“A good deed every day.” The scout motto has been an integral part of American folklore for 109 years. Teaching boys between the ages of seven and 17 physical, mental and emotional strength and strength of character in nature, community and knickerbocker pants is one of the cornerstones of their history for 2.3 million members of the largest youth organization from the Christian spectrum. Not only that is threatening to break away irreparably. For years the Boy Scouts, who renamed themselves Scouts BSA in 2018 in order to be able to accept girls, have been struggling to deal with cases of sexual abuse within their own ranks. As early as 2010, the organization founded by the philanthropist William Boyce from Irving (Texas) had to pay $ 18.5 million in damages in a single case in the state of Oregon. A mess compared to what the scouts could have in the house if the avalanche of litigation starts that has been emerging for a few days.

The pivotal point is the opinion of a professor at the University of Virginia who was specially commissioned by the Boy Scouts to look into what the organization internally calls the “files on unfit volunteers”. Others speak of the “acts of perversion”. Meant are men who have acted as carers on their wards during leisure time. What Janet Warren, an expert on sexual abuse, found out within five years of detailed work and what came to light by chance through a court case, goes beyond all previously known dimensions. According to this, the Boy Scouts had identified at least 7,819 perpetrators between the 1940s and 2016 – and 12,254 victims. If many of them went to court and sued for financial restitution, the scouting movement might be on the verge of ruin, according to reports from the American media.