WINSTON-SALEM (NC)
Associated Press [New York NY]
December 15, 2021
Officials with a Boy Scouts of America chapter in North Carolina did nothing to prevent Scout leaders from sexually abusing 21 children between 1960 and 2010, according to a lawsuit.
The lawsuit was filed on Nov. 29 in Forsyth County Superior Court against Old Hickory Council of Boy Scouts of America Inc., the Winston-Salem Journal reported. Another lawsuit filed on the same day alleges that an 11-year-old boy was sexually assaulted multiple times by a Scout leader while on a camping trip in Mount Airy in 1978 and that another Scout leader allowed it to happen.
A third lawsuit filed last year alleges that a Scout leader sexually abused a 14-year-old boy in 1972.
The national Boy Scouts of America entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February 2020 to halt numerous individual lawsuits and create a fund for men who said they were sexually abused as children. Attorneys have announced a tentative settlement under which one of the organization’s largest insurers would contribute $800 million into a fund for victims of child sexual abuse. That agreement is subject to court approval.