BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe
November 24, 2020
In the absence of radical reform to an organization now deluged with child sex abuse allegations, the Boy Scouts of America charter should be revoked.
The recent revelation that more than 95,000 claims of sexual abuse have been filed against the Boy Scouts of America has been all but lost in the news cycle dominated by President Trump’s refusal to concede his election defeat and the latest deadly surge of COVID-19 infections. But it should be a shock to the system of every American, given the staggering breadth of alleged abuse of children by those who took an oath to God and country to obey the law, help others, and live honest and moral lives.
As the organization seeks to restructure, settle those claims, and reemerge from this crisis to reclaim its place as a treasured American institution, it is also incumbent on members of Congress — and the Americans they represent — to ask: How did this happen, and should an organization that fostered such widespread abuse be allowed to survive at all?
In February, the Boy Scouts of America filed for bankruptcy in light of hundreds of lawsuits filed against it by people who allege sexual abuse over the course of decades. That triggered a reorganization in bankruptcy court to create a compensation fund to pay out settlements to abuse survivors who assert credible claims. Survivors were given a deadline of Nov. 16 to file claims, which brought tens of thousands more people forward. In a statement, the organization has said it is “devastated by the number of lives impacted by past abuse in Scouting and moved by the bravery of those who have come forward.”
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