosexual, or that you support homosexuals, or oppose the policy of excluding them from BSA, or have even criticized the policy, then YOU are also excluded.
Basically, if you oppose the policy of excluding homosexuals, then you are excluded from BSA. And, as far as they are concerned, the ONLY people who have any right to discuss that policy, are their own members. If you disagree, they revoke your membership, add your name to the list, and stop listening to you. So, the only people they listen too, are the people who agree with them.
Kind of like that “church” in Utah.
Dirty Ole Man
@Steve: As I keep saying..the BSA has been taken over by the LDS..’nuff said!
Barry
I learned many years later that my boy scout leader was gay. I only wished that he could have said something to me…told me something, anything….that would have softened the years ahead when I was coming out. He wouldn’t have harmed a fly and would not have molested kids….but I left scouts because I felt I didn’t belong. I could have learned much more if I had stayed…picked up a few merit badges…but instead I left scouts and went into the follow years confused and lonely in a small town not talking with anyone…not knowing about the larger gay world.
KyleW
@Steve: That’s almost Scientologist in its implications Steve – certainly cultish behaviour. I truly do think that when it comes to children, even private clubs should have limitations of behaviour imposed upon them by law.
KyleW
@Barry: That’s truly heartbreaking Barry. If the boy scouts is about anything, it’s about guidance and leadership how to be a healthy young man, and this valuable opportunity was lost, and continues to be wasted.
I don’t know what is the bigger crime against youth; the sanctioned ostracisation of gays in the boy scouts, or the includion of christianity within the organisation. I know this much – their behaviour is anything but christ-like…
Fritz
The photo used in this article seems to imply that the bearded adult in the photo taken in the control tower of Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland is somehow connected with the headline. I doubt seriously that there is a connection. Therefore the adult figure in this picture has every right to one heck of a lawsuit. I offer my help for free.
Wilf Mentink
Honestly, I cannot understand why the BSA doesn’t call it quits, declare itself bankrupt, or whatever. It has no viability in this era, it originally catered for boys who are naturally attracted to boy-only adventure activity and now has to cater for girls, and it was a natural meeting place for boys who were either gay or experimenting with same-sex. All of the leaders are naturally attracted to young males – all of them – everyone “knows” this, desperate attempts to draw lines beween benign and malignant attraction, or if you like, active and non-active must fail. No sane man volunteers to enter such an arena of suspicion.