Add the Boy Scouts to the list of religious organizations...

[RoryN]

...trying to cover up sex abuse.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35944804/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/

Boy Scouts accused of sex abuse cover-up
‘Perversion files’ kept secret by Scouts due to ‘confidential information’

updated 2:12 a.m. PT, Fri., March. 19, 2010

PORTLAND, Ore. - The Boy Scouts of America has long kept an extensive archive of secret documents that chronicle the sexual abuse of young boys by Scout leaders over the years.

The "perversion files," a nickname the Boy Scouts are said to have used for the documents, have rarely been seen by the public, but that could all change in the coming weeks in an Oregon courtroom.

The lawyer for a man who was molested in the 1980s by a Scout leader has obtained about 1,000 Boy Scouts sex files and is expected to release some of them at a trial that began Wednesday.

The lawyer says the files show how the Boy Scouts have covered up abuse for decades.

The trial is significant because the files could offer a rare window into how the Boy Scouts have responded to sex abuse by Scout leaders.

The only other time the documents are believed to have been presented at a trial was in the 1980s in Virginia.

At the start of the Oregon trial, attorney Kelly Clark recited the Boy Scout oath and the promise to obey Scout law to be "trustworthy." Then he presented six boxes of documents that he said will show "how the Boy Scouts of America broke that oath."

He held up file folder after file folder he said contained reports of abuse from around the country, telling the jury the efforts to keep them secret may have actually set back efforts to prevent child abuse nationally.

"The Boy Scouts of America ignored clear warning signs that Boy Scouts were being abused," Clark said.

'Trying to do the right thing'

Charles Smith, attorney for the national Boy Scouts, said in his own opening statement the files were kept under wraps because they "were replete with confidential information."

Smith told the jury the files helped national scouting leaders weed out sex offenders, especially repeat offenders who may have changed names or moved in order to join another local scouting organization.

"They were trying to do the right thing by trying to track these folks," Smith said.

Clark is seeking $14 million in damages on behalf of a 37-year-old man who was sexually molested in the early 1980s in Portland by an assistant Scoutmaster, Timur Dykes.

Clark said the victim suffered mental health problems, bad grades in school, drug use, anxiety, difficulty maintaining relationships and lost several jobs over the years because of the abuse.

Dykes was convicted three times between 1983 and 1994 of sexually abusing boys, most of them Scouts.

Although there have been dozens of lawsuits against the organization over sex abuse allegations, judges for the most part have either denied requests for the files or the lawsuits have been settled before they went to trial.

The Boy Scouts had fought to keep the files being used in the Portland trial confidential. But they lost a pretrial legal battle when the Oregon Supreme Court rejected their argument that opening the files could damage the lives and reputations of people not a party to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit also named the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints because the Mormons acted as a charter organization, or sponsor, for the local Boy Scouts troop that included the victim. But the church has settled its portion of the case.

The Portland trial comes as the Boy Scouts are marking their 100th anniversary.

"They spent a century building the Boy Scout brand," said Patrick Boyle, author of a book about sex abuse in the Boy Scouts. "It's one of the most respected organizations in the world."

The trial "can only erode what they have been doing for 100 years," he said.

The Portland case centers on whether the Boy Scouts of America did enough to protect boys from Dykes.

The Mormon bishop who also served as head of the Scout troop, Gordon McEwen, confronted Dykes after receiving a report of abuse by the mother of one boy in the troop in January 1983.

In a video deposition played for the jury, the bishop said Dykes admitted abusing 17 boys.

Probation
But McEwen said he contacted the parents of all 17 boys and the boys themselves, and none would confirm any abuse.

Dykes was arrested in 1983 and pleaded guilty to attempted sexual abuse, received probation and was ordered to stay away from children.

Clark told the jury Dykes continued with his scouting activities until he was arrested in July 1984 during a routine traffic stop while he was driving a van full of Scouts on a camping trip.

A spokesman for the Boy Scouts of America at its headquarters in Irving, Texas, said in a statement the organization cannot comment on details of the case. But it has worked hard on awareness and prevention efforts, including background checks.

