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Yes. If the adults were not in the troop, no reason to report the incident to the boys CC or COR - a SE or Unit Commissioner may be a more appropriate resource. I believe what you are asking is does where they are from excuse the behavior. The answer of course is no.

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Maybe we should restrict males from joining the BSA?

Understood but is the new G2SS rules practical? For example, I've taken Scouts to public places that don't have separate restrooms for youth and adults. How should that be handled if one wants to follow the proverbial letter of the law?

For a few years during Scouting for Food, our troop would run the collection agency. All of the Patrols/Troops and Dens/Packs would bring their collections to us and we would load it into a huge 18 wheeler truck. We did this from about 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM. Anyway, as a sign of gratitude someone gave me (the Scoutmaster) about 10 tickets for Lions (NFL) game the next day. I asked who wanted to go and there were 9 boys. So what was I to do - take all nine with no other adults? No other adults wanted to go and tickets weren't cheap. The solution (this was 20 or so years ago before the ". . . and outside of Scouting" portion of the YPT in The G2SS existed)? My solution was to communicate to each of the Scouts parents that I would chaperone the boys to the game but it was definitely NOT a Scouting outing. Not sure I'd do that now.

At younger ages (say Kindergarten) females have better fine motor skills and can sit still for longer periods of time. Boys fine motor skills catch up quickly but they are more "active" learners. Want to punish a six year old boy? Tell the boy to sit still and quietly for 15 minutes. Go to any High School graduation ceremony of a public school and tell me which gender perform (grades) better? The females by a mile. Now go to a college and do the same thing. The males not only perform as well but often exceed the females in college. Think of how we teach children - cooperation, working together, don't disrupt, don't interrupt, etc. Conform! Women do that exceedingly well (as compared to males). What do we reward in the workplace and higher education? Think outside the box! Try new things. Be demonstrative. Be an innovator, a disrupter! Males exceed in that environment. Yes, the above are gross generalities but they do ring true in aggregate - at least in US culture.

Around 2004 our BSA Troop went to the Dorchester International Brotherhood Camporee in Dorchester (London), Canada. It was my first exposure to girls in "Boy Scouts" (Scouts Canada allowed girls in their program long before the BSA). At the time I talked with many of the leaders (Scouters) in Scouts Canada about the pros and cons in allowing girls to join, how they handled having girls in the troops, etc. Overall, the positives greatly outnumbered the negatives but a few things stuck out for me. 1) Many troop had difficulty getting adult women leaders (a requirement for outings with girls present) to attend outings. Meetings and such wasn't a big deal but not many women wanted to go camping. 2) I noticed at DIBC in my own (all male BSA) troop that the behavior of the boys, especially those 14 and above, was much more mature when girls were present. Anyway, my involvement in BSA activities waned considerably right before girls were allowed to join due to my boys aging out and over a decade of being a Scoutmaster it was time to step back. Curious what pros and cons other may have with the recent changes.

Another issue/question: Private online communications (texting, phone calls, chat, IM, etc.) must include another registered leader or parent. So when a Scoutmaster, alone at home, receives a telephone call from the SPL, with his younger PL brother, the Scoutmaster can't take the call? Obviously, these "rules" appear to be written by lawyers and not driven by common sense.

That's hazy to me. "There are careers" - does that imply a paid position? Does that imply a full-time position? Does that imply a paid position for significant period of time? At one time, Boy Scouts could go on overnight camping trips with no adult supervision present (if a patrol outing and approved by the Scoutmaster to make sure it was a well planned out event). That's no longer allowed. Partly due to lowering expectations of our youth and more due to the allowing of female scouts. I'll admit, I haven't been actively involved with Scouting for a decade or more but I always told Scouters to look at youth protection rules as something to protect them (it was an easier sell and made them less defensive). Look at this from an extreme. You're home alone and a couple of girl scouts ring your doorbell in an attempt to sell you cookies. Are you saying the BSA doesn't allow you to answer the door?

Slow down everyone. Youth protection rules, per the Guide to Safe Scouting, only apply to Scouting activities. For example, if your 18 year old son is a phenomenal guitar play and wants to to give guitar lessons to a 15 year old - no issue. One on one contact is allowed. If however, your same son wants to be a merit badge counselor for the music merit badge, Guide to Safe Scouting rules apply - no one on one contact with minors (unless it is your own son or daughter). Now I'm not saying it's a good idea to ignore those rules outside of Scouting events but they don't apply outside of scouting events.

Let me be very plain - were the adults in question "Scoutmasters" or "Assistant Scoutmasters" and were they Scouters in your son's troop? Assuming they were either SM or ASM and a member of your son's troop, I'd talk with the COR, CC and/or the SM about your concerns one on one if possible.

I'm allowed to censor. Terry is allowed to censor. Twitter is allowed to censor. Facebook is allowed to censor. The USG is not allowed to censor. It's a really simple concept.

FWIW, I don't see anything at all wrong with the shirt. It brings to mind a hike we had at Double H (New Mexico/Backpacking) a couple of decades ago. One of the adult Scouters had on a pair of hot pink shorts (and I mean really short shorts). He wasn't in our trek but our boys couldn't resist teasing me (their Scoutmaster) and insisting I get a pair to match! It was all in good fun and out of earshot of the other group.

YPT issues are shared with the Scout Executive and all reports should be held in confidence. However, maybe I'm old fashioned but I would not characterize this incident as a youth protection issue. Was the Scoutmaster wrong in his behavior? Quite possibly. When you state your son was bullied by "two Scoutmasters" - did you mean the Scoutmaster from two different troops (quite possibly none of which belongs to your son's troop)? Or more probably, by two Scouters that were either the SM and/or an ASM of your son's troop? If that was the case (all parties were members of the same troop), I'd try to handle it internally and approach the COR and CC (Charter Organization Representative and Committee Chair) if you or your son don't want to deal with the SM/ASM directly. I can see a determination that is a judgment call on what is or what is not a "class b" (not really a scout term but widely used) but the predominant color of the shirt shouldn't be an issue.

Around 15 or so years ago, our Boy Scout Troop attended the Dorchester International Brotherhood Camporee in Ontario, Canada. At the time of course, the BSA youth was all male but Scouts Canada was co-ed. When we attended I had some interesting conversations with Scouts Canada adult leaders about what they thought the plusses and minuses of "going co-ed" were for them. About the only negative they sited was the difficulty in finding female Scouters to attend camping trips. An intended benefit I saw from the boys in my troop were that the younger Scouts (not yet really interested in girls) didn't really care about the girls one way or the other but the older boys, not wanting to appear "uncool" in the presence of their female peers, curtailed some of their more undesirable shenanigans that can occur when a bunch of male teen get together. Those experiences were enlightening.