CLEVELAND — The Boy Scouts of America vigorously defended its reputation and efforts in protecting youth from both proven and alleged sexual abuse.
During an April 24 phone conference, Chief Scout Executive Michael Surbaugh told the media even one case of abuse is too much, but said in 2018 his agency only had five verified victims among the 2.2 million participating in scouting.
"All instances of suspected abuse were reported to the proper authorities," Surbaugh said.
"We don't keep any cases of suspect abuse secret or hidden."
The Boy Scouts of America defended itself after attorneys of alleged victimsslammed the organization for not doing enough to protect teens and children, even when it had records of more than 7,800 alleged sexual abusers over a 70 year period.
But the agency continued to defend its database with the following statement:
"Our volunteer screening database is a mechanism for keeping kids safe."
"Long before there were smart phones, email, the internet, criminal databases, or other modern methods available to identify or track predators, the BSA took a vital step to help protect children from bad people by creating what is known as the Ineligible Volunteer Files, or the IV Files."
"Its purpose was to ensure that anyone seen as unfit to be a leader – even those not charged or convicted of any crime, would be removed and banned forever from our program."
In 2018, the Boy Scouts of America sent News 5 a list of improvements to its Youth Protection Training.
Still, Northeast Ohio private investigator Bob Comer believes more oversight is needed.
Comer said he was one of many parents who reported the alleged sexual misconduct of 71-year-old James A. Mills, who was scouting volunteer with the scouts Buckeye Council, in the Canton area.
Comer said Mills was eventually banned from the Boy Scouts for allegedly violating the organizations youth protection policy.
But the former Cub Scoutmaster and Eagle Scout believes there was not proper follow-up on the case against Mills. He later faced federal child sex charges.
"It just seems to me that there's just been over 50 years of lack of responsibility in protecting children," Comer said
"Mills was having boys undress and he was taking pictures of them, and there were complaints about it, but they never anything about it for decades."
"Then he went down to Gahanna, Ohio, by Columbus, and he's abusing neighborhood children. He gets arrested and the day before his arraignment he goes in the backyard and shoots himself in the head with a gun."
During the telephone news conference Boy Scouts Strategy Officer Erin Eisner said there is no follow-up on volunteers booted out of the program.
"We do not, we are not an investigative body, and we do not do tracking after they are out of the program, Eisner said.
Dr. Janet Warren, Professor of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences (PNBS) at the University of Virginia further defended the scouting program, releasing the latest findings in study that was started in 2012
"My team of researchers analyzed the data to see what attributes, patterns or profiles could be gleaned from the incidents," Warren said.
"One of the key observations we made is that the data demonstrated that the Scouting program is safe and the BSA’s use of a database to prevent unsuitable adults from accessing children was cutting edge and it worked."
"Even through the years when there were no computers, the BSA’s efforts were effective in keeping unsuitable volunteers from gaining access to youth in the Scouting program."
The rate of incidence of reported abuse in BSA programs was far less than the rate of incidence in society as a whole."
"And the data shows that the BSA’s youth protection efforts since the 1980s have been highly effective in preventing abuse."
