Trial opens in Portland, with Boy Scouts accused of hiding pedophiles

[depakid]

Source: The Oregonian


Attorney Kelly Clark, who represents a 37-year-old man who as a boy was sexually abused by an assistant Scoutmaster, told Multnomah County jurors Wednesday: "You will see a different face of the Boy Scouts of America" in coming weeks.
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A civil trial that opened Wednesday in Portland will show that the Boy Scouts of America knew it had child molesters in its leadership for decades but kept the problem quiet, according to an attorney for one of the victims.

The case, expected to attract national attention, centers on a Portland man who confessed to Scout leaders that he had molested 17 Scouts but was allowed to continue joining boys in Scouting activities.

On a broader scale, the case is one of the first to bring into open court hundreds of confidential files that the 100-year-old organization kept on Scout leaders and others suspected of sexually abusing boys. Though the Scouts, based in Texas, have been sued dozens of times over allegations of sexual abuse, most cases have been settled out of court, keeping files from becoming public.

Patrick Boyle, the Washington, D.C.-based author of "Scout's Honor: Sexual Abuse in America's Most Trusted Institution," said Wednesday that this case may be only the second time such files have been used in a trial. "It's very embarrassing to them," Boyle said.



Read more: http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2010/03/trial_opens_in_portland_with_b.html

[Warren DeMontague]

1. As a kid, I never wanted to have anything to do with the Boy Scouts.. or the Catholic Church.

I guess I was a smart kid.

[ensho]

9. I was like you. wouldn't let my boys join but I didn't really know why

I felt that way.

[Dappleganger]

12. Same here.

The entire org always was a concern to me.

[yava]

25. me too

Something about those smiles, the parades with short shorts and the upper part uniforms....

[sybylla]

10. As a parent, the same was true for me

My boys never join the scouts and we left the Catholic church the minute we were married in it.

[Javaman]

29. I remember in 3rd grade the older scouts came in and gave their little pitch..

They "huddled" us around like it was some big secret. The older kid went on and on about how cool it was, but the one thing that stood out to me was something really simple. The older kid giving the speech, was a massive bully asshole. Why in gods name would I want to be hanging around this dickhead?

In the middle of his little pitch, I walked away, I looked back and he scowled at me. I knew I made the right move.

[Warren DeMontague]

31. If I had to say, it was probably the Atheism thing that kept me out of both, ha ha.

I got pushed around at least a couple times after getting off the school bus in grade school for answering truthfully to older kids who asked "what religion are you?".

Apparently, "I don't believe in God" wasn't an acceptable answer in the midwest in the early 70s. :shrug:




They didn't know me very well, because it only made me more determined to make up my own mind about shit.

[Ignis]

34. I was involved with both as a kid, and look how well I turned out.

:D

[Fumesucker]

2. I think we need to add a new verse to Tom Lehrer's Be Prepared..

It's not quite kinky enough..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSwjuz_-yao

Be prepared, that's the Boy Scout's marching song
Be prepared, as through life you march along
Be prepared to hold your liquor pretty well
Don't write naughty words on walls if you can't spell

Be prepared to hide that pack of cigarettes
Don't make book if you cannot cover bets
Keep those reefers hidden where you're sure that they will not be found
And be careful not to smoke them when the scoutmaster's around
For he only will insist that they be shared
Be prepared

Be prepared, that's the Boy Scouts' solemn creed
Be prepared, and be clean in word and deed
Don't solicit for your sister, that's not nice
Unless you get a good percentage of her price

Be prepared, and be careful not to do
Your good deeds when there's no one watching you
If you're looking for adventure of a new and different kind
And you come across a Girl Scout who is similarly inclined
Don't be nervous, don't be flustered, don't be scared,
Be prepared

[Jamastiene]

3. If innocent children had not been hurt so bad in all this,

I would :popcorn: this story and watch them get their asses handed to them.

The Boy Scouts leaders were oh-so-gung-ho to get rid of gay people, but couldn't seem to bring themselves to get rid of pedophiles... or crack open a damn dictionary to learn the basic definition of either.

ped·o·phile http://education.yahoo.com/ref/dictionary/audio/p/0147800.wav">Audio (p d -f l , p d -) KEY

NOUN:

An adult who is sexually attracted to a child or children.

http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/pedophile

---

gay http://education.yahoo.com/ref/dictionary/audio/g/0064500.wav">Audio (g ) KEY

NOUN:

A man whose sexual orientation is to men.

http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/gay

Note the difference, Boy Scouts? Now, go get your asses sued off for railroading gay people and simultaneously failing to address your pedophile problem. Dumbasses.

