um, as a girl scout in the 70s I participated in camping trips, and attended a girl scout summer camp. So I don’t think that accounts for the difference in terms of (known) allegations. No idea what does, perhaps a culture (beyond scouting) which encourages rough-house play among boys as well as among boys and men, which - at least back in my scouting era - was not encouraged/common among girls let alone girls and women.
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Your pain pales in comparison to the pain a single Scout leader can inflict on the children in his troop. We had such a person in my home town. The BSA facilitated his cover up for decades. Authorities said it’s possible he abused over 100 kids. Let that sink in. One man, over 100 kids.
As for the “great lengths” you refer to, this website says the training is an online program one can complete in a single evening.
By one estimate, there were 7,800 potential abusers over the years. That’s not something that can be swept away with new rules and training.
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Ditto sanni. I was a Girl Scout for five years and camping was ALL we did, after selling cookies. Cookies and camping, that was Girl Scouts in the sixties and early 70s. You couldn’t get a badge unless you went camping.
And I’ll put Girl Scout camping skills up against any “eagle scout” who ever lived.
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I still think most people respect the institution of scouting.
A couple of weeks after Trumps Boy Scoutkulturkampf at the Jamboree I was on a flight back home to NYC from Denver. There was a troop of Boy Scouts on the plane. Well mannered young lads of various backgrounds who were coming home from a trip. About 3/4 of the way into the flight the pilot announced their presence, mentioned their troop number and where they were hiking and camping.
The entire plane erupted in spontaneous applause. You could tell it was just a simple polite way to respect the institution of scouting, honor the young men and subtlety stick it to Trump.
it is a stretch to compare the BOY SCOUTS with the ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH…The ‘church’ is a closed society…the SCOUTS welcome all kids…the only way to prevent abuse is vigilant parenting…I always knew the SCOUT LEADERS…same as with coaches, teachers in the schools my kids went to…these’class action’ suits are simply a ploy for the lawyers who run them, to collect a ‘setlement’…the so-called victims, get next to nothing from the ‘settlement’… the lawyers pay themselves first…it would be interesting to see the way these ‘settlements’ are disbursed…… people won’t admit it, but when you get a bunch of young boys together…they do indulge in horse-play… not on the level of ‘lord of the flies’/… but kids can be rough and mean… sometimes they even ‘abuse’ other kids.
Ah! This might be why the Mormons decided they would split from the Boy Scouts about a year or so ago, to form their own scouting group with a significant lack of blackjack and hookers. They claimed it was because of morals or something something gay people, but they must’ve gotten wind of these lawsuits and allegations coming and wanted to protect the church from its own overdue sex abuse reckoning.
The Mormon Church was a disproportionate monetary sponsor of the Boy Scouts and they are absolutely involved in child and sex abuse, probably doing the same things the Catholic Church was doing but covering it up better since they’re a smaller and more insular group.
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It seems to me that they do have quite a bit in common. In the past, Scout troops seem to usually be closely tied to a church and a lot of the moralizing of the Boy Scouts was based in Christian doctrine. I’m not sure how much that is still the case, but while they might have been “welcoming” to all boys, they certainly colored some of their attitudes towards people who were different based on theological doctrines (e.g. homosexuality).
Though the troops where I grew up were attached to Unitarian churches, so they sort of made a mockery of the overall BSA’s devoutness, but I don’t think they were the norm.
I have to respectfully disagree. I’m an Eagle Scout who was a camp counselor and camp Aquatics Director in the 70s and 80s, then later a District Executive. It was common knowledge amongst senior scouters and scouting professionals that the national council maintained a “Pervert File”. And the SOP for any suspected behavior was removal and silence. A number of incidents I witnessed and reported to my Council Executive were never referred to the police. Also, at the time, other youth-focused organizations (Big Brothers Big Sisters, YMCA, 4H, etc.) would ask the BSA to share its PF. It never was, its very existence always denied.
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This is just the opening the Guardians Of Predators’ YELLow YOUth has been looking for to expand its cadre of brain dead, misogynistic xenophobes AKA the future of Young Republicans of America.
