Abuse of Boy Scouts ‘evil to the core’
Camper shares past traumatic experience
As a young boy growing up just outside Boston, Rick says, he was an introvert, a skinny kid with a baby face who wasn’t athletic and didn’t have a lot of friends. Soon after joining the local Boy Scout troop, a scout leader began sexually abusing him.
Rick, who asked that his last name not be used, said he was 12 or 13 when the horrific abuse began in the 1970s. Rick was sexually abused at a cabin and overnight camps and it didn’t end until he was 16.
“It’s evil to the core,” Rick told me Wednesday. “You kind of go numb and go into a coma because that’s the only defense mechanism you have. You just become comatose and say, ‘OK, it’s going to be over soon.’ ”
Rick is among more than 800 men who have recently come forward to Abused in Scouting, a group of law firms, claiming they were sexually abused by Boy Scout leaders across the country as far back as 1945 and as recently as last year. Abused in Scouting came together after the Boy Scouts of America announced last year it was contemplating filing for bankruptcy.
Some of the boys were as young as 6 or 7 when the alleged sex abuse occurred, attorney Josh Schwartz told me.
Abused in Scouting attorneys say they have identified more than 350 scout leaders who allegedly sexually abused boys — predators who weren’t previously identified in files released by the Boy Scouts. The victims being represented by Abused in Scouting range in age from 14 to 88, Schwartz said.
On Monday, the organization filed a lawsuit against the Boy Scouts in Philadelphia on behalf of a man who claims he was 12 when an assistant scout leader began sexually abusing him, repeating it hundreds of times in the 1970s.
In a statement, the Boy Scouts said they’ve been in contact with law enforcement agencies. “We care deeply about all victims of abuse and sincerely apologize to anyone who was harmed during their time in Scouting. We believe victims, we support them, we pay for counseling by a provider of their choice, and we encourage them to come forward,” it read.
At least 17 cases of alleged sex abuse by scoutmasters or assistant scoutmasters have been identified as taking place in Massachusetts, according to Abused in Scouting.
Now 60 and married, Rick said he came forward to prevent the same thing from happening to other boys.
Over the years, Rick said it “tore” his heart to hear about the tragic toll on the men and women sexually abused by Catholic priests. Rick said it was “very disheartening” that it took so long for the Boy Scouts to be exposed.
Rick is thankful his voice, and that of others, is finally being heard.