Discrimination by boyscout Troop
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Anonymous
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I'm not sure I'm completely following- and I'm really sorry this happened to you. I think its fine to file a complaint- but I doubt it will get you anywhere. It sounds like your cub scout leader discouraged/ told you not to apply. Its unclear if the boy scout troup actually had any involvement in this or not? I'm also unclear- are you boys in 5th or 6th grade now? Are they in a different troup? If not and they are in FCC- just join the other boy scout troup- troup 1996 is a nice FCC troup. You can join later- you don't have to join right when you 'graduate' from cub scouts.
Also- now you know the character of the cub scout leader- be careful in ongoing dealings with this person. |
Anonymous
I see, sounds like that was the best course of action. Sorry that happened, literally have never heard of anything like that in scouts. awful. |
Anonymous
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I'm sorry this happened to you. DS' BS troop in MoCo has a few kids with disabilities. The parents of those kids usually attend the events to keep an eye out. Even so, the troop is boy lead. It is harder for the troop to deal with SN kids, however, from what I have seen, both sides come out of it learning something and all for the better for it. DS said that he saw one SN kid start out really awkward and uninvolved and unfocused, to becoming engaged with the troop, while he learned how to interact better with SN kids.
I hope the new troop works out for your DS. |
Anonymous
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I have never heard of size limits for Boy Scout troops. Is this particular troop extremely large? Did all of the other boys bridge over to that one group?
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Anonymous
The Web Site for the Troop shows a pretty small Troop. Some Troops like to be small, we looked at one that was under 25 kids and the Parents loved it. DS was not impressed with the Troop and there were some interesting age differences, lots of older and younger scouts but not much in between. They also didn't do much with the BSA offered Scout Leadership programs or the Adult Leadership programs. The Adult Leadership I spoke with liked that the camping was easy to coordinate and handle and that it was easier to plan outings because of the small number of kids. The larger Troops that we looked at discussed how the kids made decisions and the different alternatives for kids based on the size of the Troop. There was more emphasis on the Scout Leadership opportunities and the adults being hands off. Both approaches have their strengths and weaknesses but DS was drawn more to the larger Troops where the Scouts actively engaged with the Cubs who were attending events. I appreciated that one of the Troops observed two of our ADHD Cubs chattering a bit too much at closing circle. The Senior Patrol Leader put up the Scout Sign, a signal for everyone to be quiet, and waited for all the Scouts and Cubs to do the same. An Assistant Scout Master made his way to stand behind our Cubs and when the boys started chattering away again just gently touched their shoulders and reminded them to listen. His approach was calm and gentle and patient. You could see that the kids and adults had discussed how to maintain a meeting. But there was a level of chaos that I expect when you have 30-40 11-17 year olds in one place and the kids are running things. There were adults with each group of kids but they were standing back keeping an eye on things while letting the kids run things. I would love to say that BSA is fully open and great to everyone but each unit is run by Parents and some units are more open then others. OP seems to have a poorly run Den, there is no way that the Den Leader should have allowed this to happen. He/She should have been open with the Den that the Troop was openly excluding two Den members. Each child/parent should have had that info to make their decision. Some might have still chosen to join that Troop. I suspect that every one in that Den knew what was happening and made the choice to go that route. Packs and Troops are allowed to reflect the chartering organizations structure, which is why there are Packs that remain boys only and some Troops are not open to kids who are LBGTQ or even different religions. Those Packs and Troops give off a very different vibe then the Packs and Troops that are more inclusive. Luckily, the NOVA area has a lot of Packs and Troops so it is not too hard to find Packs or Troops that are open to your child. We visited 5 different Troops in our area and they all felt different. There were three that I would have been happy to have DS join and 2 that I was not excited by. |
Anonymous
I felt the kids in my dc's troop learned a lot from our diverse population. I was surprised to see some of the kids I thought would be bullies supporting sthe kids with disabilities. |
Anonymous
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Op I believe you and am appalled with you. Please send an email to the contact mentioned previously. You've already outed the troop and you should send an email to scout leadership.
Thanks for letting us know this is not a troop worth joining. |
Anonymous
+1. OP’s story doesn’t hold up. She was passive in the application process but now wants to complain. |
Anonymous
BSA is a private club. They aren't subject to the ADA or other civil rights laws. Which means OP's only recourse is internal within BSA. |
Anonymous
I disagree with you and have seen this in scouting myself. |
Anonymous
The BSA cares about this very much. Don't let these turkeys get you down op. |
Anonymous
oh I think OP's story holds up- I can easily believe this happened- its just that I think her ire should be directed at the cub scout leader who told her not to apply- its not clear that the boy scout troup that has been 'outed' had anything to do with it. Unfortunately there are definitely parents who attempt to manipulate social situations to benefit their kids. I can easily believe that some cub scout leader thought their own kid would be better off in boy scouts without OP's kids and so did what they could to keep OP's kids from joining the same boy scout troup. But its the cub scout leader who is the villain, not the potentially completely uninvolved boy scout troup. Now- if the boy scout troup actively discouraged OP kids from applying, while encouraging the rest of the cub scout den to apply- they absolutely should be outed and taken to the council for that. |
Anonymous
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This happens more than people think and usually people just let it go because they don't want their child in a group that does not want them.
OP thank you for speaking up and please report this to national or regional supervisors so that parent can be educated. I would also hope they would ban them from having anything to do with BSA but that's wishful thinking that they would act in an ethical manner. |
Anonymous
just saying, that is the WHITEST local scout troop i have ever seen. |
Anonymous
| I'm sorry this happened to you, but were there behavior problems? That's the only thing that explains it. The adults and maybe even the other kids were just done and lied to make sure you didn't cross over with them? Learning disabilities really don't matter in scouts. |