KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Following the announcement on Tuesday that the national Boy Scouts of America organization was declaring Chapter 11 bankruptcy, a survivor of sexual abuse involving a former Scout leader hoped the decision could lead to greater progress tackling the issue around the country.
In a statement posted to its website, the Boy Scouts of America said the bankruptcy decision could ultimately help survivors.
“Our plan is to use this Chapter 11 process to create a Trust that will provide equitable compensation to victims,” the organization wrote. “We are heartbroken and outraged that there have been times when individuals took advantage of our programs to abuse innocent children and sincerely apologize to anyone who was harmed during their time in Scouting.”
Thousands of cases of alleged sexual abuse involving Scout leaders have led to the organization facing lawsuits around the country.
For John Hobbs, who currently lives in Lee’s Summit and says that a former Scout leader sexually abused him for more than 10 years, the bankruptcy decision was met with approval.
“I think it’s a first initial, positive step in the right direction,” he said on Tuesday. “This should have happened years or, arguably, decades ago.”
In a 41 Action News investigation last December, Hobbs described the abuse dating back to a young age.
“I first met him [the former scout leader] when I was about 11 years old in 1996, and he started slowly grooming me,” Hobbs said. “It started when I was 14 in a concocted, purported medical study. It went on for a long time and happened somewhere between 100 to 200 times.”
Years after first experiencing the abuse, Hobbs reported the crime.
In 2017, the former Scout leader pleaded guilty to a charge of sodomy.
With other survivors going through trials and investigations for their cases, Hobbs hoped Tuesday’s announcement by the Boy Scouts of America could help stop similar incidents from occurring.
“Hopefully, this will propel everyone to get their arms around this issue, embrace it, deal with it and not find another way to hide behind it or get out of cases,” he said. “The positive impact is that it hopefully allows survivors to not go through the rigors of a jury trial and the emotions that go with that, and hopefully get a fair compensation.”
While the Boy Scouts of America bankruptcy does not directly affect local councils, the metro-based Heart of America Council released a statement addressing concerns and questions about the matter.
“Scouting programs will continue,” the statement read. “We expect no changes to the local Scouting experience in the Greater Kansas City area.”
The group added that safety continued to be a top priority.
“Scouting is safer now than ever before,” the statement read. “Over many years, we’ve developed some of the strongest expert-informed youth protection policies found in any youth-serving organization. We can also assure you that our volunteers and employees take youth protection extremely seriously and do their part to help keep kids safe.”
Moving forward, Hobbs hopes to continue shining a light on the issue of sexual abuse by continuing to work on a documentary detailing his case.
Anyone interested in donating to the project can visit this link.
