Enough is Enough

How Can Boy Scouts of America Go On?

According to the Justice Department and the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, 75-80% of sexual abuse cases are not reported.

Nearly 84,000 people have claimed they were sexually abused at the hands of Boy Scouts of America employees and volunteers. That means, likely hundreds of thousands of people have been sexually abused by the BSA, many at its nearly 500 camps and high adventure programs. BSA frequently chose not to report child molesters. In fact, they systematically buried the allegations from the public.

The University of Southern California recently agreed to pay $852 million to roughly 700 women who accused one man—the college’s longtime gynecologist Dr. George Tyndall—of sexual abuse. Combined with an earlier settlement, USC has agreed to pay more than $1 billion.

Yet, the 110-year-old BSA organization agreed to pay $850 million as compensation for the largest child sexual abuse scandal in United States history spanning decades.

BSA filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last year in order to reorganize so it could sustain its operations well into the future.

How does this make sense? How is this allowable?

It makes sense only because the U.S. Congress chartered BSA in 1916, which means the organization enjoys certain protections and privileges not afforded to other nonprofits. One of those privileges is that chartered organizations can move lawsuits out of state courts to federal court where plaintiffs must secure a 12-0 decision in order to be awarded damages. By contrast, state courts require 9-0 decisions.

Congress chartered BSA with the declared purpose of promoting "the ability of boys to do things for themselves and others, to teach them patriotism, courage, self-reliance, and kindred virtues."

Kindred virtues? Besides the sex crimes, “Boy Scouts of America believes that homosexual conduct is inconsistent with the obligations in the Scout Oath and Scout Law to be morally straight and clean in thought, word and deed. The only reason they reversed course is because they virtually had to only a few years ago.

So, what does Congress say now about their beloved and privileged Boy Scouts organization? Ask them. Or…

Demand that Congress deactivate the Boy Scouts charter and demand that the Boy Scouts be forced to dissolve.