[Raster]

5. Wow! Yours is one of the best I've ever seen on the subject.

FACT: The vast majority of pedophiles identify as heterosexual.

[Jamastiene]

22. Exactly. The Boy Scouts were so busy gay bashing, they failed

to do any basic research to address the pedophile haven they were running. Most gay people are adamantly against child molestation and child abuse. Yet, the Boy Scouts felt the need to make a bold anti-gay proclamation and run innocent gay people through the ringer while pedophiles were running rampant right under their uneducated noses.

[semillama]

13. Doesn't it seem odd that two of the biggest organizations with anti-gay policies

have the biggest problems with pedophilia?

Makes you wonder about other large organizations with institutionalized homophobia...

[Jamastiene]

24. I think they are using the institutionalized homophobia as a deflection.

It's like a kid who has been caught with their hand in the cookie jar and points to their sibling in the next room and says they are doing something wrong when really the kid in the next room is doing nothing wrong. It's a deflection technique. They are preying on the ignorance of the average person.

I think they are doing it on purpose. But, whether or not these insitutions are knowingly harboring pedophilia rings and spending millions on anti-gay legislation/rhetoric/etc. to deflect and cover up their own pedophilia rings is another debate. As much as they have been caught covering up, I think there is a basis for my argument that they are knowingly using the deflection technique.

[mikehiggins]

4. would it have been so difficult to call the police?

What makes individuals even consider covering this stuff up? Is the institution really all that much more important than the kids it is supposed to be serving, whether the Church or the Scouts or anything else? Is protecting someone's "good name" a greater good than protecting vulnerable children?

I just don't get it.

[timtom]

6. In all candor and honesty,

while I've never been strongly pro or con on BSA, I was a Boy Scout for a couple of years. I never saw or heard tell of any such improprieties. Of course, this was back in the 50's.

[LanternWaste]

19. Me too, though in the late 70's...

Me too, though in the late 70's. Maybe I was too young to infer particular happenstances, or maybe they simply didn't happen in the troops I was associated with.

For my part, scouting was a blast and kept me out of a lot of bad stuff my brothers decided to get into at the time.

[slampoet]

20. My Constitutional Law teacher told us he was molested by a future National Leader of BSA in 1923

or maybe it was 1926. The molester was just a Scout Master at the time but later on advanced to the National level in the organization.

[No Elephants]

26. I'm glad you never saw or heard of these things, but that means only that you were fortunate.

It does not mean these things were not happening then or since then.

[LanternWaste]

30. I never implied otherwise...

I never implied otherwise...

[timtom]

33. I'm not sure how you would derive any other meaning.

Why don't you also respond to the guy who agrees with me -- that nothing happened to him, either.

It was only a statement. Just a reflection of my experience.

[Mopar151]

7. I wondered when this would come out

I don't know how I knew, but the assistant Scoutmaster I knew was just wrong - and he bought beer for 8th graders.

[rbixby]

8. I was in boy scouts for a long time

2nd grade-11th grade, and I never saw anything like this happen. Its definitely scary though, and looking back on it, I don't think I'd ever recommend anyone joining the scouts (also its a bit too right leaning of an organization for my tastes)

[Stuckinthebush]

11. I had a wonderful Scouting experience

My scoutmaster was a good man - very ethical guy.

However, I worked for United Way for a number of years. The local BSA office was one of my agencies. They were the smarmiest people. I always was disgusted after meeting with them.

So, while my experience was great it was because of the troop not the BSA.

I'm still proud of that Eagle rank though. :)

[eagertolearn]

14. My son just made it to life last night and I have been happy with the organization.

He has great leaders and has learned so much. There are pediphiles everywhere....we just have to teach our kids about this. My brother and many other boys were molested by a pediphile in a nice neighborhood in Montecito, CA. He was a gardener for a Jeusuit Monestery (sp?)up the street and he befriended all the boys. It wasn't until years later while in nursing school that i even learned what a pediphile was and realized that is what happened to my brother. I've educated my kids and have always watched those in leadership in scouts. But these crazies are everywhere! When something like this happens to a boy (or girl) in ruins them for life.

