It's looking as if they have a similar Law: "A Scout Leader is: Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean, Reverent, Perverted, a Child Abuser, and Willing To Help Other Child Abusers Get Away With It."
Speaking as an ex-Eagle Scout (I had more merit badges than Warren Beatty had lovers), no Scout leader ever tried to molest or take unwarranted liberties with me. But they could have, and nothing would have ever been done about it. If it had happened and I reported it, no one would have believed me, because the institution itself (just like the Catholic Church) was considered above reproach. IMO, the problem lies not with either organization per se, but with placing them on a pedestal of authority and worthiness so high that no one can imagine that their leaders would do something so...uh...human as to be human, and thus prey to the sometimes depraved things that humans are prey to. The *same* type of child abuse happened within the Sai Baba organization, and rampant child neglect has been reported to have happened at MIU/MUM, with parents or caregivers essentially leaving kids in their care on their own while they did more important things, like...uh...meditating. And I think we all know that if the latter had been widely reported, almost everyone in the TM organization would have swung behind trying to cover it up. The problem happens when "protecting the organization" becomes a higher priority than protecting those the organization was invented to serve. When that happens to *any* organization, it is on a slippery slope to scandal. Boy Scouts Face Release Of Damaging Child Sex Abuse FilesBy Chris Francescani Sept 16 (Reuters) - The Boy Scouts of America could face a wave of bad publicity as decades of records of confirmed or alleged child molesters within the U.S. organization are expected to be released in coming weeks. On Sunday, the Los Angeles Times reported the organization failed to report allegations of sex abuse of scouts by adult leaders and volunteers to police in hundreds of cases from 1970 to 1991. In some cases, the Boy Scouts helped the accused "cover their tracks," the paper said. The story was based on a review of 1,600 internal Boy Scouts case files the newspaper said it obtained that detailed accusations against confirmed or alleged child molesters within the youth organization. About 1,200 "ineligible volunteer" files dating from 1965 to 1985 are set to be publicly released under a June order by the Oregon Supreme Court, including some already reviewed by the newspaper. Those files played a key role in a 2010 civil trial in which an Oregon jury found the Boy Scouts liable in a 1980s pedophile case and ordered the organization to pay nearly $20 million in damages. The files will be released within three to four weeks, said Paul Mones, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiff in the Oregon case. In the wake of revelations about systemic child sex abuse within the Catholic Church and the recent Penn State sex abuse scandal, the files threaten to damage the reputation of one of America's most trusted institutions. Mones said the allegations revealed in the Oregon case are not necessarily comparable to the Catholic Church's sex abuse scandal. "In the Catholic Church there were overt cover-ups, and I don't think you see a lot of that here with the Boy Scouts," Mones told Reuters on Sunday. The Boy Scouts of America said in a statement on Sunday that while it regrets past incidents where scouts were sexually abused, its current policies require even suspicions of abuse to be reported directly to law enforcement. "The BSA (has) continuously enhanced its multi-tiered policies and procedures, which now include background checks, comprehensive training programs and safety policies," the statement said. The organization said it has maintained an internal "ineligible volunteer" file since at least 1919 to prevent suspected or confirmed child sex abusers from joining or re-entering its ranks. Boy Scouts of America officials and attorneys have said the files represent only a fraction of the adults who participate as scout leaders each year. The Boy Scouts have annually counted between 3.5 and 5 million scouts and more than 1 million adult leaders and volunteers among its members since the 1960s, a spokesman for the organization said. The organization is facing more than 50 pending child sexual abuse cases in 18 states, according to Kelly Clark, another plaintiff attorney in the Oregon case. Mones said he did not expect many new lawsuits to result from the upcoming release of the Scouts' files, predicting that statutes of limitation on sex abuse charges in most U.S. states would prevent victims from successful civil or criminal prosecution of alleged molesters.