"Unfortunately, child abuse is a societal problem and there is no fail-safe method for screening out abusers," Deron Smith said.

 

[rosco rathbone]

Goes all the way back to that creepy bugger Lord Baden Powell.

 

[Songcatcher]

Oops.

 

[John Doe]

The Portland case centers on whether the Boy Scouts of America did enough to protect boys from Dykes.

*snicker*

 

[Image]

*snicker*

Heh... I did a double take on that one too.


This is not new news. And the Boy Scouts being a religious organization has only added to my cynicism over the years...

 

[Karen Kraft]

Goes all the way back to that creepy bugger Lord Baden Powell.

Right.

And the Italian unit, run by that creepy boy-fucking Geppetto. He used to make their noses grow really long so...


nevermind.


Anyway, he was also into bondage:

http://www.collectablesltd.com/acatalog/GeppettoPinocchio.jpg

 

[Borscht]

Clark said the victim suffered mental health problems, bad grades in school, drug use, anxiety, difficulty maintaining relationships and lost several jobs over the years:

Sounds like one of us Literoticans.

I bet it's Busybody.

 

[Cliff_Notes]

Rory, are you having bad Boy Scouts flashback? Did your leader touch your small dick? Is that why you are a repressed homo?

 

[gridiron]

As a member of the Boy Scouts, and yes, I went all the way from Tiger Cub to Eagle Scout during my years as a youth, I cannot say that it is a perfect organization. There is no perfect organization. And even though the Boy Scouts place a high value on religion and its place in the development of the boys they serve, they also foster a sense of teamwork among those that are not athletically gifted, teach core principles of the government that are often left out of civics texts, and impart woodcraft and survival skills that will perhaps one day save their lives.

The fact that my brother suffered abuse at the hands of a young adult leader, who happened to be the brother of his best friend, is evidence enough that there are serious issues within the organization. I do not condone the military approach of DADT, but at the same time I also respect the need for privacy. These are young boys, and even though they are incapable of comprehending what is going on at the time, they are also fearful of how they will be viewed by their peers. It's a pointless fear for most, as I have witnessed what happens afterward, and 9 times out of 10 nothing negative is said, and there are no ill thoughts harbored toward the victims. In the councils I've served with, the offenders are dealt with swiftly, and if the evidence substantiates it, the punishments are often severe.

But here's where you have to ask yourselves a question.. Where do you draw the line? Do you crucify a leader for helping an unfortunate Scout remove a tick that's attached to his scrotum when Little Johnny tells mom and dad what happened while he was at camp? Or do you show compassion and express gratitude for perhaps preventing the transmission of Lyme's disease? The training that the leaders go through is by no means a walk in the park, especially some of the advanced courses. The difficulty, as mentioned in the article, is screening for potential offenders. No one can predict what the human mind will do just as we can predict what the weather or the stock market will do. There are a plethora of influencing factors at play.

 

[Cliff_Notes]

Grid, don't try to argue with Rory because he's really smart and stuff.

 

[gridiron]

Grid, don't try to argue with Rory because he's really smart and stuff.

I am not arguing with him.. He didn't write the article. I am simply giving a testimony, if you will, of what I've seen in my many years with the organization.

 

[RoryN]

But here's where you have to ask yourselves a question.. Where do you draw the line? Do you crucify a leader for helping an unfortunate Scout remove a tick that's attached to his scrotum

Any camp that's legally savvy will tell leaders to send the kid to the female camp nurse for something like that.

 

[Sean]

I was a cub scout all the way through to Queen's scout. As a kid in the concrete jungle of South Manc, cvamping in the Lakes was about the only time I ever saw trees. It taught me all sorts of things that were useful. And although the scouts pledge allegiance to "god and the Queen", it was about as religious as the humanist society.

 

[RoryN]

I was a cub scout all the way through to Queen's scout. As a kid in the concrete jungle of South Manc, cvamping in the Lakes was about the only time I ever saw trees. It taught me all sorts of things that were useful. And although the scouts pledge allegiance to "god and the Queen", it was about as religious as the humanist society.

