A lawsuit filed on Monday claims that the Boy Scouts of America ignored hundreds of sexual abuse claims against adults who volunteered...
A lawsuit filed on Monday claims that the Boy Scouts of America ignored hundreds of sexual abuse claims against adults who volunteered with the organization.
While the Boy Scouts have already revealed the names of some of the scoutmasters and other volunteers who have abused boys, it has fought to keep others private. In 2012, it was revealed that the Boy Scouts had kept 14,500 pages of "perversion files" detailing abuse at Scout troops across the country — a secret that had been kept for decades.
This latest lawsuit lists 350 abusers whose names had not previously been released, and most were mentioned in the BSA's disciplinary files. Only 28 had been listed in the "perversion files" from a few years earlier. The lawyers who filed the suit said that they have had nearly 800 former Scouts come forward and say that they were abused by these 350 adults.
"It is apparent that the Boy Scout Defendants continue to hide the true nature of their cover-up and the extent of the pedophilia epidemic within their organizations because the vast majority of new victims coming forward involve claims of abuse at the hands of pedophiles who are not yet identified by the Boy Scouts of America," the lawsuit says, according to USA Today.
USA Today had been given access to the list of crimes from this lawsuit, which include a range of abusive actions like fondling and sodomy. While some of these abusers were scout leaders, one was a licensed doctor and another was the mayor of an unnamed small town.
"We care deeply about all victims of abuse and sincerely apologize to anyone who was harmed during their time in Scouting," the Boy Scouts said in a statement to the Washington Post. "We believe victims, we support them, we pay for counseling by a provider of their choice, and we encourage them to come forward."
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