The nonprofit group, which counts more than two million youth participants, follows Catholic dioceses and U.S.A. Gymnastics in seeking bankruptcy protection amid sex-abuse cases.
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- The Boy Scouts of America, an iconic presence in the nation’s experience for more than a century, filed for bankruptcy protection early Tuesday, succumbing to financial pressures that included a surge in legal costs over its handling of sexual abuse allegations. (Founded in) , the Boy Scouts have long maintained internal files at their headquarters in Texas detailing decades of allegations involving nearly 8, 05 0 perpetrators, ” according to an expert hired by the organization. Lawyers have said in recent months that former scouts have come forward to identify hundreds of other
- “I want you to know that we believe you, we believe in compensating you, and we have programs in place to pay for counseling for you and your family, ”Mr. Turley said.
- It is unclear how much of an overhaul the bankruptcy process will bring to the Boy Scouts, which reports having 2.4 million youth participants, but Mr. Kosnoff said the filing seemed necessary given the totality of the claims that have emerged. At a minimum, Mr. Kosnoff said he would like to see the organization clean out its management and end lucrative salaries for leaders, some of whom earn more than half a million dollars annually. Even then, Mr. Kosnoff said that he finds it “difficult to impossible” for him to envision a new structure that would give him confidence that the nonprofit has sufficiently changed. He said the organization, which has operated under a congressional charter since , may need to liquidate and allow some new organization with better controls come in to fill the void.
- The Boy Scouts have already sought ways to navigate the organization’s dwindling influence among American children – the 2.4 million youth participants the group claims now are about half the number that were involved in the s. In recent years, the group has changed membership requirements to allow openly gay scouts in , then openly gay leaders in , and then expanding to allow girls to participate starting in 2019
abusers not included in those files . The bankruptcy filing, in Delaware, is expected to disrupt continuing litigation and establish a deadline for when former scouts can pursue claims. “If you’ve ever considered coming forward, now is the time, ”said Tim Kosnoff, a lawyer who has long worked on Boy Scouts cases and is part of a team of attorneys who created an (Abused in Scouting) victims’ group. - Jim Turley, the national chair of Boy Scouts of America, said in an open letter that the organization was entering bankruptcy in order to equitably compensate all victims of abuse throug ha trust.
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