Unfortunately, the GoP takeover of the BSA began much earlier in the late 70s and 80s with the national council’s move from NJ to Texas. Around the same time, the BSA’s attempt to appeal to urban populations, which began in the heady, progressive days of the 60s and early 70s, was pretty much dropped in favor of shoring up recruitment numbers in more white, affluent suburban and rural populations.
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Yeah it leaves a very deep groove in the psyche that if we’re really fortunate we learn somehow to live something resembling a normal life.
@cervantes it’s not logical. Deep psyche stuff never is.
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If anyone is surprised at this behavior has had their heads where the sun don’t shine. A group of pubescent boys and one adult “leader”. Just like camp counselors, youth leaders, ministers, priests and any other predator you can think of. This is low hanging fruit for them. NOW they want to add another adult as a “chaperone”. Wait until two of them are predators. Disband these organizations that round up young kids and put them under the control of one adult, two adults or three adults and are out of view of the public. Whatever good they claim they do is minuscule to the damage they do to youngsters.
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Their financial report for 2017 (most recent I could find) showed net assets of $183, 286, 000. I’m not sure where you got the information that the Girl Scouts’ finances are a mess? Do you have a citation for that?
I’m pretty sure that the reason the GSA hasn’t had the same level of legal action taken against them is because 80% of sex abusers of children are male while only 20% are female and of that 20% only 6% of those cases involved sexual abuse of girls. You are being redirected...
I was in Girl Scouts way ack in the day and we went camping a lot! I also have never heard of a girl scout being sexually abused by a pedophile in the GSA ranks. But boy have I heard about BSA pedophilia from boys I knew back then and later from men who were still torn up about it years and years later. And I know of one assistant scout leader who sexually abused several boys and when the local BSA big shots were told, they just kicked him out of their organization with no criminal referral at all.
I’m not predisposed towards sympathy for the BSA because of their long-standing bigotry against gay boys and men. It wasn’t until their troops started getting kicked out of schools and other places and their local headquarters started being told to remove themselves from city, county, and state properties that they allowed gay boys into their organization. Nope.
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How so?
And why didn’t the BSA get 45* off the stage while he was swearing and berating HRC and carrying on like he was at some frat party? Parents were angry that their sons had been exposed to such a debacle.
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Only very recently have the BSA allowed gay boys into their organization. In the past five years I think. And really, who doesn’t know that male pedophiles are almost always heterosexual?
And boys who are atheists were never allowed in. Are they now? Heck, now the BSA even allows girls so maybe atheists can join, too.
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Plaintiffs’ lawyers “recognize that this is a very unique and lucrative opportunity,” said attorney Karen Bitar,
making me wonder how many lawsuits could be eliminated by universal health insurance. People who suffer major Adverse Childhood Events like sexual abuse will often need years of behavioral and mental health care to cope with their demons and develop resiliency. The ACE also puts them at risk of physical health problems such as hypertension and diabetes. Just take care of people!
The victims can’t afford to pay for it and don’t deserve to pay for it. The old perverts who molested them certainly deserve to pay, but they don’t have the money either. People sue because there’s no other choice.
Yes they should have thrown him off the stage like a contestant on the Gong show. It’s the BSA and they probably thought “respect the office regardless of the occupant”. Or listened to some wingnut members.
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Ummm…where were the authorities and others in the community that would allow 100 children to be abused by a single person? It’s easy to demonize the BSA, but as someone who is involved in Scouts and has been since childhood, I can tell you that training runs deep in the organization and I know because I’ve been through it. Yes, you can complete the minimal YPT Training in an evening, but that is not the entirety of the trainings that youth leaders take part in. I see that you cropped my original post, in which I was careful not to diminish the pain that those who have been abused feel. I don’t discount that. But I think this campaign to impugn Scouting is sad. How many evil adults in public and private schools have abused how many thousands of children and had that covered up by the school administrations or others who wanted to keep it quiet. Is it right? Absolutely not. Does it happen? Absolutely. Is there a campaign against schools for having allowed those abuses to happen?
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