Did the BSA ignore molestation warnings?

[Hunt]

What's your point in sharing this with us, Merlyn? Obviously, it's unrelated to your quest to get BSA out of government facilities. Do you want us to feel bad about being affilitated with a big, bad organization like BSA? If so, forget it. There are bad apples in BSA, just like everywhere else. Currently, BSA is more likely to err or the side of banning a Scouter based on flimsy claims than the other way around.

There's no "issue" here, as far as I can see. If the acts were covered up, those who did so should be punished. You won't find any disagreement here. Your post was just flame bait, and Ed obliged you, and you responded predictably. Stop wasting your time, and ours.

[Merlyn_LeRoy]

I posted it because it again shows the BSA acting dishonestly. I come across news articles involving BSA units and molestation, but I've never commented on them because none of those cases allege that BSA officials knew about it and ignored it. This case alleges that a number of BSA officials, including apparently someone at National, were told about this guy for years and ignored the warnings.

[anarchist]

Merlyn, merlyn, merlyn...

 

"I posted because"...even your answer is dishonest...but then you have no reason to be honest do you?

[Merlyn_LeRoy]

Hey, if you like, I could post articles about every BSA molestation case I see, but this newsgroup would fill up pretty fast.

If the BSA officials involved in this weren't complete bastards, there would have been fewer kids molested.

[Prairie_Scouter]

Guys, c'mon. I know that I'm new here, but we're not going to be able to have an open discussion if we quickly drop into personal attacks.

 

I think it's good to have this kind of news out in the open. The bad part about this is that news coverage never, ever, covers the entire story. They'll cover the sensational part, and then quickly move on to the next "body count". At least that's how I see it.

 

So, there's value in knowing that a Scout Council had a problem like this because maybe we can learn from their mistakes. But, since it gets very difficult to follow a story once the media leaves it, it will be difficult to know exactly what happened and what the followup actions were. I can't believe that ANY Scouter would knowingly let a known child molester be active with the Scouts, so it'd be good to understand exactly HOW this happened. What happened to 2-deep leadership there?

 

The problem now becomes how open BSA will be with this. You obviously don't want to identify the Scouts involved, so they do need to be careful about how they would deal with this. I suspect, tho, that BSA won't say much, for fear of liability. I just don't think the National organization has the backbone to stand up when it counts, and be open about what happened and what they're going to do. The Catholic Church made the same huge mistake. From one perspective, that of liability, I can understand their reluctance to be open, regardless of how distasteful and unScoutlike it is. In the U.S. today, blame is the name of the game, and if you've got "deep pockets", someone is going to come after you. For BSA to stand up and say, "we've found this problem and here's how we'er fixing it" would be a somewhat courageous thing to do; I don't think they've got it in them to do anything that's not politically expedient for them. That's just my opinion, but they clam up pretty fast when something bad happens.

[evmori]

I posted it because it again shows the BSA acting dishonestly.

 

This coming from the person who posted the list of public schools that charter BSA units! And we all know how worried this person is about the accuracy of that list!

 

Ed Mori

Troop 1

1 Peter 4:10

[Merlyn_LeRoy]

Yes Ed, my list of school BSA charters notes that:

1) the list is generated by computer and corrected by hand, so there are almost certainly errors

2) asks for people to send in any corrections, additions, or deletions

 

Now, you claimed there were some schools that didn't belong on that list, but you never told me which ones.

 

The point is moot now, anyway; the Illinois ACLU was able to use my list of 300 government charters in Illinois to send a letter to National to stop all such charters, and that's what the BSA is going to have to do.

 

You, on the other hand, can't seem to be bothered to quote people correctly when you try to argue with them.

[evmori]

Not my list Merlyn. If it had been, it would be accurate.

[Prairie_Scouter]

I wonder if there might have been a better way to use such a list in Illinois. By giving it to the ACLU (a group who does good work, mostly, but also never saw an issue they couldn't get a press release out of), it will force the schools to drop their charters, which only ends up punishing the kids. Just think, for example, of the political muscle that could have been generated by working to build a nationwide list of sponsoring organizations that are technically breaking policy, or law, or whatever, by sponsoring Scout units, and then using the list with BSA to try and get some action. Imagine the press. Instead of "ACLU forces schools to drop BSA units", you could have "BSA refuses to change policies regardless of impact on large numbers of Scouts".

[Fuzzy Bear]

I drove through a town the other day that had three houses and two churches. A third church was advertised on the way out of town down a side road. There wasn't even a school or or firehouse. I suppose another list is in order.

[anarchist]

It appears that Merlyn boyo has a new advocate...

Praire_Scouter's post indicates to me,that P_S has a desire to see BSA roll over on its principles rather than have some back bone...and conviction...P_S, just cause you folks win one in court does not mean you are right(...just left) couldn't resist....that one.

 

It just kills you folks to know that some parts of our society just do not buy your 'go along to get along' means of social change. Instead of just building your own program you want to hy-jack BSAs, failing that; the new game is distroying BSA by administering the 'thousand cuts'! Lucky for us there are bunches of good folk and even more parents who believe enough to stand up to the misguided, the lost and the hacks at ACLU...But keep up the good work!

 

[Laurie]

Now, you claimed there were some schools that didn't belong on that list, but you never told me which ones.

 

The point is moot now, anyway; the Illinois ACLU was able to use my list of 300 government charters in Illinois to send a letter to National to stop all such charters, and that's what the BSA is going to have to do.

 

So, would I be correct in understanding this to mean that it doesn't matter if the list was correct or not, so long at is served its intended purpose?

 

[Merlyn_LeRoy]

Why would it matter if a few private schools are mistakenly listed, especially when the reader is told that this is the case?

[evmori]

Why would it matter if a few private schools are mistakenly listed, especially when the reader is told that this is the case?

 

It's called credibility. That's why it matters.

 

Ed Mori

Troop 1

1 Peter 4:10

[Merlyn_LeRoy]

Which is why I explicitly noted that the list was not 100% accurate or complete.

 

And it's also why I try to quote people accurately; but you wouldn't know about quoting people accurately, would you Ed?