NEW JERSEY
The Record
Friday, October 19, 2012
BY JEFF PILLETS, COLLEEN DISKIN AND MARY JO LAYTON
STAFF WRITERS
The Record
Albert T. Bischoff of Bergenfield was a married father of two who worked as a custodian in Englewood schools and spent his free time as a merit badge counselor and assistant troop leader for the Boy Scouts.
Scout officials described him as “shy and retiring.” But internal Boy Scout documents released Thursday show that some of the boys saw another side of Bischoff — a man who took photos of Scouts urinating in the latrine, who talked openly about oral sex, orgies, sensual massage and the merits of bisexuality.
Local Boy Scout executives removed Bischoff, now deceased, from the organization in 1982 after parents demanded action. But the Scouts also promised Bischoff they would keep the matter quiet. …
But child-abuse advocates said the newly released files show the organization cannot be trusted.
“We see this time and time again — an iconic organization putting its own reputation over the welfare of children,” said Mark Crawford, New Jersey director of S.N.A.P., the non-profit Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. “How can we expect the Scouts to reform themselves?”
Crawford and others said an independent review, similar to former FBI chief Louis Freeh’s investigation of sex abuse at Penn State, is now needed. New state laws that lengthen New Jersey’s two-year statute of limitations on civil cases stemming from sex abuse are also needed, the advocates said.
A bill pending in the New Jersey Legislature would give victims of sexual abuse 10 years to pursue civil litigation. The legislation was prompted by complaints from victims of clergy sexual abuse who only came to grips with the damaging episodes of their childhood as adults — when it was too late to pursue lawsuits.
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