A civil trial that opened Wednesday in Portland will show that the Boy Scouts of America knew it had child molesters in its leadership for decades but kept the problem quiet, according to an attorney for one of the victims.
The case, expected to attract national attention, centers on a Portland man who confessed to Scout leaders that he had molested 17 Scouts but was allowed to continue joining boys in Scouting activities.
On a broader scale, the case is one of the first to bring into open court hundreds of confidential files that the 100-year-old organization kept on Scout leaders and others suspected of sexually abusing boys. Though the Scouts, based in Texas, have been sued dozens of times over allegations of sexual abuse, most cases have been settled out of court, keeping files from becoming public.
Patrick Boyle, the Washington, D.C.-based author of “Scout’s Honor: Sexual Abuse in America’s Most Trusted Institution,” said Wednesday that this case may be only the second time such files have been used in a trial…
The Scouts, Kelly Clark said in opening statements, knew it had pedophiles in its organization yet allowed Timur Dykes and others to continue to associate with its members. He held up file folder after file folder from Boy Scout headquarters that he said proves the organization knew of at least 1,000 suspected child molesters from 1965 to 1985.
“Those decisions led naturally, predictably and foreseeably to the abuse of boys like” my client, he said.
RTFA. Ain’t nothing like a corrupt management trying to explain away the results of their policies..
Benji, maybe this will help you out:
Catholic Preist = pedophile.
You see, Preisthood only open to those who renounce sex as diverting them from total attention to god. So who do you get? Thats right===liars. Or, just call them confused.
When confused liars have sex with underaged choir boys that makes those Priests pedophiles.
See how it works?
The BSA has some ridiculous policies in place regarding homosexuals and atheists, but based on my own experience as an adult leader I have to say that their youth protection training (required for all adult leaders) and policies are more than adequate if properly followed. 1-1 contact between youth and adults is prohibited and leaders are told to immediately report any abuse allegations to both the police and the local scout leadership.
I think kids are safer at scouting events than they are in, say, public schools.
grew up with the scouts in the ’60s, no problems I was aware of, can’t wait for my boy to get into scouting… on the other hand, at work there was a raging pedophile that was a scout leader of some level, assistant I think, one of my workmates was a stepfather and when he would bring in his stepson to work, this ped got so excited it was unreal! When the stepson got older, Henry had no interest at all, and the stepfather did not care, it wasn’t his son I guess, either that or because he had been a priest before coming to this job…
#21 Sorry, it doesn’t work that way. The gender of their victims has nothing to do with their sexual orientation.
I wonder if they have a UFIA badge?
It’s hard to tell from the MSM, but both the Catholic Church and the BSA perform much good in the world. In the population at large there is some small percentage of people that are pediophiles. The Church and the BSA may have slightly higher percentages since they are in “target zones”. As both a former scout and a parent, you need to be aware of your kid’s reaction to the various other people in their lives. If your kid isn’t comfortable around some adult, either a freind, relative or scout leader, you need to pay attention to their concerns. This won’t stop all of the sick behavior- but it will prevent a lot of it.
Follow the money to this story and there’s your answer. So far it’s a lot of attorney bull in an effort to build a case to get settlement money.
Eagle scout and current ASM of a troop. Let me say first of all that BSA has some of the most vigorous and sometimes ridiculous rules pertaining to separating the boys from the leaders. If districts/councils knew about this and did nothing I’m shocked. If they didn’t know, perhaps background checks are in order.
As for discrimination against atheists/homosexuals I can say that it varies from Troop to Troop. I am an atheist and I got my Eagle because I was able to get some help from our charter organization (a church). I’ve know other Troops to accept homosexual boys.
Girl scouts is locked down to the extreme in terms of regulations and shit. Don’t look to that as an example, because it doesn’t work, and it puts a huge burden on the troop. If a girl scout troop wants to go on an outing they have to write a sea of paper work detailing every little thing (BECAUSE GIRLS ARE SO DELICATE). Most Boyscout troops do a week long trip once a year and 1 weekend a month. Girl scouts do 2 a year if they are lucky.
You guys keep talking about Catholics but, in this case, it’s the Mormons who hosted this troupe and allegedly helped cover-up the abuse.
More Gay Boy Scout Leaders Now!
