YPT Updates from TCC Term Sheet (Bankruptcy)

[Eagle94-A1]

On 2/10/2022 at 9:21 AM, Eagle1993 said:

13) Volunteer Screening Database

a) The BSA will work with the YPC to assess how the names of adult perpetrators of child sexual abuse in Scouting and other information can be made public or used in connection with a database accessible to other youth serving organizations. Specifically, the BSA agrees to work with the YPC on a protocol that makes confirmed past child abusers in Scouting, and future confirmed child abusers in Scouting, publicly known.

b) The protocol will take into account factors including:

(i) the desire to make public adult perpetrators of child sexual abuse in Scouting;

(ii) adequate protections for survivor identities;

(iii) consideration regarding the protection of third parties, including survivor family members and volunteers;

(iv) a notification process regarding any publication;

(v) issues related to privacy and liability related to publication; and

(vi) the potential appointment or retention of an appropriate neutral party to supervise the evaluation and review of the VSD.

c) The BSA will take a leadership role and re-engage with other YSOs and agencies including but not limited to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to explore the feasibility of and advocate for a shared national database of adults who have been excluded from working with youths for youth protection related offenses.

d) The Trust Agreement shall be modified to provide the Settlement Trustee with the authority to request an order of the Bankruptcy Court relating to the publication of materials included in the VSD, no earlier than one year after the Effective Date. The Plan shall be amended to specifically provide that the Bankruptcy Court retain jurisdiction to adjudicate such request. All parties in interest, including the Reorganized Debtors, shall have the right to object to and contest any request made by the Settlement Trustee.

 

As many others have noted:

On 2/10/2022 at 12:25 PM, fred8033 said:

Plus reporting statistics, etc.  

The volunteer screening database is a huge part of why we are here now.  Society wasn't ready.  So BSA tracked and excluded problematic volunteers. 

Agree we are here because BSA DID do something to prevent abuse using the legal standards of the time.

On 2/10/2022 at 12:25 PM, fred8033 said:

 #13 now expands that and makes it more than publicly visible and coordinates with the rest of society?  This just begs a huge new set of issues.  The issue is not the database.  The issue is BSA owning a national database shared with other organizations.  I can 100% guarantee it will become the target of job searches and background checks.  It will be a future legal mess.

 

On 2/10/2022 at 4:52 PM, ThenNow said:

Shared this with my wife. She's busy, but the initial reaction was swift and simple. Either or both entities - BSA or an association of YSO's - better insure up and lawyer up. After she said that, my reflex is that one serious misstep with clear compensable damages for tortious interference and/or defamation with emotional and reputational impacts could be a plaintiff's lawyer's playground. The proof in defamation is difficult. In an employment recommendation process, which this could be construed to be even if a volunteer, the former employer's statement would need to be reckless, known to be untrue or reasonably know to be untrue. At the least, this could generate a bevy lawsuits. All that said, this seems to be an "explore and see if we can do this" type deal. It will need to be well thought out and examined. 100%. 

Agree totally and it was one reason why the IVF was private, it could lead to legal trouble if the person in the IVF was never convicted. In another thread, someone posted a link to a file from 1968-69 about a volunteer who abused 12 Scouts while an ASM. Because none of the parents wanted their sons to testify in a court martial, the perp was discharged from the military instead of convicted of a crime. Because BSA had him in the IVF, he was prevented from getting back into the BSA. IMHO this is an example of how the IVF worked to protect youth.

 

On 2/10/2022 at 11:18 PM, fred8033 said:

This really does need to be a public database but one managed by the appropriate government or pseudo-gov authority.

 Agree 100% on this one as it will open everyone associated with it to lawsuits.

[skeptic]

Sadly, unless a major revamp of the legal system is also made, disreputiel legal people will prey on this as a feeding ground.  And, because of our societal perversions, not just sexual, people will respond negatively and loudly against the BSA and other YSO's perhaps.  The can of worms will be even larger and less useful in carrying on needed real youth work and growth.  

Somehow we need, we in the sense of the broader society, to find a way to take the hype and knee jerk condemnation out of anomalous problems, but also realistically react and protect.  As I have suggested over and over, the positive of BSA far out strips the negative, but our society focuses on the drama and most salacious and ignores the overwhelming positive.  How to combat that is possibly even a bigger challenge.  

[PeterHopkins]

On 2/10/2022 at 4:52 PM, ThenNow said:

As a survivor who was about to get back into Scouting if only at a distance, I would be hesitant to wear one.

