http://www.worldnetdaily.com/bluesky_bresnahan/20000830_xnbre_boy_scouts.shtml
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Boy Scouts must defend
against 'sexual predators'
While some decry no-homosexual policy,
judge says BSA didn't protect abuse victim
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By David M. Bresnahan
© 2000 WorldNetDaily.com
While under attack by homosexual activist groups, the ACLU, United Way chapters and even corporate and governmental bodies for its policies prohibiting homosexuals, the Boy Scouts of America is now being assailed from the exact opposite direction -- with legal charges that it hasn't done enough to protect scouts from sexual predators.
Indeed, even though BSA is struggling to keep the two thorny issues officially separate -- its policy of not admitting homosexuals as leaders or Scouts, and its educational efforts aimed at preventing sexual molestation of Scouts -- a federal judge has tied the two issues together by saying BSA should fully expect that scouting will attract pedophiles.
For the record, Boy Scouts of America officials insist the policy on homosexuals -- recently validated by the U.S. Supreme Court -- has nothing to do with efforts to prevent molestation of Boy Scouts.
"We treat them as two separate issues," explained Greg Shields, BSA spokesman.
However, Boy Scouts of America is named in a civil suit involving molestation of a scout, even though the troop involved did not obey BSA policies and rules. Although BSA has a comprehensive child sexual abuse prevention and awareness program -- that was ignored by the troop -- the attorney for the plaintiff claims BSA should have forced the troop to comply.
"We're going to be seeking millions of dollars against the Boy Scouts because they knew better," attorney Charles A. Bonner told the San Diego Union-Tribune. Bonner filed the case for his client, Mario Juarez, who was molested by his assistant scoutmaster, Jorge Paz, in 1990.
Bonner said BSA national leaders know that "the organization attracts pedophiles like a magnet attracts metal."
Child sexual molestation is more than three times more common among homosexuals than among heterosexuals, according to the report, "The Proportions of Heterosexual and Homosexual Pedophiles among Sex Offenders against Children" in "The Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy," number 1 for 1992.
Despite the many cases of scout molestation over the years at the hands of predatory scout leaders, Shields doesn't attempt to tie the two issues together.
"Anyone can be a child molester," he said. Homosexuals are denied participation because they live contrary to the Scout Oath and Law, he explained. Boy Scouts take an oath that they will be "physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight."
The U.S. Supreme Court case confirmed that the BSA is a private organization that can limit membership to anyone. Homosexual activist organizations are engaged in a nationwide campaign to pressure the 90-year-old scouting organization to change that policy. In addition, many organizations and government entities -- persuaded that BSA is engaging in unfair discrimination against homosexuals -- are now attacking the organization financially, with some United Way chapters pulling their funding, for instance.
Meanwhile, Paz is now serving a 14-year sentence at San Quentin State Prison for repeatedly molesting Juarez and nine other boys in 1990 in Troop 225 of Oakland, Calif.
Juarez, now an adult living in San Leandro, Calif., claims the Boy Scouts of America did not do enough to protect him. Even though BSA has an extensive program to teach boys, parents and leaders about child molestation, Juarez claims the training was not used in his troop and BSA did nothing about it.
The BSA child sexual abuse prevention program includes a video, booklet and training classes for leaders, parents and boys. The program teaches that anyone can be a child molester and boys are taught the three Rs -- recognize, resist and report.
A basic set of rules goes a long way to preventing problems in scout troops, according to Shields.
"There's a common thread in these molestation cases," explained Shields. "They don't follow the rules."
The rules require that at least two adults are always present -- "two-deep leadership" -- and that adults do not sleep in the same tent or cabin with boys. Most child molesters break those rules, said Shields.
He added that BSA shouldn't be held accountable for leaders who do not attend the training and do not follow the rules.
Yet, the First District Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled that the case should move forward, since "it should be reasonably foreseeable to the Scouts that a child participating in Scouting might fall prey to a sexual predator," said Justice Ignazio Ruvolo.
The current BSA training program began in 1988. There were 169 scout leaders dropped for child molestation in 1987, which increased to 209 in 1989 after the training began -- an increase BSA has attributed to greater awareness as a result of the training.
Shields said the total number of child molesters thrown out of the BSA is only a very small percentage of the 1.2 million adult leaders. He did not have current figures.
Juarez blames BSA for the abuse he suffered and claims that if he had received the training he would have known how to recognize the problem and resist the approaches of Paz.
Paz violated BSA rules when he failed to participate in the training and failed to provide the materials to boys and parents. He frequently took boys to activities without a second adult present and he also slept in the same tent with boys, according to Juarez's lawsuit.
Recently, a professional staff administrator for the BSA office in San Diego, Calif., was arrested for molesting a large number of Boy Scouts between 1997 and 1999. Glenn Jordan has been charged with 33 counts of child molestation so far, and prosecutors say the investigation is still under way, with more charges expected.
Robert Malcomb, Jr., a former scoutmaster in Oklahoma, pleaded guilty on Friday to 61 charges of having had sex with five boys under the age of 14, as well as multiple counts of rape, forcible oral sodomy, lewd acts with children and bestiality. His wife turned him in after she caught him molesting a 12-year-old boy in their home. Malcomb had been a scout leader since 1992.
There have been similar cases in Louisiana and Oregon.
Shields said the Boy Scouts of America -- which is a major part of the lives of 5 million youths and 1.2 million adults -- would continue to say no to homosexuals, and also continue to insist that scout leaders follow all the rules to prevent child sexual abuse.
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[emphasis mine]
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