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Eagle Award Question


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Can, does, BSA revoke the Eagle award of a convicted felon? I'm thinking specifically of the person (I can't call him a man) who murdered Matthew Shepard. I don't see how BSA would allow him to retain the award.

 

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Yes, the BSA has the authority to revoke the Eagle Scout rank and any other emblem of the BSA. Whether or not that has been done you will probably never know. That action is usually kept confidential between the individual and the BSA in order to protect the program from frivilous lawsuits.

 

Bob

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My guess (based on no facts whatsoever) is that if the BSA ever does actually revoke an Eagle, the vast majority of instances would be where someone's application (already approved) is found to contain false information. In other words, the person was not entitled to the award in the first place and the revocation is necessary to protect the integrity of the award.

 

But for cases where the person properly earns the award but then "goes bad," revocation would seem pointless. There might be a point to it if the BSA were disassociating itself from a criminal -- but BobWhite says the revocation is kept confidential, so they are not acutally disassociating themselves from the person at all.

 

The whole idea of revoking a murderer's Eagle seems darkly comical to me. Here's a guy sitting on death row or in prison for life (I am not sure which in the Matthew Shepard case), and then along comes the Boy Scouts of America to inflict more punishment? It would be well-deserved, but I can't see what purpose it would serve. "Boy, my life was really going along great here in solitary confinement for the rest of my life, until I got that letter from the BSA, now things are really bad."

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You have to remember, NJ, that for a lot of people, Eagle Scout is the big thing that they have. One in four Eagle Scouts, I'm told, values his Eagle Scout more than his college degree.

 

While it might not make a situation more dire, it certainly is a serious step, one that can send a serious message.

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OK, now that I know BSA can revoke an award, I say that it should publicly revoke this person's Eagle award. Not to punish him, NJ, but to send a serious message, like slontwovvy said. The message is: BSA will publicly disassociate itself from members, past or present, who are convicted of despicable crimes. Bob White says a revocation is usually kept confidential. Isn't this one time that qualifies as unusual?(This message has been edited by CubsRgr8)

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