SCOUTS ABUSED SINCE 1910: SUIT
New claims say org. had pervs from start
A slew of lawsuits filed Friday accuse the Boy Scouts of America of tolerating sexual abuse for decades — and say the systemic mistreatment of boys went on since the organization’s founding in 1910.
The 21 new lawsuits in Manhattan Supreme Court charge 14 adult scout leaders with sexually abusing children in numerous instances dating to 1954.
The abuse has gone on through the entire 110-year history of U.S. scouting, the lawsuits say.
”Throughout that time, many of these children have been subjected to horrific acts of sexual abuse by adults who gained access to them through scouting organizations,” says one of the lawsuits. “This widespread abuse of children in scouting programs has been a systemic crisis that goes back since these organizations first existed.”
“These cases show a widespread, systematic, decades long problem of kids getting molested in scouting,” said Mike Finnegan, one of the lawyers for the plaintiffs.
“The time is now for the truth to come out and survivors’ voices to be heard.”
Among those charged in the lawsuits is Maurice Meyers, a Jesuit priest and scout leader who worked at the Ten Mile River scout camps in Narrowsburg, N.Y.
Meyers began sexually abusing a 9-year-old at a scout camp in 1973 and continued to do so for a year, a lawsuit says.
“The culture of the scouting organization was one of obedience and created pressure on plaintiff [the abused child] not to report the abuse,” the suit states.
Boy Scouts had a duty to the child, his parents “and other parents of young, innocent, vulnerable children at the scout camp to properly train and supervise its agents and volunteers,” the lawsuit says.
Meyers, who was associated with Fordham University at the time of the alleged abuse, is also charged in the papers with sexually abusing two other children, court papers say. He died in 1980.
“We are heartbroken that any child was ever harmed during their time in Scouting” the Boy Scouts said in a statement.
The scouts say they’ve developed “youth protection policies” with help from experts in child safety, law enforcement, and psychology.
Child sex abuse claims led the Boy Scouts’ national organization to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February. The organization says it plans to compensate victims and “continue carrying out its mission for years to come.”
Higher ups at the Boy Scouts, which has about $1.4 billion in assets, were reportedly mulling a strategy that would compensate victims while protecting the hefty pot of money held by its many local councils — about $3.3 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The New York lawsuits were made possible by the state’s Child Victims Act, which took effect last August and created a one-year “look back” window for child sex abuse victims previously unable to sue because of statutes of limitation.
Lawmakers in May voted to extend the Child Victims Act by another year.