The Boy Scouts of America filed for bankruptcy protection on Tuesday, according to the AP, due to lowering membership and a surge of child abuse lawsuits.
“We are outraged that there have been times when individuals took advantage of our programs to harm innocent children,” said Roger Mosby, president and CEO of BSA. “While we know nothing can undo the tragic abuse that victims suffered, we believe the Chapter 11 process, with the proposed trust structure, will provide equitable compensation to all victims while maintaining the BSA’s important mission.”
The 110-year-old organization has suffered in recent years as sex abuse claims have plagued the nonprofit. Due to changes in states’ statute-of-limitations laws, over 12,000 victims have come forward with claims against BSA. The Scouts will likely be forced to sell campgrounds and hiking trails in order to raise necessary funds for a compensation trust that will top out at over a billion dollars.
Local chapters of BSA will not be affected as they are “legally separate and distinct organizations.”
In the last few years, membership for a group once held in high esteem has dropped substantially. In the 1970s, four million members worked their way to become Eagle Scouts. Now, only two million are members. Girls were admitted recently in order to make up for the dropping membership and BSA even attempted to eliminate “Boy” from its name. But, the…
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