A Touching Merit Badge

indecentspeech.

Posted to Legal on Tue Sep 18, 2012 at 02:32:33 PM EST (promoted from Diaries by port1080). RSS.

Institutional protection of child molesters and child rapists is not new. Americans have seen it as a serious problem in some of America's most well-respected institutions, but no one would have expected the Boy Scouts of America to be one of them.

As with the organizations, Boy Scouts of America is accused of failing to report and covering up child molesting by hundreds of volunteers and employees of the organization.

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.

The accusations of covering up these crimes are very serious, but more serious is the fact the organization was using lawyers to avoid having to release records concerning child molestion.

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.

Some 80% of child molestation cases were not reported to the police.

The organization is defending itself.

The head of the Boy Scouts of America has published an open letter to parents defending his organization's procedures aimed at protecting youth from child predators.

...

In his letter posted online on Monday, Chief Scout Executive Wayne Brock said the organization has expanded its "youth protection" measures in recent decades. He also outlined the Scouts' efforts to screen volunteers, including criminal background checks, and to train volunteers in Youth Protection practices.

Brock also defined Scouting's "two-deep leadership" policy, which requires at least two adults to be present at all Scouting activities. "No youth should ever be alone with a Scout leader for any reason," he said.

Brock also wrote, "Anyone suspected of inappropriate behavior will be immediately and permanently banned from Scouting. If you ever have any concerns about your child's safety, please contact the BSA immediately through your local council."

Is the two-adult rule enough and shouldn't have people who displayed "inappropriate behavior" have been permanently banned from the very beginning?