A timely Malcolm Gladwell article on Jerry Sandusky in the New Yorker amplifies the point about molesters seeking out such organizations, and how they use them to develop a “trustworthy” appearance:
I blame women for this. If they were just all total sluts who would sleep with anyone at the drop of a hat, none of this would happen. 
Exactly - Mr. Gladwell summarizes it well.
I grew up with a boy who later in life told me he had been molested by his boy scout troop leader. He did not bring charges. He did suspect that the guy molested other boys in his troop as well (duh). So basically, the pedophile has had 40 years of molesting fun in the small town I grew up in with no repercussion. If only someone could come forward - or could have 40 years ago.
I actually tried to call the local police about it - just to check if I could report anything - but of course it is hearsay coming from me. The worst part about it is I wonder if some of the victims grow up to do some molesting of their own - I would not be surprised to find that out about the old friend - he has some messed up tendencies.
Yeah, just what we need to eradicate pedophilia… more kids!
SNL, Alec Baldwin, and Adam Sandler beat them to it about 15 years prior. That was a great skit 
Wait, what? You were going to tease a bunch of little kids of being the victims of pedophiles because of something that adults have done? Why would that be a good idea?
That’s why I didn’t do it. Nobody said the idea was a good one. Besides, I wasn’t going to harass them over pedophilia. I was going to harass them over their stance on admitting gays. Completely different subject entirely.
I remember when I got my skill award for Trouser Tenting…
Erm…This surely is a common meme since time immemorial isn’t it?
I can’t recall a time in my life when it that wasn’t the stereotype. I remember well the conversation over 30 years with a bunch of my friends when we all decided we weren’t going to join the scouts as it was “gay” and we were in danger of getting “botted” by the scout master. Standard UK childhood reaction if you ask me.
You know it just occurred to me…I was only in Boy Scouts for a year or two. I remember our Scoutmaster just dissappearing. Poof! No more Scoutmaster!
I asked my Mom one time what happened to him, and was shoooshed. Can’t wait for this list to come out to see if he’s on it.
Or, I suppose I could ask my Mom.
Hard to judge in advance of any specifics, but I wonder if the percentage of molesters in the BSA is any higher or lower than in any other institution with contact with children. I thought I read that the incidence of molesters among priests is no higher than among teachers, for instance.
Boy Scouts don’t require their leaders to be unmarried, so at least we won’t have that to argue about.
Regards,
Shodan
I thought scoutmasters were pretty much one of the Dads. Did that guy have a son of his own?
I’m reading the Gladwell Article and it makes scary sense. Although, I’m dubious of his ability to say accurate stuff since I’m pretty sure Brown University does not offer football scholarships.
I was in the Cub Scouts, which is essentially Boy Scouts for younger boys. All we did was have “den meetings” at the house of one of the members whose mother was the “den mother”. We did crafts and learned to tie knots and stuff like that.
When I outgrew that, for some reason I had no interest in joining the actual Boy Scouts and my parents didn’t encourage it or even mention the possibility.
Maybe they didn’t like the idea of sending their son into the woods with a strange man. Maybe I subconsciously picked up on that from them.
That is the usual pattern, but some dads also stick around after their kids move on. We had several dads when I was a Scout whose sons were off in college. My Scoutmaster never had kids - Scouting was his hobby and charity.
There are 3 issues here:
- Scouts is going to attract pedophiles. You can go out in the woods with boys for a weekend after all.
- The Scouts in the US have tightened up the system a lot in recent years, and at one time were setting the standards. Two adults must be present at all times. All leaders must have a criminal background check. Mandatory training for adults on youth protection. Every Scout handbook, staring with the 1st graders, has a booklet that the parents have to sign off on.
- The Scouts kept their files in the early days - that was good given that society was still looking the other way. However, they should have done what Scouts Canada did with THEIR files - take them to a neutral 3rd party to review, audit, and determine next steps for some of the files. Instead they kept them in boxes. Now, due to court proceedings, those files are going public and the Boy Scouts are in reactive mode. Many of us saw this coming years ago and told the BSA to get the files reviewed by the appropriate authorities.
No surprise in Canada. This story was wall-to-wall last October (with video). Bolding mine:
Scouts Canada denies it had secret files. Right.
They don’t nowadays, as per the Ivy League agreement banning athletics scholarships for their students, but they did in the 1940’s when Paterno went to college.
(In fact, Paterno’s college days pre-dated the official founding of the “Ivy League” itself as an intercollegiate athletics organization, which didn’t happen till 1954.)
Great memory. Takes me back to the days when I actually thought SNL was funny:
As for the OP, you should well know by now that any and all of these kinds of accusations can be dismissed as mere rumors until they pass The Paper Tube Test[sup]®[/sup].
I’m not shocked - well, I am, but I guess it’s not a total surprise that this sort of thing was covered up.
In fairness, BSA has fairly strict policies nowadays, regarding child safety - as in, an adult may NEVER be alone with a boy who is not his own son, and may never tent with boys not his own sons even if there are others around; there are annual training sessions to remind the boys of what is acceptable and when to tell an adult that something is going on. And very few of the men who do this sort of thing would identify themselves as gay, from what I understand - they like children, not men.
Girl Scouts have similar “can’t be alone with a Scout not your own daughter” rules.
That’s a hell of a charge to throw out there with nothing more to support it than a vague “I thought I read…”-cite please.