David DeLapa first teamed up with his teacher and Boy Scout Master on World War II memorials.
The teacher brought various things to the class to be seen and told, catching the attention of the little boy who was playing War games and watching TV shows about war. DeLapa would go to his teacher’s desk and ask to see the hats and swords.
Before long, their relationship was flawless. DeLapa said his teacher would touch him after class and spank him because of what he had done wrong – or just for fun. Rowing turned into fun. The bullying extended beyond the school day and into the activities of an Akron-area Boy Scout group led by a teacher. At camp, DeLapa said, his teacher and scoutmaster sexually assaulted him.
The military commander pleaded guilty in 1979 to molesting a 10-year-old child. When DeLapa’s mother called to talk about this story in the newspaper, she felt that she knew something, but she couldn’t say it. She even pretended to be shocked, telling him that the man was kind to her at school.
BREAKING:The USA TODAY story is an investigation into the sexual abuse of children accused of sexual battery
After the call, DeLapa jumped into his Ford Pinto and drove into the Nevada desert until he reached the foot of a mountain. He climbed it with every intention of jumping to his death. But watching the sun set, he heard God’s voice telling him to turn around and go home.
So he said.
“When you’re incarcerated for two years … you lose a lot of emotions,” said DeLapa, of Tallmadge. “You get mad at life. You hate life. You think about killing yourself. There’s such a darkness, and then you get away from it. You don’t do what you used to do.”
About 2,000 Ohio Boy Scouts have survived sexual abuse
DeLapa is among the 2,000 Ohio survivors of sexual abuse by Boy Scout leaders and volunteers. He is currently seeking financial assistance from the Boy Scouts of America through his bankruptcy exit planwhich creates a $2.46 billion survivor fund in exchange for no further lawsuits.
The amount of money a person is entitled to depends on many factors, including where they live. Survivors in states such as Ohio, which has strict child rape laws, can only receive a percentage of their debt.
Ohio lawmakers are trying to change that with legislation that repeals the statute of limitations for bankruptcy cases, allowing survivors to recover the full amount of their personal needs. But the parliament has a year to go.
“How can it be that one of us was born in Ohio and had the misfortune of being sexually abused here, why should we accept half or less of the same person who just had the misfortune of being abused in another state. ?” said Eric Palmer, a Cincinnati attorney was sexually abused by an Ohio scout leader.
The formation of the Boy Scouts had been years in the making
The Boy Scouts’ settlement is the culmination of years of scrutiny over the organization’s handling of sexual abuse, beginning with the release of so-called perversion files – an internal list of ineligible volunteers.
Boy Scouts of America filed for bankruptcy in 2020 when it faced hundreds of lawsuits across the country from former scouts who said they were abused and raped. Chapter 11 bankruptcy is a process followed by several groups, including Catholic Dioceses throughout the world, to eliminate the cost of increasing the legal burden. But the Boy Scout story is the first of its kind on a national scale.
“When the Boy Scouts first announced that they were filing for bankruptcy, I was furious because I knew they were using this as a way to avoid major lawsuits over things they closed,” Palmer said.
MAKASAAbuse takes place in concentration camps. But parents have no power to prevent it.
In a statement, the Boy Scouts of America said the agreement “will give survivors the opportunity to be compensated fairly and equitably.” The organization also expressed its support for the repeal of the law on sexual harassment.
Survivors seeking compensation from the Boy Scouts have a few avenues they can pursue. The easiest option is a $3,500 instant payment that requires minimal documentation and a less complicated vetting process. They can also go through a lengthy independent review or see where they fall on a matrix that gives out money based on the severity and frequency of abuse. For example, rape victims deserve more money than those whose claims involve forced masturbation.
Palmer said she experienced many forms of abuse. The overseer – who was not the commander of his army – was a longtime family friend who attended Palmer’s church. One fall day, Palmer said the man took him to a southern Ohio scout camp and began wrestling with him on the front porch of the ranger’s residence. The man then groped and entered her, Palmer said.
Years later, the man would call Palmer and thank him for never telling anyone. Palmer sat on the phone in silence, then said, “Okay,” before the conversation ended.
