Steve M says:

To put this into context, we need to find out how many Scout leaders there are in Boy Scouting.

According to _ (who don’t cite their source, but it’s probably accurate enough for these purposes), there are 1,209,077 adult leaders in Scouting, currently.

Let’s assume that the average leader is in for 5 years. This is a guess, but I think it’s a reasonable one.

So, at 182 par year (2 per day), 910 were tossed in the last five years. 910 divided by 1,209,077 is .00075, or 00.075%. Three quarters of one tenth of one percent. Of course, one incidence of this is too high - but realistically, Boy Scouting by nature has NAMBLA APPLY HERE stamped all over it. I wonder what, given how independent every troop is, could be done? Obviously those with a record shouldn’t be let near the organization, but beyond that, it’s all judgment calls within the troop.

The only thing I can think of would be to have some sort of mandatory awareness training, but even that would be much more top down than a traditionally bottom-up organization.

Steve M says:

Source @ http://www.troop125bsa.com/statistics.htm

Andrew says:

I love math like that — thanks for doing it.

But we can also look at it the other way. Imagine if the Scouts said, rightly, “Less than one-tenth of one percent of our staff has been kicked out for child molestation.” We might rightly turn around and say, “But that’s one every two days!”

Can you name another organization — especially one charged with overseeing kids — that kicks out that many staff people for child molestation every week (besides the Church)? That’s nuts!

Oh, and the article points out that “These days the entire first chapter of the Boy Scout handbook is dedicated to child abuse prevention.” Just creepy.

Steve M says:

It is creepy. But I’d say I’d rather know that unlike the Church, BSA’s kicking the out ones they find.

I don’t know if there’s an easy answer to how to control the problem, though. I guess if one were to put their son into Scouting, the best thing to do would be to participate. But then, I guess that should be happening anyway?

Leland says:

Whoa Steve, that was definitely not slow pitch! Andrew, I think he’s got you on the church comparison.

What is sad is these ex-communicated scout leaders join other organizations. Back in the 80s I worked on a story about a church organization called “Royal Rangers.” It seems all three of the leaders in our area were kicked out of Scout leader positions for “not following Scouting standards.” (That was all the spokesman for the Boy Scout’s of America organization would say.)

That lead us to another story about a removed Scout leader that simply started his own outdoor youth group. This guy formed his own 501c3 and left fliers at schools and churches. The problem was that this guy was accused of providing alcohol and sexual misconduct with the boys while he was a Scout leader.

However, he was never charged. The reasons for the lack of charges depends on who you asked. Everyone had a different story. The police said it was a lack of witness cooperation. The Scouts had nothing to say on the matter including refusing to confirm or deny the leader was kicked out. Two of the parents said that the Scouts asked them to act with the good of Scouting in mind. One parent speaking off the record said words to the effect of “If my son was molested, and I’m not saying he was, why would I advertise that to the entire town by putting him on the witness stand?”

Earlier I commented that I grew up in a better time. The more I read, the more I believe it.

Steve M says:

I imagine the Scouts couldn’t officially say anything as he wasn’t charged. Saying something might be slander. Thankfully the community figured out enough to put their organization on notice.

Here’s how I see it: Scouting has some of the best intentions and the best results of any youth-oriented program. Whatever its faults, it’s hard to ignore how many boys have gone through scouting and become better people.

That said, it’s not perfect. I believe they are being narrow-minded when they exclude gays & atheists. And as I said - it’s an obvious target for NAMBLA types.

But like SO MANY OTHER problems involving kids, there is a very simple thing that a parent can do: participate. Know your kids, get to know the others in the troop, and communicate with all of them. Don’t think of it as a day care, and you’ll know that your son is in good hands. This goes for a million other things - their school, their teachers, their friends, online chat, the Web, blogs, sports, their coaches, how they drive, their homework, how they get home, when they get home… get involved.

I’m not a parent yet, but I know that to be a good parent you have to, um, spend some time being a parent.

I’m also not old (27), but I wonder about whether or not everything was better ‘back then.’ I sometimes suspect that it was the same, but that it wasn’t discussed openly. Gays were that way ‘back then.’ They certainly didn’t disappear - they just had to meet in, say, public airport restrooms. They don’t any more (something that homosexuals and heterosexuals might agree to be a good thing) unless they’re from the ‘old’ world. My wife’s from the South - and such things are still whispered in this way, but not publicly.

Steve M says:

Oh, one more thing to add to that list of things a parent can do? Watch the movies they’re interested in. Especially the first, oh, 15 minutes.