Minnesota Judge Orders the Release of Boy Scout Abuse Files

The end of January, Ramsey County Judge Elena Ostby ordered the release of confidential national Boy Scout records on sexual abuse from 1999 to 2008. The release is the product of the work done by Jeff Anderson and Associates in a lawsuit involving former suburban Minneapolis scoutmaster Peter Stibal II, who is serving a 21-year prison sentence for molesting four scouts in his troop.

I wrote previously about the importance of these releases:

Kosnoff Fasy PLLC Releases the Names of 1,900 Alleged Boy Scout Child Sex-Abusers, Mike Bryant | October 16, 2012 12:01 PM

These releases are vital to survivors finding justice. The list of names gives people evidence of incidents that have been hidden and paths to find pedophiles who have gone on to harm other children.

In reading about the release, I was struck with the hypocrisy of the Boy Scouts announcing this week that they may change their rules concerning gays. That's commendable, but compare that to their fighting to release these lists. If they were really going to be open and fair to those who have been harmed, shouldn't this past week have been announcements of how they would stop fighting and just let the information out in the open?

Much can be learned from the files. It is great to see a justice who understood the importance of the disclosure. Also it's great to see lawyers who are not stopping at obstructionist tactics.

Abuse of children and the continued silence by the offenders needs to be prevented. If you suffered, saw, or suspected such events, it is important to know that there is help out there.