[Stuckinthebush]

17. Congrats to your son!

That is quite an accomplishment. Only one more step to Eagle.

Your method is the best: Talk to your kids and let them know that if they encounter a twisted adult that they should immediately let someone know. I do think that the BSA organization as a whole has some serious problems. At the troop level, however, there are many wonderful programs. I support that type of experience for kids.

Tell your son that the next step may be hard, but it will be worth it in the long run. My father never made it past Life rank and he still talks about how he wishes he had just pushed harder. That was 60 years ago!

[eagertolearn]

23. Yes I agree that the anti-gay stance is crazy. Being Gay is not the same as being

a pedephile. But we joined the troop that has more of an open mind. My friends son is in one of the other troops and he got harrassed by one of the troop leaders sons because he doesn't go to church. This kid will probably not make it to Eagle. My son has gotten into trouble a few times and instead of banning him from boyscouts the leaders have been very supportive and encouraging and he is currently thriving. Kids deserve a chance and the support to get on track. This troop is great because they actually didn't pass him to Life a year ago and he had to do some self evaluation and improve on leadership skills.

[Bill McBlueState]

15. well, at least nobody can accuse them of hiding atheists!

That would be way worse, with the giant bag of moral flaws we atheists all haul around.

[greiner3]

16. So let me see;

The boy scout leadership is accused of sexually abusing, or the covering up the same, for years. The boy scouts have become a mostly mormon organization (re posts at DU). So mormons are facilitating homosexually. So that mess in CA a few years ago was really some Freudian mix-up? Takes all kinds!

[Xithras]

18. Minor point but: "1965-1985"

My son is a scout and I'm still a registered leader (though I don't do much anymore). I can tell you from personal experience that the BSA takes sexual abuse very seriously nowadays, and there are rules and policies in place to prevent this sort of thing. An adult can be ejected from a BSA leadership position today for being alone with a scout even if there is NO accusation of wrongdoing. Simply being alone together is considered to be a major breach of protocol. There's even a term for it..."Two Deep Leadership". At no point are scouts and leaders ever to be alone together.

When we're camping together with the troop, I'm not even allowed to sleep in a tent with my own son. Having adults and scouts alone and/or sleeping together in private, even if they are related, is strictly forbidden.

I'm not sure what changed, but they apparently take the problem FAR more seriously today than they did in the past.

[No Elephants]

27. I'm guessing lawsuits or threats of lawsuits may have had something to do with the change,

though perhaps things were settled out of court, as the Catholic Church did for decades.

[NYC Liberal]

21. Yeah. I can believe this. My scoutmaster was convicted for molesting a scout.

It was over the course of 10+ years. And he did it to more than one kid.

They offered him a deal: he pled guilty to one or two counts and got 8 years. He was paroled after 6 a few years ago! If he'd gone to trial, he would have faced something like 36 counts and probably gotten 15-20+ years.

They had an audiotape of him admitting to it! And, yes, unbelievably, some in the leadership tried to defend him at meetings. They told us the tape could have been doctored. The Greeks and Romans practiced pederasty, so... (yes, this was actually said if you can believe it.)

Don't get me wrong, I met a lot of awesome people there too and had some great experiences. We went on trips all over the country during the summer, not just to local campgrounds. And our local Council pretty much defied the National Council and re: the ban on gays.

Still, I met some pretty strange people in the Scouts.

[No Elephants]

28. The Scouts of today seem too RW.

[Ignis]

32. SEVENTEEN!

The case, expected to attract national attention, centers on a Portland man who confessed to Scout leaders that he had molested 17 Scouts but was allowed to continue joining boys in Scouting activities.

WTF were Scout leaders thinking?!

"Well, we'd have to kick him out if he'd molested eighteen underage boys, but seventeen? Meh, that's not so bad."

:nuke:

[JerseygirlCT]

35. So let's see: BSA and the RCC

Two organizations that passionately discriminate against gay men, implying that there's a connection between being gay and being a pedophile.

Two organizations that hush up the real pedophiles in their midst.

Coincidence? You decide.