A group of lawyers have uncovered hundreds of previously unreported cases of sexual abuse in the Boy Scouts, according to a lawsuit filed in Pennsylvania on Monday.
The plaintiff in the case, identified only as S.D. to protect his identity, alleges that he was assaulted “hundreds” of times while a boy scout in Pennsylvania. He said the abuse happened in the 1970’s and went on for four years, according to the Washington Post.
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According to the lawsuit, S.D.’s ordeal began in approximately 1974 or 1975, when he was 12 or 13 years of age. He was the alleged victim of an assistant scoutmaster who “actively groomed young boys under his charge for later sexual molestation.” The suit claims S.D. was subjected to “hundreds of instances of fondling, hundreds of incidents of oral sexual assault and repeated attempts of anal penetration” at Camp Acahela, a Boy Scouts retreat in eastern Pennsylvania, as well as at his abuser’s home.1
The lawsuit alleges that negligence on the part of the Boy Scouts of America made the abuse possible, and allowed it to continue. He alleges that the organization plotted to keep sexual assault incidents a secret, and that the Boy Scouts engaged in “reckless misconduct”1 by failing to protect its young members.
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The case stems from an effort to uncover previously unreported cases of child sexual abuse in one of the nation’s most prominent youth organizations. That effort is spearheaded by Abused in Scouting, a group of law firms that collaborate to shine a light on such cases.
The complaint, filed in Philadelphia’s Court of Common Pleas, states that:
“BSA knew for decades that sexual predators of boys had infiltrated scouting,” and that the Scouts “knew or should have known the dangers” that pedophiles, including S.D.’s alleged abuser, posed to children such as him. For decades, Boy Scouts has kept detailed files of these abusers, known as the Ineligible Volunteer files, that documented pedophiles known to the organization.1
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In the past ten years, a large portion of of the documents have become public knowledge through lawsuits and investigative reporting, but those records may be incomplete.
S.D.’s lawsuit also claims that more than 350 volunteer Boy Scout leaders do not appear in the Ineligible Volunteer files. These men have been identified by Abused in Scouting. S.D.’s alleged abuser is one of them.
It is time for the Boy Scouts of America to suffer the consequences for what they’ve done to these innocent young boys by protecting the pedophiles that abused them.
