Sexual abuse settlements could force the once anti-LGBTQ organization into Chapter 11.
Neal BrovermanInsurers for the Boy Scouts of America's are balking at paying massive settlements to 11 former scouts who were molested by a serial predator, imperiling the organization.
Filing for bankruptcy is one option BSA is considering as it tries to get its insurer to cover the costs of the settlements.
"We are working with experts to explore all options available to ensure that the local and national programming of the Boy Scouts of America continues uninterrupted," BSA Chief Scout Executive Mike Surbaugh said in a letter to employees this week, according to a report in NBC News.
A lawyer for the abused scouts says the insurer, Chubb, is resistant to paying because it believes BSA is partly responsible, claiming the organization allowed a serial molester to abuse children in the 1970s and '80s. After his arrest for molestation in 1970, the abuser, Thomas Hacker, was banned from the BSA. But Hacker was able to join other troops undetected and abuse additional boys; he was arrested in 1989 and died in prison this summer.
His victims claim inadequate BSA screening processes allowed him to continue the abuse.
The Boy Scouts, formed 108 years ago, long banned out Scoutmasters and Scouts, even winning a 2000 Supreme Court case that allowed their ban to continue. Under increasing pressure, the organization allowed gay and bisexual Scouts in 2013, and Scout leaders and employees two years later. Just last year, the Scouts opened up membership to trans youth.
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