Boy Scouts

The results of The Sun's "What Maryland thinks" polls seem so out of tune with other polls' results. The first one I noticed asked the question if Hillary Clinton had done a good job as secretary of state. The results were overwhelmingly negative. Secretary Clinton's positive ratings as reported by other polls are very high. More recently, there was a poll regarding the Boy Scouts of America with a majority opposing the lifting of the ban on gay scouts and leaders. Who are your readers that reply to these polls?

An article in the Jan. 24, 1963, edition of the Herald Argus and Baltimore Countian reported the heroics of a school custodian in rescuing a student. Fourteen-year-old Norman G. Gaither , an eighth grade student at Our Lady of Victory Catholic school on Wilkins avenue, was rushed to St. Agnes hospital in the Arbutus Volunteer Fire Department ambulance on Jan. 16 after a cinder block wall collapsed in the school room, knocking him into a chair, injuring his chest and fracturing ribs.

James R. LaVey, a retired systems equipment engineer who was also a decorated World War II gunner and longtime Boy Scout advocate, died Saturday of pneumonia at his Timonium home. He was 87. "He was a giant among Scout volunteers and was a kind friend to many," said Jack Simons, a longtime friend and Scoutmaster who lives in Cockeysville. "He will be dreadfully missed. " James Robert LaVey, the son of a production manager and a homemaker, was born and raised in Chicago, where he graduated in 1942 from Kelvyn Park High School.

I agree with Betsy Schindler's contention that we need more open dialogue about child sexual abuse and the need to advocate for help and support for the victims ("Put the victims first," Oct. 19). We all have to be more vigilant of this societal evil and the need to keep pedophiles out of situations where they can do harm to children. Penn State was a good example of how these people can create havoc in the lives of children that can last a lifetime. Evil in any form tends to infect everything around it. Even an outstanding organization like the Boy Scouts of America, which for years has been making a positive contribution in the lives of millions of young people, has had to face the consequences of this same evil surfacing in its midst and is currently dealing with it in a constructive way. There is no doubt in my mind that by facing up to the situation and by taking positive steps to deal with it, the Boy Scouts will continue to attract outstanding leaders who will continue to contribute positively in their communities.

A once-prominent Eastern Shore congressman who left office in 1980 amid allegations that he had solicited sex from a 16-year-old male prostitute was flagged the same year by the Boy Scouts of America in the organization's expansive "perversion files. " The file on former Rep. Robert E. "Bob" Bauman provides yet another glimpse into the way the organization compiled its confidential records, which were made public last week by court order. They outline decades of allegations of sexual abuse or misconduct by people affiliated with the Boy Scouts.

Among the thousands of "perversion files" kept by the Boy Scouts of America is a Maryland-based illustration of the system's failure. Five years after an Allegany County teacher pleaded guilty to 10 sex offenses involving 12- and 13-year-old boys in 1980, he "slipped through our system" and continued to work in the organization, a Boy Scout administrator wrote in paperwork assembled to flag Arthur D. Margulies as a danger to Scouts. The Boy Scouts had kicked Margulies out of an Allegany Scouting organization after his first criminal case, which was covered by newspapers, but he then infiltrated another, undetected until more allegations were reported to headquarters.

The veil was lifted Thursday on decades of confidential sexual-abuse allegations in the ranks of the Boy Scouts of America with the court-ordered release of more than 1,200 of the organization's "perversion files. " The files offer the public an unprecedented look at how suspected molestations were handled by one of the nation's leading youth organizations from the early 1960s through 1985, a time when awareness of sexual abuse was evolving rapidly. The files are from all over the country, including Baltimore and across Maryland.

Twenty years ago, Aaron Becker had just been named valedictorian of Baltimore's City College when he was also awarded the rank of Eagle Scout — the culmination of years of Scouting work, including a seven-month project to make a video about emotionally vulnerable children. But Becker's longtime affiliation with the Boy Scouts of America came to an end recently, when he returned his Eagle medal to the organization because of its decision to uphold a ban on openly gay Scouts and leaders.

With school only weeks away, it's time to think ahead to earlier bedtimes, nightly homework, after-school soccer - and Scouts. My son's a Webelos this year. Having decided to join in first grade, he's stayed with it. He's learned how to carve a boat out of wood and fire off a rocket, how to be a responsible brother and son, and a good neighbor. Along the way he's made friends and had fun. He and I should be proud. Trouble is, I'm no longer entirely comfortable with what Boy Scouts of America (BSA)

Boy Scouts from around the Baltimore area gathered in Annapolis last week to witness a historic event involving the state's transfer of ownership to part of the Broad Creek Memorial Scout Reservation in northern Harford County. At a Board of Public Works meeting in the Governor's Reception Room in the State House, under a portrait of George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore, Gov. Martin O'Malley signed an actual sheepskin land patent, granting 19.014 acres of previously state-owned land at Broad Creek to the Baltimore Area Council, Boy Scouts of America.