Wearing the Phoenix pin is a different decision from agreeing to be publicly (or perhaps privately) acknowledged for achievement despite going through an experience no child should have to endure. Many Scouters have received awards they choose not to wear.

[ThenNow]

2 minutes ago, PeterHopkins said:

Wearing the Phoenix pin is a different decision from agreeing to be publicly (or perhaps privately) acknowledged for achievement despite going through an experience no child should have to endure. Many Scouters have received awards they choose not to wear.

Help me understand. I'm not sure I do. Thank you kindly.

[PeterHopkins]

 

36 minutes ago, ThenNow said:

Help me understand. I'm not sure I do. Thank you kindly.

If one has survived something so tragic and dastardly and nevertheless achieved something that made his or her mark on the world, such a person might appreciate being recognized for the accomplishment. That's my understanding of the proposed Phoenix Award. (I like the name of it.)

While appreciating the recognition, even if the award recipient preferred to receive the award privately, that same person may wish not to be defined by the award and may prefer never to wear it. That's a different decision from the decision to accept the award.

It isn't at all uncommon for Scouters to receive awards represented by square knot aches worn on the uniform shirt and decide not to sew them on. The reasons for those decisions are varied. It's easy for me to see how someone might appreciate receiving a Phoenix Award but not want to wear it, because they might be called to explain what it is, or, to those who already know what it is, the pin identifies something that happened to them as a child that they might prefer not to share with the general (Scouting) public.

Edited February 15, 2022 by PeterHopkins
typo

[ThenNow]

20 minutes ago, PeterHopkins said:

If one has survived something so tragic and dastardly and nevertheless achieved something that made his or her mark on the world, such a person might appreciate being recognized for the accomplishment. That's my understanding of the proposed Phoenix Award. (I like the name of it.)

Right. Agreed. I hope you didn't take my opinion to disparage anyone who chooses to wear the pin. I try to be clear, but may have missed the mark.

21 minutes ago, PeterHopkins said:

While appreciating the recognition, even of the award recipient preferred to receive the award privately, that same person may wish not to be defined by the award and may prefer never to wear it. That's a different decision from the decision to accept the award

As above. That was my point and would be how I would do it. Have, hold, but not routinely display. I might do the latter if asked to speak or present as a BSA CSA survivor, which may well happen.

[PeterHopkins]

The most important element in the youth protection proposals in the plan is that survivors believe it adequately addresses the needs of today's Scouts.

I've served in multiple roles within the BSA in the past including a lengthy stint as a Scoutmaster and a member of a Venturing crew committee. Presently, I'm a Cubmaster. I don't think anything in this plan present a challenge too great for units to meet. Troops, crews and ships will need to get any parents who might participate in overnight activities registered in advance.

The rule that will prevent registration end dates from being later than training expiration dates is a good idea. We recently reregistered a den leader for calendar year 2022, and she last took youth protection in January 2020. So, her YPT expired just days after her new registration period began. I noticed it, and let her know. She took it right away.

Some councils already require that an adult may not reregister past the expiration date of his or her YPT. I know Baltimore Area Council requires this. That effectively means YPT must be done every year. If a unit charters on a calendar year, and a Scouter took YPT on December 30, 2020, it would be current at the end of 2021, but it would expire a day before the 2022 registration ends. So, it seems everyone will be doing YPT annually.

If everyone will be taking YPT annually, the annual refreshers would seem superfluous. Why not simply update the main course every year to account for the material that would be in the refresher? I don't see why we would want people to annually take YPT and a YPT refresher.

Twenty years ago, only direct-contact leaders needed YPT. I was a Scoutmaster at the time, and many on my troop committee did not want to take it. The commitment was bigger then, since it involved going someplace where the course was being held. There was not yet an online version. I tried encouraging it, but I got a lot of pushback and very little compliance. Nowadays, parents expect that this sort of thing exists, and most of them get it done rather quickly.

Also in that era, resident camps would offer YPT to adult who arrived in camp without it. They had to be trained within 48 hours of arriving. So, the course was usually available after lunch on Monday. Many would attend, even of their YPT wasn't expired, because it was a convenient way to push out your expiration date. You're already in camp. What else do you have to do? An hour in the air conditioning (where available) wasn't a bad carrot to hold out either.

If survivors want monuments at high adventure bases, I won't speak out against this, but I was surprised to see it in the plan. I suppose it puts the BSA's history front and center. The 9/11 Memorial does the same.