The correction of the scouts takes into account the so-called “scaling factors” for each such, such as the impact of the abuse and if the offender has hit many people. Among those things: a statewide statute of limitations on child sexual abuse cases.
In Ohio, criminal charges can be brought until the victim turns 43, and an additional five years are granted if DNA is found after that. The current law closes the state statute of limitations at age 30 and limits the damages a person can receive through civil liability. Advocates say the laws are unfriendly to child rape victims, who often struggle with loss and don’t come forward until decades after the fact.
“Ohio represents one of the most backward states in terms of recognizing the power of child abuse,” he said Jeff AndersonMinnesota child sexual abuse attorney.
As a result, these laws limit what Ohioans can receive from the Boy Scouts. According to the settlement rules, the survivors will receive only 30 to 45% of what they are entitled to unless the Legislature does it before September next year. And that’s what Rep. Bill Seitz, R-Cincinnati, and Rep. Jessica Miranda, D-Forest Park, hopes to act.
Seitz should not be involved in this activity. The GOP lawmaker has led efforts to cover up human rights abuses and has continued to oppose efforts to expand tort law. After lawmakers introduced a bill aimed at helping victims of abuse by former Ohio State University doctor Richard Strauss, Seitz admitted it was a bargaining chip. he never aspired to be the law. Instead, policymakers used it to pressure the school to do better to fix it.
For him, this law is different. It waives the statute of limitations only due to bankruptcy, meaning its effectiveness is limited. And, importantly for Seitz, the Boy Scouts have already agreed to a payment plan.
“I don’t like the fact that the Boy Scouts had to declare bankruptcy to get out of this,” Seitz said. “I was never a Boy Scout myself, but the Boy Scouts have done a lot of good over the years. It’s a shame they ran out of money.”
‘Boy Scouts knew about it’
Others are not sympathetic to the plight of the Boy Scouts.
“The Boy Scouts knew about this … they kept files on these boys, and they didn’t fire them,” said Janet Nash, who says she was raped by an Ohio scout when she was 15 years old. “They didn’t remove them. They just surrounded them and filed them. They didn’t warn the scouts. They didn’t warn the parents, and the parents trusted these people.”
A tomboy who longed to be part of the Boy Scouts, Nash joined Reviewing the program in the 1970s – the only part of the organization that accepted girls at the time. Ultimately, however, the incident affected his life. He was a good student who liked science until depression made it hard to focus, he said. He felt abandoned and blamed by the people around him.
Nash said at first she was reluctant to join the bankruptcy fund, thinking no one would believe that a little girl had been abused by scouts. He changed his mind after being prompted to do something.
“I hid it for decades,” said Nash, who lives outside Ohio. “I put it in the back of my head. It’s scary because I wasn’t a bad kid at all … I was just this kid chasing frogs in the creek months before it happened.”
Mujaddid Muhammad also knows what it’s like to have his life changed forever by the Boy Scouts.
The Columbus man said he was sexually abused for a few months by an Ohio scout leader when he was about 9 years old. Muhammad was not a Boy Scout, but went camping as part of a program for low-income children. The man who forced Muhammad to perform oral sex on him was seen as a privileged member of the community, he said.
Muhammad’s stepfather was suspicious of the general, and the abuse ended when his family moved out of the area. But Muhammad said the incident set him on a path to crime that began with juvenile burglaries and ended with a 32-year sentence for drug conspiracy as an adult. He didn’t really deal with the trauma from his childhood until he was in prison, with plenty of time to do what he called “research work.”
Now, Muhammad is starting. Like other survivors, recovery is not necessarily about money. He instead sees it as part of his journey to redemption, a way to rebuild what the Boy Scouts destroyed years ago.
“I felt like the child in me who had been raped and abused had run and hid in a cave,” said Muhammad. “I was just living in a cave while someone else lived my life.”
To learn more about the Boy Scouts settlement, visit bsarestructuring.org. Survivors seeking help can also contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800-656-4673.
Haley BeMiller is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations in Ohio.