These Men Say The Boy Scouts? Sex Abuse Problem Is Worse Than Anyone Knew

Now, Pittson is one of hundreds of men and boys hoping for a last chance at restitution if the Boy Scouts of America, in the face of a new wave of abuse allegations, files for bankruptcy.On Thursday, a group of attorneys said they’d collected information from at least 428 men and boys whose accounts of rape, molestation and abuse indicate the Boy Scouts’ pedophile problem is far more widespread than the organization has previously acknowledged. TIME also obtained a police report filed by one of the individuals alleging abuse.) If the Boy Scouts file for bankruptcy, the accusers will have a limited window to file claims against the organization, pitting the men and their lawyers in a race against time. Because the Boy Scouts of America are a federally chartered non-profit, they must provide annual reports to Congress, and attorneys for the former Scouts say the organization has not included information about abuse accusations in those reports. “They were reporting…that they were a wholesome organization,” says Tim Kosnoff, one of the attorneys, “when they were kicking out child molesters at the rate of one every two days for 100 years.” In a statement to TIME, the Boy Scouts deny withholding any relevant information from Congress or enabling abusers. “First and foremost, we care deeply about all victims of abuse and sincerely apologize to anyone who was harmed during their time in Scouting,” the statement says. Hundreds of individual sex abuse cases have been brought against the Scouts over the last several decades, and in 2010, a judge ordered the organization to make public an internal list of men accused of preying on boys. He called them “pantsing parties,” and Pittson says he frequently proposed them during Scout outings.Another time, the Scoutmaster was driving Pittson and a few other boys to a Boy Scout meeting. “And then with what happened, I felt like I became obsessed with sex and its meaning in my life.” He hasn’t kept in touch with members of his Boy Scout troop, but in light of the Scoutmaster’s mention of encounters with other boys, he wonders if they were abused too, and how that’s affected their lives.Many of the men who contacted Kosnoff believe that they were just one of many scouts abused by one perpetrator. Eli Newberger, a pediatrician who studies child abuse at Boston Children’s Hospital and who has testified in cases involving pedophilia in the Boy Scouts, says men tend to disclose instances of assault at a much later age than women. “But unfortunately for men, there is this extra shame that you were not able to protect yourself, that you were found to be powerless.” He adds that in certain parts of the country, men who were abused by men additionally fear coming forward and facing homophobia, even if—or especially if— they do not identify as queer.A 60-year-old Massachusetts man who says he and several boys in his troop were assaulted and raped over a dozen times in the woods by a Scoutmaster when they were teenagers still cringes when someone he does not know comes too close. “I figured yeah, if I could help this not happen to other kids, then why not join?” The Boy Scouts say that they’ve made changes in recent years to identify and eliminate abusers from the organization, including creating the 24-hour “Scouts First helpline” to report misconduct. The phone line “is one of many resources we provide volunteers, staff, parents and others to support reporting of any account of suspected abuse or behavior that might put a youth in our programs at risk,” the Scouts said in their statement to TIME.But a Maryland mother who says her then-14-year-old son was sexually abused by two older teen-age counselors at a Boy Scouts camp last year didn’t find it helpful. “What we as a family just cannot get over is the fact that those values were completely violated.”In their statement, the Boy Scouts say their policy is to encourage helpline callers to contact law enforcement themselves, “because the person reporting the abuse typically has the most information about the matter and the authorities, therefore, will want to receive the report directly from them.” Today, the Boy Scouts count about 2.4 million young members and a million adult volunteers in their ranks. The judge ruled that the Boy Scouts must make public the so-called “Perversion Files.” The lawyers who represent the latest men coming forward say that about 90% of the names of their alleged abusers do not appear in the files.