Safety changes and calls for oversight follow series

A sixmonth Hearst Connecticut Media investigation into sex abuse connected to Boys & Girls Clubs across the country has led to immediate changes in the national organization’s approach to safety for children, and calls by some for stronger government oversight.

On Thursday morning, Hearst Connecticut published what is believed to be the first nationwide accounting of abuse at Boys & Girls Clubs, including an interactive database of individual cases involving criminal sex abuse allegations and civil lawsuits. It found at least 95 cases involving more than 250 alleged victims in 30 states.

On Thursday afternoon, Boys & Girls Club of America announced that it would immediately take measures to improve the safety of the children it serves, including new mandatory annual audits of every local club, a national day of safety drills and training on Sept. 12, and improvements to how transparent it is with parents and communities about allegations of abuse. The national organization the largest nonprofit serving youth in the country also said it would hire an outside firm to conduct a toptobottom review of safety procedures.

On Friday, there were calls for stronger legal oversight of Boys & Girls Clubs from Connecticut officials who said that the national organization successfully fought back efforts a few years ago to require that they be subject to safety regulations required of day care centers. Those regulations require formal background checks of staff and volunteers, and mandatory reporting of abuse allegations … something that local clubs across the country have been accused in criminal and civil complaints of failing to do.

An editorial published by Hearst’s Connecticut newspapers on Sunday called for closing those loopholes, and for more leeway in state laws across the country for victims who can’t sue or press for criminal charges

because of statutes of limitations.

“There should be no loopholes when it comes to the abuse of children. The pain does not have an expiration date. Resistance from agencies, churches and insurance companies is ultimately just a matter of money,” Hearst Connecticut’s editorial board wrote.

A number of the cases of alleged sex abuse connected to Boys & Girls Clubs found in Hearst Connecticut’s investigation were concen

trated in four states that have less stringent statutes of limitations and/or laws that empower victims and require mandatory reporting of abuse allegations.

On Wednesday, a change in New York state law opened a yearlong statute of limitations window that led to a flurry of sex abuse suits and is expected to surface more cases connected to Boys & Girls Clubs.

Lisa Yanick Litwiller, the editor of Hearst Connecticut Media’s Boys & Girls Club investigation, said on Saturday that after publishing the first stories and database on Thursday, her team started

Boys & Girls Clubs and sexual abuse

hearing from new people who say they were abused in connection to their involvement with Boys & Girls

Clubs.

New criminal cases and civil lawsuits will be added to the database as they are confirmed, she said, and work that has been six months, 3,000 hours, 1,600 documents reviewed, 100 Freedom of Information requests filed, and dozens of interviews in the making, will continue as long as there are new issues to uncover and stories to be told.

Matt DeRienzo is vice president of news and digital content at Hearst Connecticut Media Group. Reach him at matt.derienzo @hearstmediact.com.