It somewhat depends on the troupe, of course - but it's not unusual at all for them to hammer God early and often to the kids here in the U.S. It's one of their platforms for indoctrination and, since it isn't a public org, it's perfectly okay.

My parents viewed it as an excellent lesson for an atheist child as to what sort of world I was living in. They gave me a choice as to whether or not I wanted to join - but let's just say that our local chapter didn't welcome me with open arms. It was more like, "Look at all the fun you're gonna miss because your family is fucked in the head".

 

[Sean]

It somewhat depends on the troupe, of course - but it's not unusual at all for them to hammer God early and often to the kids here in the U.S. It's one of their platforms for indoctrination and, since it isn't a public org, it's perfectly okay.

My parents viewed it as an excellent lesson for an atheist child as to what sort of world I was living in. They gave me a choice as to whether or not I wanted to join - but let's just say that our local chapter didn't welcome me with open arms. It was more like, "Look at all the fun you're gonna miss because your family is fucked in the head".

Wow. We had Church Parade once a month where the flag was carried up the road to the local church. That was it. There again, the US is a religious country, Britain isn't. Have the boy scouts of America been taken over by fundies?

 

[torchthebitch]

Wow. We had Church Parade once a month where the flag was carried up the road to the local church. That was it. There again, the US is a religious country, Britain isn't. Have the boy scouts of America been taken over by fundies?

Once a month? Zealot!

 

[butters]

why don't they get that dealing with the issues with common sense as well as sensitivity, and then exposing rather than hiding the real crimes and pursuing them fully and stringently, would deter the pedos who see this kind of organisation as a soft target?

 

[Sean]

why don't they get that dealing with the issues with common sense as well as sensitivity, and then exposing rather than hiding the real crimes and pursuing them fully and stringently, that it would deter the pedos who see this kind of organisation as a soft target?

The scout ovement has been all over this for at least the last ten years. I'm just amazed at the religion thing.

 

[butters]

The scout movement has been all over this for at least the last ten years. I'm just amazed at the religion thing.

last night, some priest was talking about the Pope; he said that as an archbishop (i think) the now Pope didn't really 'get it' about the abuse put forward to him, and now, having had the paperwork for 10 years, he's beginning to understand the seriousness of it ...

excuse me? 10 years? just beginning to get it?

 

[Sean]

last night, some priest was talking about the Pope; he said that as an archbishop (i think) the now Pope didn't really 'get it' about the abuse put forward to him, and now, having had the paperwork for 10 years, he's beginning to understand the seriousness of it ...

excuse me? 10 years? just beginning to get it?

The Catholic church got away with murder for centuries. I was living in Ireland when it made the news. Local radio phone ins were full of outraged women, always women, claiming it was a lie. Ah, religion. The opium of the fucking retarded.

 

[Comshaw]

The scout ovement has been all over this for at least the last ten years. I'm just amazed at the religion thing.

You really shouldn't be. I served as an assistant scout master and merit badge councilor for 12 years. One day while I was talking to the scout master I admitted to being an atheist.

He told me if I wanted to remain a scout leader not to tell anyone else. According to him (and he had been a scouter for 40 years) if you're an atheist you can't be in the scouts.

It seems the scouts are tolerant of all religions, having symbols for each organized one that scouts can wear on their uniform or sash, , but can't abide those who are professed atheist. I would have been ask to leave.

Additionally, those troops that are sponsored by churches (especially Mormon and Catholic churches) have a lot of religious indoctrination woven into the troop meetings.

Many troops aren't overly religious, while some, like the ones I've mentioned, are very much so.


Comshaw

 

[gridiron]

Any camp that's legally savvy will tell leaders to send the kid to the female camp nurse for something like that.

