Nearly 90,000 sexual abuse claims were submitted against the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) ahead of a Monday deadline in the organization’s bankruptcy case.
Why it matters: The number of sex abuse cases is still likely underreported. Paul Mones, a lawyer who has been working on Boy Scouts cases for nearly two decades, told Axios he expects the total number of reported cases to be “closer” to 100,000. He’s calling for a congressional inquiry into the scandal.
- The record number of new claims reveals the unknown scope of abuse.
- The organization filed for bankruptcy in February after facing a slew of sex abuse reports. Claims had to be submitted by Monday at 5 p.m. ET.
- Andrew Van Arsdale, one of the lead attorneys, called sex abuse an “unspoken norm” in BSA, per CNN. Claims include reports of forced sex, fondling and exposure to pornography.
For the record: Mones said more people came forward following the BSA’s bankruptcy filing.
- “Most of the people coming forward were not molested by people that the Boy Scouts even acknowledged they knew about, which shows that the problem was much more deeply ingrained in the fabric of the scouts and the scouts for decades and decades,” he said.
- Mones said the scale of abuse was much larger than the cases that emerged involving the Catholic Church in the U.S.