SNAP Officials Take on Boy Scouts

By Alex Fees
KSDK
October 20, 2012

http://www.ksdk.com/news/article/343765/3/SNAP-officials-take-on-Boy-Scouts

[with video]

Officials with SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, are weighing-in on the Boy Scouts child sex abuse scandal.

They say the documents made public Thursday by civil suits show the same kind of callous, reckless maneuvers by scouting officials that SNAP called attention to in other contexts, such as the Catholic Church and Penn State.

"The sad truth is many institutions value their own reputations over the safety of the kids they serve," said David Clohessy, with SNAP in St. Louis.

Regarding the release of confidential, so-called "perversion" files kept by Boy Scout officials, Clohessy said, "We in SNAP are calling upon law enforcement officials to look through these files and use their bully pulpits and beg victims, witnesses, and whistle-blowers of scout abuse to come forward. Obviously most of these cases are from years and years ago. And the statute of limitations has probably run and nothing can be done, legally, but we believe it's reckless to make that assumption."

Clohessy said SNAP officials have determined those files contain allegations of abuse against more than 170 scouting officials in Missouri.

"At least a dozen of these are in the St. Louis-area," said Clohessy, "with individual names of proven, or admitted, or accused scout leaders attached to them. Some of them are multiple pages. What a lot of them have is a form the scouts used, where you put in literally the name of the scout master, employee, or volunteer, the troop number he worked in, his contact information. And then there is a space at the bottom where they put the reason why you think he should be ineligible to be in the program."

Clohessy said some of those files contain newspaper clippings or arrest reports.

"Sometimes there were testimonies from victims attached. And usually a local scout leader wrote to someone else, a higher-up in the organization, saying, 'Here's what we know about this individual, please don't let them in our program anymore, please don't let them be a scout somewhere else.' Unfortunately, the files also showed that in dozens and dozens of cases, even after being kicked out of one local scout troop, these men resurfaced elsewhere, and were in fact allowed into scouting."

Clohessy said it's up to the Boy Scouts to take action.

"So we think the public and certainly former scouts need to be told explicitly and clearly, these are the men we think or we know are child molesters. If you were hurt come forward, get help, and call the police. We need to do what we can, now, to try to stop this from happening further."

He said victims deserve the credit for bringing these cases to light.

"The only reason we know about these hundreds, and hundreds, and hundreds of scout predators is a few brave scout victims came forward, took legal action, filed lawsuits, and hung in there through the long, difficult process of litigation. They insisted that as part of the settlement these files must be made public."

Clohessy commented on whether the Boy Scouts of America can survive.

"If scout officials do what church officials do, and talk about their policies, and their programs, and their procedures, and let it go at that, it's going to be tough for the organization in the future. They can sit back passively, wait for the phone to ring, and apologize to each and every victim, personally, in which case their reputation will, justifiably, continue to suffer. Or they can use their resources to reach out and say, 'If you were hurt by this scout master in this troop, please come forward. We want to help you.'"

Joe Mueller is Director of Public Relations for the Greater St. Louis Area Council of the Boy Scouts, which serves 37 counties in eastern Missouri and southern Illinois.

Mueller said, "We believe the 'secret files' connotation is inaccurate. They are confidential files."

He also said scouting officials here looked at the files, and there are about 20 from the St. Louis metropolitan area. Among those, he says 75 percent involved some level of law enforcement.

"It's important for people to realize these files were only one piece of the youth protection plan we have. We have criminal background checks, comprehensive training, policies, and most of all, mandatory reporting of any sexual abuse, or abuse, or suspected abuse, to law enforcement."

Mueller said it's important for the organization to continue to focus on what they're doing now, and how they can improve that.

"We've instituted criminal background checks from 2008 on," he said. "We have volunteer leaders who know each other in the community to make sure they vouch for the character of people; and then policies, the Rule of Four. No activities can take place without two scouts, and two leaders. No one-on-one counseling. If there's a one-on-one, it has to be within the view of other adults."

Mueller said release of the files Thursday came as a surprise to local officials.

"These files were sent to the national office," he said. "We did not have access to these file, and had no knowledge of the files, or what were in these files, until then."

Mueller said national council officials have announced they are going to go back through the files, and if any cases need to be reported to law enforcement, they will do just that.