Child sex abuse claims mount against Boy Scouts

Reuters ^ | September 13, 2011 | Dan Cook and Laura Zuckerman

[decimon]

PORTLAND, Ore/SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - Four Oregon men sued the Boy Scouts of America on Tuesday for $20 million over childhood sexual abuse they say they suffered at the hands of a pedophile knowingly appointed as their scoutmaster in the 1970s.

The four lawsuits, filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court in Portland, accuse the national Boy Scouts and its Cascade Pacific Council of negligence, fraud and sexual battery of a child in connection with the repeated molestation of the men, then aged 12 to 15.

The suits, each seeking $5.2 million in damages, are the latest in a barrage of such claims facing the Boy Scouts, headquartered in Texas, since the group was found liable and ordered to pay nearly $20 million last year for a pedophile case from the 1980s.

A separate case was filed against the Boy Scouts last week by five women who say they were sexually abused as girls by the leader of a coed Scouting program in Montana during the 1970s.

The latest cases bring to at least 35 the number of individuals who have lodged child sexual abuse claims against the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) in 11 states since 2007, said plaintiffs attorney Kelly Clark, whose Portland firm has spearheaded the legal action.

[decimon]

When you think you're becoming cynical is when you find out you've been naive.

[Crazy ole coot]

If these things happened back in the 70’s, why did they wait until now to bring suit? Something is fishy!

[freekitty]

Aren’t they suing the wrong people?

[NativeSon]

Well, if the BSA couldn’t be destroyed by forcing them accept gay scouts and scoutmasters, then destroy them for having gay scoutmasters

[married21]

If only they had allowed scoutmasters to marry. This never would have happened. Oh, wait...

[Figment]

Payback for not allowing queer scoutmasters. Accusations from so long ago that can’t be proved either way. They will get paid to go away, or lose in civil court and cost everyone involved a lot of money

[rockvillem]

Well, if the BSA couldn’t be destroyed by forcing them accept gay scouts and scoutmasters, then destroy them for having gay scoutmasters

This, and then add the fact that the article is relying on abuse of girls 30+ years ago by heterosexual BSA leaders. Win-win on the abuse front! Love the absence of context in the article - of all the people who have passed through the BSA system over the past several decades, what percentage does this represent? I actually had a female Cub Scout leader a billion years ago (one of the moms of our pack) yet somehow we managed to survive that crucible of mixed-sex and/or same-sex leadership without issue. Go figure.

[ExTxMarine]

If these things happened back in the 70’s, why did they wait until now to bring suit? Something is fishy!

WRONG! It doesn't smell "fishy," IT smells MONEY!

I am tired of all of these "I just remembered I was molested" or the "I just found the courage to face the facts" lawsuits! These are all about getting MONEY!

These lawsuits are ALMOST as bad as the 47 year-old murderer who says he killed someone last year because "his Dad beat him when he was growing up" or "he was molested as a teen!" BS!

Life is hard! Life has ups and downs! Life will kick you in the teeth! And MOST normal people put those life experiences into perspective and move on and develop into normal people! But, because the stupid courts and trial lawyers have turned every little blister into a potential million dollar payoff, these pieces of crap all of a sudden crawl out of the wood work to get their share of "social justice!"

I speak from personal experience! I was molested and I have family members who were molested! You know what - I grew to be a man, a Marine, a father and husband! I don't molest, I don't kill and I moved on! If anything, my experience made me want to be sure and NOT be the person that those others were to me! I don't need money to make me "whole!" If you can't make yourself "whole" through God, friends and family - then you probably can't be made whole because you are too busy living and hanging onto the past!

[MNDude]

I forgot... What’s that term for men that are attracted to other males?

[wita]

Well said!

[Caipirabob]

Child sex abuse claims mount against Boy Scouts

Every gay rights group should be held financially liable.

[ml/nj]

I was a Boy Scout in the 50s. I even went to Boy Scout Camp for two consecutive summers (two weeks each summer). The only thing that was remotely sexual about any of this was that at camp we had to swim nude in the lake. But the biggest advertiser in the Boy Scout magazine (Boy's Life) was Daisy Air Rifles and that awful Boy Scout Camp had a rifle range.

ML/NJ

[dila813]

pedophile knowingly appointed as their scoutmaster

preponderance of evidence

50:50 chance

Who is going to defend?

[SES1066]

Of course if they had acquiesced to homosexual scouting back 10+ years as urged by the ACLU, NAMBLA, various governments and government agencies, would these groups then be defending the BSA against such accusations after such acquiescence?

OF COURSE NOT, which speaks to WHY BSA is logical in refusing such members. These people are drive-by pressure groups who are frequently funded by trial lawyer organizations. Does the concept of "stocking the trout pond" ring a bell?

In this case, I do not doubt that there were molesting scout masters and molesting older scouts in the history of the BSA or Girl Scouts. However this is going along the lines of the attacks on the Roman Catholic Church - I smell lawyers!

[decimon]

The only thing that was remotely sexual about any of this was that at camp we had to swim nude in the lake.

Is there a stated reason for that?

[ml/nj]

I was 11 or 12 years old. What did I know?

ML/NJ

[Tax-chick]

“... men, then aged 12 to 15.”

That’s not a pedophile, that’s a common or garden-variety homosexual man, pursuing what in other contexts is called a consensual relationship with adolescent boys. I realize that most parents probably didn’t realize they should tell their sons not to give blowjobs or submit to anal sex from adult men, in the 70s, but a 15-year-old is big enough to take action, if he chose to, even without parents or other adults warning him about predatory homosexuals.

[Mrs. Don-o]

""Like the Catholic Church, the Boy Scouts have been exposing children to sexual predators for decades," said Grier Weeks, head of the child abuse prevention lobby PROTECT. "In the process, they've also exposed themselves to enormous financial liability," he told Reuters."

I read the whole article --- it's full of comparisons with the Catholic Church. But there are 4 points of comparison I'd like to make. The Catholic Church and the Boy Scouts are being targeted because:

• Long history of working with youth: if you can go back 30-40 years, you can always dig up litigants.

• Documentation:They keep records: it's plausible to show who-was-where-when-with-whom.

• Deep pockets: You can sue them for millions of dollars, threaten them with costly bad publicity which will imperil generations of good-will, and pressure them into settling out of court even if you haven't got a provable case.

• And the biggie, it's OPPOSED TO THE HOMOSEXUAL AGENDA. So what could be better? Trash them for being anti-gay; and then press lurid charges that they weren't vigilant enough against gay predators, with no-witnesses, no-physical-evidence charges from 25, 30, 40 years ago.

There. I hope everybody gets it now.

[decimon]

These things happened or they didn’t. If they did then the BSA needs to change some of their practices.

The things some of you are reading into this are beside the point.

[aposiopetic]

f only they had allowed scoutmasters to marry. This never would have happened. Oh, wait...

Post of the day.