Another unfortunate story

[eisely]

This raises an interesting question. How alone is alone? Here again, everything was done according to the books, and still an incident occurred. One wonders what would happen if there were no rules.

 

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Posted on Tue, Sep. 16, 2003

 

THE FLORIDA KEYS

Miami man accused of abuse

Four teens say a scuba instructor reached into their bathing suits at an Islamorada Boy Scout camp this summer.

BY CARA BUCKLEY

cbuckley@herald.com

 

A 26-year old Miami man has been arrested on charges that he fondled four teenage boys from Pennsylvania at a Boy Scout camp in Islamorada.

 

The boys reported that their instructor, Keith Walker, reached into their bathing suits during a scuba diving class at the Florida Sea Base Camp on Aug. 13. The boys, age 14 and 15, immediately reported the abuse, according to the camp's general manager, Dennis St. Jean. A ''very remorseful'' Walker was fired one hour later, St. Jean said.

 

Walker was arrested on Thursday, three weeks after a warrant was issued for four counts of lewd and lascivious acts on a minor, said Becky Herrin, spokeswoman for the Monroe County Sheriff's Office.

 

Detectives said an earlier arrest was thwarted because Walker was evidently avoiding his Miami apartment. Walker, who is being held in Miami on $150,000 bond, will be returned to Monroe County to face the charges, Herrin said.

 

The alleged fondling occurred halfway through a scuba certification program in a dive tank attended by a group of eight teenage boys from the Philadelphia area, St. Jean said.

 

Walker singled out four of the teens and took them, one by one, to a section of the tank away from their group, where the abuse allegedly occurred, St. Jean said.

 

This was unusual behavior, according to St. Jean. To head off possible sexual abuse, Boy Scout policy mandates that no boys can be alone with one adult. Another adult counselor was in attendance but was at another location in the dive tank when the alleged inappropriate touching took place, St. Jean said.

 

''One pleasant thing in light of this tragedy was how fantastic the kids were,'' said St. Jean. ``Often youngsters are embarrassed when talking about this sort of thing, but they went right to their leaders, and their leaders came right to me.''

 

Walker had cleared the camp's background check and taught there for three summers and a spring session, St. Jean said. He was living at the camp and had no prior criminal record in Florida.

 

Florida Sea Base Camp offers eight adventure programs to Boy Scouts nationwide, including the scuba certification program that Walker taught.

 

 

[Eamonn]

Yes the story is unfortunate.

But wouldn't it be great if the reason that the Scouts reported it was due to the movies; A Time To Tell or It Happened To Me?

Eamonn