UpstateNYCC

With regard to the newspaper issue....I would not put anything in the paper about the scout or the scoutmaster - there is enough bad PR about scouting out there. I have a high regard to the scouting program for what it meant to my oldest son, and plenty of other people that have gone through it. IMHO, the right way that this should have been taken care of is via council. If the scout has any character (or gets any as he matures), he will deep in his heart know that he did not earn it, and will not mean the same as if he did. As far as the comment "it is fair to consider that the troop might be in the wrong. Maybe they've raised such a high bar that paperwork moves ridiculously slow, and the scout and his parent felt they had no other choice but to seek help beyond his own unit", for full disclosure this was not the case. The application was submitted two weeks before the scout's 18th birthday (probably not enough time to get it approved and do the project), and our troop has averaged about an eagle a year. Having said that, even if this was true, it does not justify forging signatures and having your mom write it for you. There are plenty of ways to appeal this through council....if he had appealed through council and they awarded it anyways (which they always do). I would have been OK - that is the process. But for another SM to forge signatures and submit it....that's another story. By the way, I appreciate everyone's perspective on this.

You are correct. We did nothing, thinking that with (literally) two weeks before he aged out, there would be no way he could get eagle. We did not anticipate another leader would forge sigs to have him get the rank to get some brownie points (or something) with the Mom. Lesson learned.

Appreciate the response. Sorry if my post was not clear, I am not concerned about the scout (as mentioned, plenty of eagle ranks are given away). My question is the adult leader that signed a form he was not authorized to sign. Seems like that's someone we would not want in scouting.

Our council would rather take the easy road and look the other way. Discussions with them result in statements like "Lets hope he doesn;'t repeat this" and (I am being honest with this one....) "We are too focused on popcorn sales to deal with this". They admit the other SM did this, but don't want to rock the boat. Thanks for the response. We have not seen the scout since.

Thanks. That's what I figured. Really too bad they don't take too much of an interest in these things.

Thanks. It has continued to happen, but our council is too focused on popcorn sales and not making waves. Sometimes I wish council employees were required to be eagle scouts....... Thanks. That's what I figured. Really too bad they don't take too much of an interest in these things.

A couple of years ago, a scout in our troop who was aging out submitted an eagle scout proposal that had some issues. While discussing them, he admitted that a parent prepared it and forged signatures on it (the parent admitted as well). Unbeknownst to us, the scouts mom took it to a scout leader in a different troop that she had a "relationship" with. He signed his name on it for the scoutmaster and committee chair (not sure if he signed his name or forged our leaders' names), submitted it, got it approved, and also signed off on the eagle scout project report and eagle scout form, and submitted it to council. We were unaware that this occurred, until we saw some publicity that his mother had prepared. When we contacted the other scout leader, he admitted doing it, and then bragged how there was nothing we could do. We went to our council, who proceeded to brush it under the rug (there's nothing we can do, lets not make a big deal of this, etc.). To this day, the other leader brags about it as a recruiting tactic (he practically guarantees eagle rank to parents). Anyone on the national level we can take this to? Any other suggestions on how to handle?