A female camp nurse isn't always accessible, though, especially if you're on one of the High Adventure programs, or if it's a weekend trip to the Ozarks or the Uwharrie National Forest. But yes, under normal circumstances, a female nurse is always preferable for a procedure of that nature. But let's not forget the embarrassment Little Johnny might feel having to expose himself to a female stranger that's possibly old enough to be his mother.. Like I said - a plethora of factors.

 

[RoryN]

It seems the scouts are tolerant of all religions, having symbols for each organized one that scouts can wear on their uniform or sash, , but can't abide those who are professed atheist.

That was always my impression, too.

Here's an important update on this story. It's starting to look like this could develop into a full-blown scandal.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35967555/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/

Boy Scouts sex abuse files now evidence in suit
‘Perversion’ documents to shed light on how Scouts dealt with molesters

updated 8:03 p.m. PT, Sat., March. 20, 2010

PORTLAND, Ore. - The Boy Scouts of America call them "perversion files," internal documents used to track Scout leaders suspected of sexually abusing young boys.

A judge who had ordered the Scouts to release them received 1,247 files into evidence near the end of the day Friday — the third day of trial that began with a lawyer saying "you will be the first jury to see them."

Attorneys Paul Mones and Kelly Clark won the release of files from 1965 to 1985 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.

Although there have been dozens of lawsuits against the Boy Scouts over sex abuse allegations, judges for the most part have either denied requests for the files or the cases have been settled. The only other time the documents are believed to have been presented at a trial was in the 1980s in Virginia.

‘Cards’ on unfit men

On Friday, Mones showed a Multnomah County Circuit Court jury a 1935 New York Times article that said the Scouts had 2,910 "cards" on men who were unfit to supervise young boys.

The display came as he questioned Nate Marshall, a Scouts executive from headquarters in Irving, Texas, now in charge of those files. Marshall estimated about 30 percent of the men flagged between 1920 and 1935 had sexually abused Scouts.

Mones also showed the jury a table Marshall prepared that showed the Boy Scouts amassed 1,123 "perversion" files from 1965 to 1985, which Marshall said were simply a tool to track child molesters and remove them or prevent them from moving to another city and trying to join another Scout troop.

The files were among a total of 1,587 files divided into categories considered grounds for suspension or rejection as a Scout leader, Marshall said.

Besides perversion, the categories listed were criminal, financial, theft, leadership, moral — including homosexuality — and religious reasons, including being an atheist or an agnostic.

Bulk dealt with perversion
But the bulk of the files were in the perversion category, which includes sexual misconduct besides molesting children, such as soliciting prostitutes or possessing child pornography.

During questioning by Mones, Marshall acknowledged there was no system in place to warn Scouts or their parents about potential sex abuse, and no procedure for them to report it.

Scout executives had no written guidelines until a 1972 memo on the subject that also urged them to keep its contents confidential "because of misunderstandings which could develop if it were widely distributed."

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 and was rarely involved with the Scouts. 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.

Never told the police?

But a retired police officer who investigated the abuse report testified Friday that McEwen never told police about the list.

Charles Shipley, who was a Multnomah County sheriff's detective at the time, said he interviewed a pair of victims before calling Dykes in for questioning.

Shipley said Dykes admitted molesting the two boys and was arrested. Shipley was concerned there were additional victims and asked McEwen to talk to other parents of about 30 Scouts in the troop.

Two other potential victims were identified but Shipley said their parents did not want their sons involved with the investigation.

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."

Dykes pleaded guilty to attempted sexual abuse, received probation and was ordered to stay away from children.

Arrest during traffic stop

Clark told the jury Dykes continued with his scouting activities until he was arrested again in July 1984 during a routine traffic stop while he was driving a van full of Scouts on a camping trip.

Clark said the victim who filed the lawsuit was on that trip, and the trauma he suffered from the incident and the abuse by Dykes led to mental health problems, bad grades in school, drug use, anxiety, difficulty maintaining relationships and the loss of several jobs as an adult.

The lawsuit also named the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints but the church has settled its portion of the case.

Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

 

[TurdFergeson]

Is there a merit badge for that?

 

[Left_Nut]

...trying to cover up sex abuse.

You are a pedo