AP: Boy Scouts file for bankruptcy due to sex-abuse lawsuits

"Founded in 1910, the Boy Scouts have kept confidential files since the 1920s listing staff and volunteers implicated in sexual abuse, for the avowed purpose of keeping predators away from youth. According to a court deposition, the files as of January listed 7,819 suspected abusers and 12,254 victims.

Until last spring, the organization had insisted it never knowingly allowed a predator to work with youths. But in May, The Associated Press reported that attorneys for abuse victims had identified multiple cases in which known predators were allowed to return to leadership posts. The next day, Boy Scouts chief executive Mike Surbaugh wrote to a congressional committee, acknowledging the group’s previous claim was untrue.

Ahead of the Chapter 11 filing, lawyers said that because of the organization’s 50-state presence, as well as its ties to churches and civic groups that sponsor scout troops, a bankruptcy by the Boy Scouts would be unprecedented in its complexity. It would be national in scope, unlike the various Catholic Church bankruptcy cases, which have unfolded diocese by diocese.

“A Boy Scout bankruptcy would be bigger in scale than any other child abuse bankruptcy we’ve ever seen,” said Seattle-based attorney Mike Pfau, whose firm is representing scores of men nationwide alleging they were abused as Boy Scouts.

Failing NYT: Facing a Wave of Sex-Abuse Claims, Boy Scouts of America Files for Bankruptcy

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 1970s. In recent years, the group has changed membership requirements to allow openly gay scouts in 2013, then openly gay leaders in 2015, and then expanding to allow girls to participate starting in 2017. But legal pressures have only grown.

Other organizations, including Catholic dioceses and U.S.A. Gymnastics, have also sought bankruptcy protection in recent years as they have faced sexual-abuse lawsuits.

The Boy Scouts’ troubles have lingered for decades. In a 1935 article in The New York Times, the organization described having files on hundreds of people who had been leaders in the scouts but had been labeled “degenerates.”

The Boy Scouts’ charter from Congress, signed by President Woodrow Wilson in 1916, lauded the organization’s role in teaching boys patriotism, courage and self-reliance. More than 110 million Americans have participated in Boy Scouts programs over the years.

Under bankruptcy proceedings, organizations are able to halt lawsuits and then get a deadline under which people must file claims. Mr. Kosnoff said those are often between 90 days and nine months, but he plans to advocate a yearlong window in this case.