Come on,
Have we become so enthralled with becoming victims that we bring this upon ourselves? Hell, some two-bit shrink says “the reason your insecure Johnny is because you were molested, somewhere, sometime.” I know maybe some of this molestation happened but not to the extent the press or better yet lawyers tell us.
I’m sorry if sh*t happened to you, but time to buck up. Bad things happen life goes on.
As an Eagle myself, I’d agree with #4. The real issue with Scouts today is the Mormons and all the baggage they bring like child molestation. Years after I finished, I found out that one of the Scoutmasters had molested one of the other scouts. Background? LDS. The Scout in question? Recruited to join LDS before he was molested. Had no one told me, I’d have never known it happened.
GregAllen, the critical praise for The Vagina Monologues I think shows feminist thinking on the issue pretty well. I’m surprised Hillary Clinton got away with writing a foreword for the book.
What does any one expect from an organisation whose founder was in love with a fellow male officer in South Africa, who urged boys to have nothing to do with girls, who married a lesbian when it was suggested a single middle aged male might not be the best choice to head a boys club and who wrote the founding manual for the boy scouts and called it “Scouting for Boys” He could have been a catholic priest.
I’m a 25 year veteran of the Boy Scouts, counting my time as a boy in the organization and now an adult and father of a scout. My council had a leader arrested for being a pedophile. As soon as it was found out, he was arrested, he plead guilty and went to prison. At the first accusation the cops were called. No waiting.
If a pedaphile specializes in boys, he is homosexual by definition. 90% of the kids the Catholic priests fiddled with were boys. The problem is homosexuals in the priesthood.
You should note that there are more than even within the Catholic church, one branch, the Melkite Catholics, allows married men to become priest. This can help alleviate the problem. But what you call Catholic priest or the “Latin” Catholics are ridden with governance problems. Partially because married priests are not allowed and no parents (fathers or mothers) are part of the governance structure. I think some of the good priests (and there are many of them) cannot comprehend how much more severe this issue is than simply masturbation, which is their only exposure to sex.
90% of the boys fiddled by Catholic priests were 16 years and older, meaning they were gay jailbaiters rather than “pedophiles” as is commonly reported. Gay priests should not have unsupervised contact with teenage males for the same reason that you don’t have male adults hosting sleepovers for nubile 18 year old girls. If you allow it you’re asking for trouble.
I too was touched by a scout master, 25 years ago my life change and only recently did I remember this and dealing with it, it feels like it just happened.For this case in portland brought memories back the good thing is I have proof that this happened and a lawyer thats pursuing this case.The bad is ,the damage is already done.The scout master that did this is very old ,he did this to five boys in 1986 his bail was only 5000.00 thats 1000.00 per child and served no prison time.YES THIS NEEDS TO STOP! I thank the boy that told his story in portland.For it brought my memory back so I can deal with it, its not are fault that theres sick men that prayed on little boys.ITS NOT OUR FAULT!Thank you for telling and putting that sick bastard behind bar where he will get his.
I was molested by an adult Boy Scout official. This man was a “Neighborhood Commissioner” in the late 1950′s. When my parents attempted to press charges, I identified several other boys who were among this pederast’s “favorites.” It turned out that while all of them had been molested, none of their parents would let them testify. Consequently, there was no prosecution. The perpetrator just quietly disappeared.
The victims in this case were all in puberty. The criminal personally identified himself to me as what we now call “gay,” saying, “My mother would die if she knew I was a homosexual.” He used this argument to persuade me not to inform. Please note that this distinguishes him as a pederast and not a pedophile. There is an important difference, because while pederasts are by definition homosexuals pedophiles need not be. I wish people who offer their opinions on this subject would learn the difference.
Similarly, virtually all the priest sex offenders have been homosexuals. Upwards of 90% of the victims have been males who were already past the onset of puberty. If these perpetrators had been pedophiles they would have molested pre-pubescent children of both sexes more or less equally. They did not.
Why is it so difficult to understand that homosexual males are attracted to juvenile males in the same way many normal males may be attracted to teenage girls? Only those attracted to children who have not reached puperty are “pedophiles.” This confusion of terminology is deliberately perpetuated by the “gay rights” crowd, which is determined to deflect the truth that so-called priest “pedophilia” is fundamentally a homosexual problem. Those who knowingly carry on this linguistic confusion are collaborating in the disguise that allows male homosexuals to seduce teenage boys.