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..
It’s beginning to look like any adult who spends time with kids is a pedophile-candidate. In the future, the only guarantee that kids will survive growing up without being molested will occur through their being reared by androids.
Well, at least they kept the gays out…
You can’t leave you children alone anywhere or SOMEONES going to touch them.
And the atheists, can’t forget the godless heathens.
Though, to be fair, the Boy Scouts (as an organization, not every member) do believe that belief in a higher power is necessary to lead a good life. Whereas nothing in the Scout Law or Oath actually precludes homosexuality.
I’m getting away from the topic at hand though. I grew up in the Boy Scouts. I’m an Eagle and so are my father, brother, and a number of close friends. We’ve all since given up on the people at “national” in Texas as hopelessly out of touch.
I personally hold that between the influence of the LDS and Catholic church, who sponsor a huge number of troops and make up a big chunk of scouts, “national” can never admit gays and atheists or risk schism.
“he had molested 17 Scouts” /// Looks like he earned his Pedophile Badge and is working on his first oak leaf cluster.
I think they kept the gays out so that they didn’t have the competition.
They also kept the Atheists out.
I spent several years as a Boy Scout, two decades as a Catholic, and 9 years of coaching youth sports but never saw any of this behavior. So it is not widespread…but it is there.
The Catholic Church has done a horrible job of dealing with these problems. Let’s hope the Boy Scouts do better.
#6 wow, really? gays = pedophile? i did not know that.
The boy scouts have had policies in place to make it very difficult for abuse to occur, though if I recall correctly those policies came in in the 80s. This was to protect themselves as much as the kids — “two deep” means that there are at least two boys or two adults involved in any adult-boy encounter, which makes it much more difficult for abuse to occur, and much more difficult for false accusations of it to occur as well. This is reinforced in the adult leadership constantly.
S.
#9
Thats good to hear, I would love to involve any sons I have in boy scouts, and would get involved (being an Eagle Scout) quite heavily.
Good to hear good heads are prevailing.
I wonder if the girl Scouts have the same problem.
#11, the girl scouts do have the same problem. You can find plenty of stories of girls having their first lesbian experience with a scout master. Apparently that is not considered as big a deal. The feminists were full of praise for The Vagina Monologues which has the line if it was rape it was a good rape, after a 12 year old is raped by her teacher.
The basic defence of the national Scouts is that local troops where in charge and responsible. I see some merit in that argument if it can be proven they they had no idea about this problem.
But, I hope the Boy Scouts have learned from this lesson and taken the issue of child abuse more seriously — all adults should be background checked, at the very least. (this may already be happening, I don’t know.) No kids should ever be alone with only one adult.
I was a scout, myself, and it was a very positive experience with no hint of abuse at all. But, since then, I’ve heard stories from other formers scouts who where aware of abuse. It seems like NOBODY, including many kids and parents, took it very seriously even though it wasn’t much of a secret.
>> # 11 Angel H. Wong said, on March 19th, 2010 at 11:11 am
>> I wonder if the girl Scouts have the same problem.
I have a child in the girl scouts and attend meetings (but not as a leader):
1) All adults are background checked (not just leaders).
2) All meetings and outings must have multiple leaders present.
3) Leaders get training on the issue.
My guess is that the above three precautions would have likely prevented a case like the one here in Portland.
>> # 12 MikeN said, on March 19th, 2010 at 11:20 am
>> You can find plenty of stories of girls having their first lesbian experience with a scout master.
Really? I haven’t heard even one story, although I don’t doubt it has happened. But maybe not “plenty” of times.
Even so, I actually agree with you about the double standard with underage lesbian encounters.
A couple of times I’ve heard lesbians speak publicall of statutory rape (not what is usually called paedophilia).
It’s not “plenty” of cases, even twice, boldly spoken, made me wonder if statutory rape is not taken seriously enough by the lesbian community. These two women (and those listening) seemed to not see a problem with a grown woman trying to seduce teenage girls.
I was in the Boy Scouts and Explorers in the 60s. I wasn’t aware of any problems in either program at the time. Either pedophilia was rare, or there were enough parents along that there were no problems.
I suspect the real problems with pedophilia in Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts is that it’s much harder to get the parents to get involved in troop activities (they’re too busy, supposedly), and so there’s more likelihood of pedophilia.
I’ve got a son in the Cub Scouts, and the issue of inappropriate contact between children and adults is front and center. Practically the first thing the Tiger cub (6yo) manual discusses is this subject. Then there are rules about having the adult partner (parent or guardian) at all scout events, including meetings.
When I was a Boy Scout in the 70s, I never had to deal with this subject, but as I recall, there was no talk about the problem and certainly no policies I was aware of to make sexual abuse difficult to get away with.
I think the Cubs are doing a good job. I can’t speak for the Scouts per se, but I’ll bet things are much better than 30 years ago when these cases of abuse occurred.
I think the scouts have come a long way. I’m sorry the organization as it is today has to suffer for its problems that existed 30 years ago.
The pedophiles go where they have the best access. The Boy Scouts is one of those places, as are several others…
The current Cub Scout requirements put the issue front and center to the point of making a lot of parents uncomfortable in the opposite direction. They need to have very hard discussions with their six-year-old boys. The article cited above is a discussion for 25+ years ago when the entire concept was far less well understood.
Today BSA backgrounds everybody and doesn’t even allow 1-1 contact between father and son at large events so that there’s no way for someone to misunderstand who’s following the rules and who isn’t. It’s a complete hassle — you can’t walk a boy to the water fountain without bringing a third. But it’s ingrained into the culture for two reasons: a) protect the boys, and b) protect the organization.
S.
I was in cub scouts in the 80′s. I don’t remember anything like that going on. I would remember something like that. I think this was an isolated incident.
#8 deeznutz62 said, “wow, really? gays = pedophile? i did not know that.”
Of course gays = pedophile. Gays have sex with men. Pedophiles have sex with the underage. If both the victims and the pedophiles are both men that makes those pedophiles gay.