Some records demonstrate how the Boy Scouts' system worked to keep alleged abusers away from troops, though not necessarily with the help of police.
In a 1974 case from Odenton, a mother reported that her son's Scoutmaster "treated him like he was a woman" and touched him in sexual ways. The Scoutmaster allegedly made the boy assure him that he wasn't upset about what had happened.
Another mother reported that the same Scoutmaster asked to share a tent with her son, and then inappropriately rubbed him and held him. On another occasion, the Scoutmaster kept the boy at his house for an extra night after a camping trip without telling his parents. The mother told the Boy Scouts: "We hope that you act upon this quietly and discretely."
The file makes no mention of referring the man to police. It is unclear from online court records whether the man was ever charged with a crime.
Two years after being ousted from the Odenton troop, the man applied to be the assistant Cubmaster of a pack in New York. He was declined, and the Boy Scouts refunded the man's $3.50 application fee.
In a 1974 case in Arnold, a 19-year-old assistant Scoutmaster invited two boys to his home, telling them they could work on earning a photography merit badge. He allegedly told the boys that they needed to pose nude and that the photos could be sold for money. Parents confronted him and reported his "unusual behavior" to the central Scout office, where a "confidential file" was opened.
More records were added to his file over the next decade, though none refer to contacting police.
Six months later, he applied to be an assistant Scoutmaster elsewhere in the Baltimore area. A year and a half later, he tried to register in New York and was rejected.
In 1976, the man objected to being excluded from the Boy Scouts in Arizona. In a letter, he asked if he could clean up his record and be allowed to work with a troop, and listed his Scouting experience. "With all these qualifying positions that I have held, I cannot register as an assistant scoutmaster," he lamented.
In a short response, Scouting administrators wrote: "We believe that in some of your past experiences there were situations involved which might cause your leadership to be questioned."
Over the next decade, the man tried to register to work with a troop in the Gulf Coast area of Florida, in the Pittsburgh area, and in Cumberland. He was rejected at each place.
Baltimore Sun reporter Steve Kilar contributed to this article.
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