# Litigation and the BSA
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/litigation-and-the-bsa/211190
**Category:** Great Debates
**Created:** [November 3, 2003, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/litigation-and-the-bsa/211190 "2003-11-03T18:00:32Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@spingears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spingears)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2003, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/litigation-and-the-bsa/211190/21 "2003-11-13T17:37:58Z")
The parents must be juvenals themselves with a total lack of good judgement or paronoid about unlikely consequences.
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### Author:  [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2003, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/litigation-and-the-bsa/211190/22 "2003-11-13T21:50:56Z")
Not sure I agree,
Imagine your kid comes home from camp…
“Mom, while I was sleeping, one of the other boys came into my tent naked and he screamed at me.”
You discover that the story from the camp counselors is “your son walked into a situation where another boy was urinating”
Now those two stories are very different. The second - you’d be nuts to sue. The first sounds a lot more like Dins’ story of a boy telling his son he was going to get raped. I probably wouldn’t sue, but I’d expect something more than the camp counselors claiming situation two, especially in light of “Nobody in either patrol could either confirm or deny the claim despite extensive interviews by Troop Guides, ASPL, SPL, ASM, SM, and two or three other adult staff.”
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### Author:  [@mambozzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mambozzy)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2003, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/litigation-and-the-bsa/211190/23 "2003-11-13T22:17:41Z")
In that case, **Dangerosa** , what would you expect the staff to do? Obviously, I’m on biased ground here, but it seems to me that the natural course of action would be to speak with the kid’s parents in a less formal setting than court.
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### Author:  [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2003, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/litigation-and-the-bsa/211190/24 "2003-11-13T22:36:59Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by mambozzy \*
> \*\*Every summer I volunteer to help run a leadership training course for youth in the Boy Scouts of America. I’ve been doing it for six years now and can see myself doing it for six more, depending on certain outside variables. The experience of teaching these boys to be young men and future leaders is an amazing fulfilling experience. \*\*
Glad to hear it.
> [@](#):
>
> \*\* It’s not without its troubles, however. One year we had a patrol spraying their campfire with aerosol cans and giggling over the resulting fireball. We’ve had violent kids, immature kids, homesick kids, the lot. \*\*
Yeah, and these are the ones who need your teaching and experience the most. Teaching a well-behaved genius kid may be more enjoyable, but that kid’s basically on autopilot anyway and a trained chimp could stand off to the side and take credit for that kid’s “progress.” It’s the troublesome ones with obnoxious parents who have a need for what you do.
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### Author:  [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2003, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/litigation-and-the-bsa/211190/25 "2003-11-14T02:14:23Z")
Don’t know. Seems like the troop Dins’ son is in is taking it a lot more seriously than your troop. I don’t know what the parents were told by the troop or when, but if I was told “we looked into it, and while we couldn’t establish the truth of either story, we think your son is lying,” and I was told this AFTER my son told me his story, I’d be pissed.
(Although I’m not the type to sue.)
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