Boy Scouts of America: At least 92,000 have filed sex abuse claims against the Boy Scouts

[MarysLurker]

teachers

The amount of abuse in the public schools is astronomical. Of course… The media never talks about it.

From a US Department of Education report:

3.0 PREVALENCE OF EDUCATOR SEXUAL MISCONDUCT
3.1 Sources and methods. Studies documenting child sexual abuse by any
adult are conducted using two approaches. Incidence studies examine child sexual
abuse official reports to child protective or criminal agencies. Prevalence studies ask
children or adults if they have ever been sexually abused as a child by an adult.
Incidence rates are generally lower than prevalence, since many more children are
sexually abused than report this abuse to authorities. Only 5 to 6 percent of child sexual
abuse cases become known to social services or the police (Kelly et al., 1991).
Results of prevalence studies differ based upon definitions of sexual abuse,
sample, and data collection methods but range from 13 to 34 percent of females and 7 to
16 percent of males (Freel, 2003). Gorey and Leslie (1997), in a review of prevalence
studies where they controlled for response rates and operational definitions concluded
that 15 percent of women and 7 percent of men were sexually abused as children.

If you have a girl, 1 in 7 chance she will be abused in public school. If you have a boy, it is about 1 in 10.

 

[Viki63]

Scouts is an admirable organization. There are going to be predators anywhere, so unless you are going to prevent your child from joining anything, you run a risk.
My grandson is in scouts, and so far it’s been a good thing. Since he’s just in first grade, I attend with him. But of course as he gets older, he will go on campouts, etc with only the leaders. I understand they have rules in place to prevent abuse – at least 2 adults have to be present.
I expect it’s safer now than in years past.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

I know in past decades, there were also a significant number of incidents on campouts that involved persons unknown harming one of the campers. There was an incident near here years ago, on the grounds of a Catholic church where a scout troop was camping. It was one of those churches with a big campus that backed up on woods, and someone murdered one of the boys in the night. It’s never been solved and gets a “cold case” article in the news from time to time., and it’s not clear at all whodunnit, although of course the last article I read seemed to be trying to suggest that if it happened on church grounds it must be a priest.

 

[RhodesianSon]

Why anyone ever thought letting gay men be scout masters was a good idea is beyond me.

 

[MarysLurker]

Why anyone ever thought letting gay men be scout masters was a good idea is beyond me.

There was plenty of opposition to that but the BSA and its allies systematically silenced them. Then they held a phony plebiscite to modify their policy followed by a purge of the opposition, which became Trail Life USA..

TLUSA is alive and growing. BSA is bankrupt.

 

[signit]

Why anyone ever thought letting gay men be scout masters was a good idea is beyond me.

Articles:

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[from first article]

Meanwhile, over the past decade, lawsuits, investigations and media reports have revealed internal Boy Scouts documents detailing generations of alleged abusers accused of preying on Scouts. An investigator hired by the Scouts said last year that her team had identified 12,254 victims and 7,819 perpetrators in internal documents from 1946 through 2016.

Not to minimize something as terrible as this, but it appears that a lot of this abuse happened years ago, before the ban on gay Scout leaders was ended in 2015.

 

[RootKitWarrior]

I am one of the 92,000. I was raped by an Eagle Scout in the early 70s. It is not just Scout Masters. It is also the Eagle Scouts placed in leadership positions. By the way, this Eagle Scout was a Roman Catholic at the time.

 

[gam197]

I am one of the 92,000. I was raped by an Eagle Scout in the early 70s. It is not just Scout Masters. It is also the Eagle Scouts placed in leadership positions. By the way, this Eagle Scout was a Roman Catholic at the time.

Welcome to the forums.

That is a sad testimony. True we do not think of older boys raping younger boys. The Boy Scouts has had millions of members each year so I wonder how pervasive this is.

It is something we never think about but anytime your child is away from home on a camping trip, it is a concern. I know people who will not let their child stay overnight, even for a sleepover.

Maybe the solution was to do away from Boys Scouts camp. There are many summer programs where children go to camps.

 

[MikeInVA]

Scouts is an admirable organization.

The Scouts were an admirable organization. They’ve abandoned their values and are not the organization that you and I remember. I feel badly for the boys who are currently part of scouting and I hope a replacement program emerges soon.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

I was going to say that a lot of it isn’t a case of someone who was gay and just decided to go be a Scoutmaster. A lot of guys have been active in Scouts their whole lives and also were and are gay.

However, it needs to also be said that older boys raping younger boys, or men raping men, is often not because the rapist is gay. Sometimes it is, but other times it’s a male-on-male power play. I knew a guy who attended a private school and became a target of bullying because he was less economically well off than his peers. He was sexually assaulted by a gang of his fellow male students in the restroom. This was not about gay attraction. The guy I knew also was not gay and did not give any impression of being gay.