Boy Scouts.Photo: Eric Gay/AP/REX/Shutterstock
Boy Scouts of Americahas filed for bankruptcy.
The organization announced the news ina press releaseearly Tuesday morning. The filing comes after years ofallegations of sexual abusewithin the organization, and amid increasing legal costs as it faces multiple sexual abuse lawsuits, according toNBC News.
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The press release noted that local Boy Scouts councils, which are legally separate and financially independent from the national organization, are not included in the bankruptcy filing.
BSA also said that “Scouting programs, including unit meetings and activities, council events, other Scouting adventures and countless service projects” will continue throughout the bankruptcy process.
The news comes just over a year after it was first reported that the organization wasconsidering filing for bankruptcy.
The details of how bankruptcy will affect the ongoing sexual abuse lawsuits are unclear, but the filing will likely halt the lawsuits and transfer them to federal bankruptcy court, meaning alleged victims may not be able to have a jury trial, according to NBC News.
“They’re going into bankruptcy not because they don’t have the money,” lawyer Tim Kosnoff, who has represented victims of child abuse, including many against the Boy Scouts, toldUSA Today. “They’re going into bankruptcy to hide … a Mount Everest in dirty secrets.”
The Boy Scouts organization — which has about2.2 million youth membersthroughout the country — has also been in the news in recent years for itsannouncement in January 2017that transgender children who identify as boys could be Boy Scouts and its decision in October 2017 toinclude girlsin the program.
source: people.com
