Be prepared: Cases test Boy Scouts, victims
Bankruptcy won’t halt programming as suits mount
Boys Scouts of America council leaders say they will continue programming, despite the Texas-based national organization filing for federal Chapter 11 bankruptcy Tuesday.
The national nonprofit’s move to file for financial restructuring follows a wave of hundreds of civil lawsuits that claim Boy Scouts of America employees ignored rampant child sexual abuse for decades. Officials from the national organization said the decision was made in order to create a trust to pay victim settlements.
“(The bankruptcy) is a shame because at its core and what it was supposed to be, the Boy Scouts is a beautiful organization,” said James Kretschmer of Houston.
Kretschmer was sexually abused by a Scout leader in the mid-70’s in Washington state, according to a lawsuit.
“But you know, anything can be corrupted,” he told the Associated Press on Tuesday. “And if they’re not going to protect the people that they’ve entrusted with the children, then shut it down and move on.”
However, scouting programs will continue throughout the court process and “for many years to come,” according to a statement made by national leadership.
“This is a national bankruptcy filing and the only business entity involved in it is the national Boy Scouts of America
organization,” said Nathan Baie, executive director of the Boy Scouts of America South Plains Council in West Texas. “Local scouting councils are separate business entities.”
Meetings and activities will not be impacted, Baie said, no matter the outcome of the bankruptcy court case, filed in federal court in Wilmington, Del.
Baie said he does not have concerns about his council seeing a drop in enrollment due to the news of the national organization.
“With respect to the 20 counties we serve in West Texas, this is our third consecutive year of membership growth,” he said.
Officials with the Sam Houston Area Council, which serves almost 50,000 Scouts in southeast Texas including Houston, did return calls from the Chronicle.
Robert Sanborn, president and CEO of Texas advocacy group Children at Risk, said the news may deter some parents from letting their children join scouting activities, but believes existing support for local groups will likely not waiver.
“I think parents always want to believe their local scouting group is different than what we are seeing nationally,” Sanborn said. “I do believe there will be some tarnishing of the name of the institution, but a lot of parents want scouting to happen.”
Expansions of statutes of limitation on civil claims in the last two years across the country have ushered in a reckoning for institutions accused of ignoring abuse, including Boy Scouts of America.
“We had a banner year in 2019, with so many states adding legislation that has permitted more victims to come forward,” said Marci Hamilton, CEO and academic director of Child USA, a national child protection advocacy nonprofit.
Hamilton said her organization will this week release a database of 1,500 sex abuse cases linked to Boy Scouts of America. The national organization has estimated 1,000 to 5,000 victims will seek compensation. More than 12,000 boys have been molested by 7,800 abusers since the 1920s, according to Boy Scout files revealed in court papers.
“We fear that Boy Scouts have had more serious problems than the Catholic church,” said Hamilton. “There are a lot of reasons to be concerned about the kind of model that has kids away from parents and often alone with an adult.”
Bankruptcy gives the institution an easy-out and robs survivors of the justice they are seeking, Hamilton said. The process lumps all victims into one group and does not allow for discovery of Boy Scout documents, she added.
That information would also aid in preventing future abuse, said Hamilton. “Without it, we’ll never understand why victims were put in the path of pedohphiles.”
Scout officials urged victims to come forward in a letter shortly after announcing it filed for bankruptcy protection.
“We are outraged that there have been times when individuals took advantage of our programs to harm innocent children,” said Roger Mosby, the Boy Scouts’ president and CEO. “While we know nothing can undo the tragic abuse that victims suffered, we believe the Chapter 11 process, with the proposed trust structure, will provide equitable compensation to all victims while maintaining the BSA’s important mission.”
Sanborn said the light that the recent lawsuits have shined on the alleged sexual abuse will ultimately make institutions like the Boy Scouts more safe.
“The bottom line is we need to protect our children,” he said. “Boys and girls who’ve joined the scouts and their parents deserve for those clubs to do everything they possibly can to be safe. We understand that this is a hardship for Boy Scouts, but we want to keep hardship away from our children.”