More Than 82,000 People Have Now Accused the Boy Scouts of Abuse

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More than 82,000 people in all 50 states plus military bases in Germany and Japan have accused the Boy Scouts of America of enabling sexual abuse, according to the New York Times. 

The 82,663 alleged victims, ranging in age from 8 to 93, have come forward as a federal bankruptcy court in Delaware considers the Boy Scouts’ bankruptcy claim, filed this past February. In May, Judge Laurie Selber Silverstein set Monday at 5 p.m. as the court-ordered deadline for alleged victims to come forward with claims. Those claims will eventually be vetted, according to the Times.

“The response we have seen from survivors has been gut-wrenching,” the Boy Scouts of America said in a statement to the New York Times. “We are deeply sorry.”

The organization and its affiliates had nearly $5 billion in assets as of earlier this year, according to the Wall Street Journal, and the national organization claimed it has more than $1 billion in assets in its court filings, the Times reported.

At least 26 local Boy Scouts councils named in sexual abuse lawsuits received between $8.2 million and $20.9 million in Payroll Protection Program (PPP) loans authorized by Congress earlier this year, VICE News reported in July. 

There are currently more than 2.2 million scouts and 800,000 volunteers, according to the organization.

The decision to file for bankruptcy in a bid to save the organization has now revealed an astronomical number of allegations that dwarf even those against the Catholic Church. Though the true number of victims of priests and other church officials will never be known, Terry McKiernan, a leading Catholic Church abuse watchdog, told the Times that more than 9,000 victims have come forward over the years. 

“[The Boy Scouts] thought they could get in, get out, limit their liability, and protect their local organizations,” Seattle attorney Michael Pfau, who represents more than 1,000 people making the claims, told the Seattle Times. “But they grossly underestimated the level of abuse in scouting.”

“Instead, it’s now crystal-clear that the Boy Scouts of America probably has the largest number of sexual abusers of any institution in our country, ever.”