Posted on 03/20/2010 8:33:58 AM PDT by Colofornian
PORTLAND, Ore. — The Boy Scouts of America call them "perversion files," internal documents used to track Scout leaders suspected of sexually abuse young boys. On Friday they became part of the public record in an Oregon lawsuit.
A judge who had ordered the Scouts to release them received 1,247 files into evidence near the end of the third day of trial...
Attorneys...won the release of files from 1965-85 to help them make the case in a $14 million lawsuit against the Boy Scouts filed by a 37-year-old Oregon man. He was sexually molested in the early 1980s by assistant Scoutmaster Timur Dykes, who was convicted three times between 1983 and 1994 of sexually abusing boys, most of them Scouts.
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Earlier Friday, testimony from a bishop for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints responsible for a Scout troop of church members suggested the Scouts never provided leaders with training about spotting abuse or preventing it.
In a video deposition, Gordon McEwen said he tended mostly to his church duties...He was also vague about his recollections of conversations with Scoutmaster Earl Wiest about Dykes. McEwen said he stepped up his involvement when the mother of a scout complained in January 1983 her son may have been abused. McEwen said he confronted Dykes, who admitted abusing 17 boys and provided a written list of names.
But a retired police officer who investigated the abuse report testified Friday that McEwen never told police about the list.
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McEwen admitted he never turned over the list to police. But he said he personally contacted the parents of all 17 boys on the list before calling a state meeting of the church to "disfellowship" Dykes, or limit his church involvement, and counseled him to "repent of his errors..."
(Excerpt) Read more at deseretnews.com ...
Where is “here” that you are? As it were ...
The hypocrisy makes me want to scream sometimes. The people attacking churches or the Scouts for failing to prevent gays from having sex with young boys don’t think there’s anything *wrong* with gays having sex with young boys. The whole point is to defeat the institutions that, as much as humanly possible, keep gays away from young boys.
Canada. I live in a rural town about 12 hours north of the border.
Wow, that’s the Far North. Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts are completely separate organizations in the US.
Canada’s a big place, FRiend. At least name your province, since there’s a >4000 mile stretch that due east-west, so 12 hours north of the border is anywhere from Port Hardy to Goose Bay.
I just wanted to know the country.
In Prince George, BC. City of 75k. I just spoke with some old friends of mine and they are down to 1 scout troop with maybe 6 kids. That’s it.
That’s too bad. Some countries have girls and boys in separate troops, but doing the same program. I think that’s a good idea, based on what we’ve seen with Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts. Everyone I know with experience in both organizations thinks the Boy Scouts have the much better program and structure.
Well they still have the Girl Scouts. Inclusion only works one way, in that the Boy Scouts were considered to be the same.
They had them separate when I was there. I was in Scouting for 10 years, and I thought it was a huge mistake to try to put the two together. I remember filling a 500 standing auditorium of kids when they tried to bring all of them together.
To go from 500-6 is a disaster. I had thought it might shrink somewhat, but to that extent? No. And this is just in 15 years or so.
Ok, I’m confused. Why would the BSA be accountable? If there were files they kept on “suspected” adults, and they did not allow those adults to become leaders, why is BSA accountable?
It’s not like they could make accusations without proof for fear of being sued.
The Bishop and this piece of crap need to be held accountable, not the BSA.
The BSA has made many strenuous efforts to protect the boys. They are fought from every angle to allow gays access to the boys.
They can’t win. I suppose that’s the point though.
Girls in the USA can join BSA Venturing, which is typically more “high adventure” related stuff.
But keep in mind, that the Scouting movement in many countries is dictated by the societal norms of that country.
BSA National (USA) has no say so over what Canadian, Nepalese, or European Scouts do. It’s up to each individual organization to decide.
I was told a story from a US Scouter who took his US troop (military dependent kids of service members stationed in Germany) to a European “Jamboree” and the Germans had male and female Scouts bunking together. He had to have an enclosure made for them because the German gals thought nothing of going topless. His boys were a bit upset at the enclosure.
SZ
Sounds like the Venturers I know here. They never had a good reputation.
No doubt. My old scoutmaster folded up our troop rather then go co-ed. He’s a good man.
Venture Crews can be single-sex; I know several girls who have been involved. I don’t think mixed-sex troops of teenagers are a good idea *at all*.
It was a secret list because the men had not been convicted.
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