Championship Subdivision Football | FCS Football | Stadiums | Blogs | Forums

By Kim Christensen and Jason Felch, Los Angeles Times

September 16, 2012

Over two decades, the Boy Scouts of America failed to report hundreds of alleged child molesters to police and often hid the allegations from parents and the public.

A Los Angeles Times review of 1,600 confidential files dating from 1970 to 1991 has found that Scouting officials frequently urged admitted offenders to quietly resign — and helped many cover their tracks.

Volunteers and employees suspected of abuse were allowed to leave citing bogus reasons such as business demands, "chronic brain dysfunction" and duties at a Shakespeare festival.

The details are contained in the organization's confidential "perversion files," a blacklist of alleged molesters, that the Scouts have used internally since 1919. Scouts' lawyers around the country have been fighting in court to keep the files from public view. (*Just like the fucking catholics)

As The Times reported in August, the blacklist often didn't work: Men expelled for alleged abuses slipped back into the program, only to be accused of molesting again. Now, a more extensive review has shown that Scouts sometimes abetted molesters by keeping allegations under wraps.

In the majority of cases, the Scouts learned of alleged abuse after it had been reported to authorities. But in more than 500 instances, the Scouts learned about it from boys, parents, staff members or anonymous tips.

Discuss: Boy Scouts and alleged child molesters

In about 400 of those cases — 80% — there is no record of Scouting officials reporting the allegations to police. In more than 100 of the cases, officials actively sought to conceal the alleged abuse or allowed the suspects to hide it, The Times found.

In 1982, a Michigan Boy Scout camp director who learned of allegations of repeated abuse by a staff member told police he didn't promptly report them because his bosses wanted to protect the reputation of the Scouts and the accused staff member.

"He stated that he had been advised by his supervisors and legal counsel that he should neutralize the situation and keep it quiet," according to a police report in the file.

That same year, the director of a Boy Scout camp in Virginia wrote to the Scouts' top lawyer, asking for help dealing with a veteran employee suspected of a "lifelong pattern" of abuse that had not been reported to police.

"When a problem has surfaced, he has been asked to leave a position 'of his own free will' rather than risk further investigation," the director wrote. "The time has come for someone to make a stand and prevent further occurrences."

There is no indication the Scouts took the matter to law enforcement.

In 1976, five Boy Scouts wrote detailed complaints accusing a Pennsylvania scoutmaster of two rapes and other sex crimes, according to his file. He abruptly resigned in writing, saying he had to travel more for work.

"Good luck to you in your new position," a top troop representative wrote back. He said he was accepting the resignation "with extreme regret."

Scouting officials declined to be interviewed for this article. In a prepared statement, spokesman Deron Smith said, "We have always cooperated fully with any request from law enforcement and today require our members to report even suspicion of abuse directly to their local authorities."

bluehenbillk wrote:I never knew D1B grew up in Michigan....

CID1990 wrote:How many of these molesters were gay?

CID1990 wrote:How many of these molesters were gay?

JohnStOnge wrote:

CID1990 wrote:How many of these molesters were gay?

All of them had homosexual inclinations unless they were women.

This thing where a man molests a boy then people say it's not homosexuality is nonsense. It's homosexuality.

93henfan wrote:And here I thought Webelos was simply a portmanteau of We'll Be Loyal Scouts.

GannonFan wrote:Just like the Catholic scandal, the USA swimming scandal, the Penn State scandal, and like every other scandal where an organization, religious or secular, discovers pedaphiles in their midst and they worry more about the outside perception of of people of their organization than they do the victims being hurt by these abuses. It's a sick world we live in where any organization that brings children together into one place is one that needs to be closely monitored because pedaphiles will flock to those places in droves.

D1B wrote:

GannonFan wrote:Just like the Catholic scandal, the USA swimming scandal, the Penn State scandal, and like every other scandal where an organization, religious or secular, discovers pedaphiles in their midst and they worry more about the outside perception of of people of their organization than they do the victims being hurt by these abuses. It's a sick world we live in where any organization that brings children together into one place is one that needs to be closely monitored because pedaphiles will flock to those places in droves.

Well said.

The catholic scandal being the worse, in so many ways, by far.

GannonFan wrote:

D1B wrote:
Well said.

The catholic scandal being the worse, in so many ways, by far.

It's worse because it's an institution that professes to be far better than they acted. But when it comes down to it, children in all of these places were abused. Setting up a ranking system to determine which abuse is the worst starts to miss the point - children were abused.

D1B wrote:

GannonFan wrote:
It's worse because it's an institution that professes to be far better than they acted. But when it comes down to it, children in all of these places were abused. Setting up a ranking system to determine which abuse is the worst starts to miss the point - children were abused.

Bullshit, asshole. The scale of abuse, the arrogance and sophistication of the cover up puts it in a league of its own. The fact that it's been going on for 1200 or so years adds to this.

Don't make excuses for the Catholics.

andy7171 wrote:

D1B wrote:
Bullshit, asshole. The scale of abuse, the arrogance and sophistication of the cover up puts it in a league of its own. The fact that it's been going on for 1200 or so years adds to this.

Don't make excuses for the Catholics.

Hey! What changed your mind on those other 800 years?

ASUMountaineer wrote:I've never seen anyone so glad to post about another scandal involving pedophilia.

In all seriousness, anyone that abuses children or makes it possible for the abuse to continue and covers it up deserves whatever trouble comes their way--regardless of any affiliation.

CID1990 wrote:Nobody ever asked to be my special friend when I was in the Boy Scouts.

Now I feel kind of jilted in a way.