16 July 2008
With Leaders Like These Who Needs Enemies?
Posted by admin under: policies .
A couple of stories going around yesterday and today are the case of the 62 year old Boy Scout leader who was allegedly caught with child pornography and the 64 year old Sea Scout Leader who pleaded no contest to charges of child molestation.
That second story is even more complicated by the fact that he championed a well-known court battle on behalf of the Sea Scouts of Berkeley that ultimately lost in the California Supreme Court. Eugene Evans was supported by the national Boy Scouts of America legal division. Just as much as I’m glad these guys are revealed and prosecuted, I’m saddened and angered that their association with Boy Scouts makes others who don’t like the BSA smug.
So, why shouldn’t you be freaked out about your kids being abused? Because you will talk to your son about potential abusive situations as is required for their joining badge. Also, you know that Boy Scouts of America has a policy requiring adult leaders to be trained in youth protection for all outings. Being a good parent, you will probably have taken the free online youth protection course so that you know what is expected and required. Ideally, you will have joined the troop as an adult leader so that you can monitor that other leaders are adhering to these national requirements knowing that the organization conducts background checks on all leaders. Most importantly you will reinforce for your son and all boys in your troop the fact that they are never to be in a one on one situation with an adult and you will model that behavior by making sure that it doesn’t occur with you. Scoutmaster conference between your son and the Scoutmaster where they might be discussing sensitive criticisms? You or another leader is within sight of the meeting. The Order of the Arrow ordeal that takes boys off into the wild and about which they aren’t supposed to discuss details? Remind anyone who tries to tell you that “All aspects of the Scouting program are open to observation by parents and leaders” according to the national rules.
Not only do we have hoards of people trying to attack the Boy Scouts of America on a daily basis, we also have men like those described above attracted to any community group with kids in it. Fortunately, BSA has developed procedures to minimize the danger of the latter. Unfortunately, their existence only encourages the former.
- Your Training Reminder
- BSA Field Testing Mandatory Training
- Nice Training Page Summary
- Racist Criticism of Boy Scouts of America
- Parents Not Doing Their Duty
6 Comments so far...
Cici Says:
16 July 2008 at 6:29 pm.
The Sea Scout leader was also a high school teacher… He was paid to do that. He volunteered to be in Scouting. Why aren’t people up in arms that the school district hired him. They don’t think his fetish started only after he retired, do they? I wish there was a foolproof test to find out who is sick, but apparently it hasn’t been invented yet. BSA is not to blame for not knowing about this guy. Until someone is caught, people don’t know that there is a problem. If he didn’t have a record and his personal references had no concerns about him, then he wouldn’t have had a problem being approved. That’s why BSA has so many rules about adult/boy supervision and why everyone is instructed to be vigilant in their participation. The school district paid him to be with children. Parents do not have the same access to teachers as they do to leaders in youth organizations, so the school district has a responsibility to be thorough in not only checking backgrounds but monitoring during their employment. The boys who came forward were apparently Scouts. I’m sure that’s why the article is written from that angle. However, the comments beneath the article seem to enjoy that this man was drawn to scouting. He was drawn to teaching, too. I don’t think that was a coincidence. The vast majority of VOLUNTEERS in scouting are the parents of the scouts. We do not join Boy Scouts because we’re Republican (hello, that’s not even true!). We do not join Boy Scouts because we are anti-homosexual (again, lame!). We certainly do not volunteer COUNTLESS hours in driving, meeting, advising, teaching and supervising so that political opportunists and opiniated but clueless dillweeds can try to make us feel bad about our decision to spend time with our sons promoting citizenship and a love of the outdoors. Bad people are everywhere. Focus on that. Thank God they stopped this man. Don’t be petty and opportunistic and try to take down something that promotes being a good person… Catholic priests molested children. Well I guess that means that church is bad and we shouldn’t send our children. We should get rid of all those horrible institutions.
P.S. The article on the Boy Scout leader who had child pornography in his home said that BSA did a background check before they “hired” him to be a leader. Well, we know that is incorrect. Leaders volunteer (unless we’ve just been missing the checks in the mail…).
Brian Westley Says:
17 July 2008 at 2:42 pm.
I don’t think the local BSA council can be held blameless; when this story first broke, a number of comments to online newspaper articles said that Evans was often the only adult on outings, which is against the BSA’s two-deep leadership rules. Evans v. Berkeley was a high-profile case, but didn’t anyone at the Alameda council notice that he seemed to be the only adult associated with the Berkeley Sea Scouts?
Cici Says:
17 July 2008 at 3:03 pm.
Well I’m not a council-lover or anything, but the council doesn’t know who is on the trip except for the tour permit information. They should have 2 leaders listed on the tour permit plus any drivers on the back… However, the Troop Committee would know how many adults were there because the committtee is made up of the parents of the scouts. This is where the involved parenting comes in. No parent should have allowed their son to go on an outing with only one adult. They don’t have to suspect anything bad from that one adult. Number one, it is a BSA policy. Number two, if anything should happen to the adult, the boys are on their own (he was not a young man, but accidents can happen to adults of any age). Also, if there was an emergency with a boy, the one adult would have to take that scout for help. There would be no one left with the boys.
Brian Westley Says:
17 July 2008 at 10:14 pm.
Here’s what someone who had been the Farallon boatswain told me when I asked about two-deep leadership back when Evans was first arrested:
http://www.haloscan.com/comments/insidebayarea/7649274/?src=hsn
Brian; Some Crusises might have a Mate or two to help out (a mate would be 18-21 and would have been on the ship during high school and graduated from the program). Work parties, practice, driving trips, Evans would be the only adult 90% of the time. Parents were not invited. I would have had a very hard time believing this but that one of my life long friends on the ship told me about it 25 years later. He and several others had been molested to some degree. He had no reason to come up with this and he had nothing to gain he’s moved on and will never have anything to do with Evans.
Mrs. admin Says:
17 July 2008 at 10:31 pm.
Oh, I don’t doubt any of this. I’m just shocked that parents let their boys go without proper leadership and that a committee of parents were okay with it. 18 – 21 year olds can still be scouts in Venturing, so I do not consider them adults. I would not have allowed my son to participate. I know that locally when parents complained about adults not adhering to the 2-deep leadership policy (even without allegations of sexual abuse or inappropriate behavior), the adults were thrown out of scouting. This is a serious rule. Parents and scouts both need to understand why it is in place and follow it.
admin Says:
17 July 2008 at 10:33 pm.
You’re right. The Youth Protection Program probably didn’t exist during that time (sounds like the 60’s). The program was started after Boy Scouts of America realized they were being targeted by pedophiles using the program to isolate vulnerable boys. Anyone not adhering to the practice of multiple adults leading an outing is not in compliance with Scouting regulations and no leaders or parents should ever let that happen.
