Youth Protection - Parent Unwelcome

[yknot 1338]

According to 35 states and the legislative branch of the federal government it is illegal and, according to the American Medical Association, it is child abuse. BSA has already set precedent that it doesn't use legality as a basis for disallowing certain activities and practices around youth that don't fit with scouting values such as marijuana possession, firearms possession or adult pornography. Given, child sexual abuse isn't a "thing" that can be carried onto a camp site or into a meeting, but it is a mentality that scouting prohibits as well as does every other youth organization. It also doesn't seem that BSA has used "conviction" as any kind of basis for determining whether or not a suspected adult should be around scouts either so the legality argument for those outlier states seems irrelevant. 

[elitts 464]

16 hours ago, yknot said:

According to 35 states and the legislative branch of the federal government it is illegal and, according to the American Medical Association, it is child abuse. BSA has already set precedent that it doesn't use legality as a basis for disallowing certain activities and practices around youth that don't fit with scouting values such as marijuana possession, firearms possession or adult pornography. Given, child sexual abuse isn't a "thing" that can be carried onto a camp site or into a meeting, but it is a mentality that scouting prohibits as well as does every other youth organization. It also doesn't seem that BSA has used "conviction" as any kind of basis for determining whether or not a suspected adult should be around scouts either so the legality argument for those outlier states seems irrelevant. 

I won't argue that in some places it's considered "Child Abuse", though it isn't everywhere. (I didn't go through every state, but the federal law makes no mention of it)  Though I think this is another one of those circumstances where people are expanding terms past the point where there is a useful connection.  The whole point of "child abuse" laws was to seriously criminalize patterns of behavior where a single instance might not be criminal as well as to make clear the fact that child abusers are not "one-off offenders" because the factors that lead to child abuse are personality based, not situational.  And while FGM is clearly horrible, it doesn't meet any definition of "sexual abuse" that I've ever seen.

All of that is not the issue though, because we aren't talking about whether or not this doctor can be registered as an "Scouter". (I have no problem at all with denying the guy the right to be an adult leader)  What the OP was talking about was denying the doctor the right to attend meetings or outings as a parent and given the fact that we don't run a background check on every person who attends a meeting or weekend camp-out if they aren't functioning as an "authority figure"; I can't see a justification for this since there's no one arguing that the guy is an actual risk to anyone.

[John-in-KC 311]

Moderator Note,

Scouter is not a forum for legal advice.

This matter belongs in the hands of the parent, the CM, the COR, and the Scout Executive of the Council concerned. 

While we review this topic, it’s locked.  We will let you know if we unlock it.