Roanoke, VA - Thursday the Boy Scouts of America released something they've kept secret since the 1940's: Hundreds of "perversion files."
The courts ordered them to do it after the files were used in an Oregon molestation case as evidence in 2010.
What's turning a lot of heads is that many of those cases were never reported to authorities.
Local council leaders are using the opportunity to educate you about what they do to keep predators out of their organization.
With the release of thousands of pages of documents that detail cases of sexual abuse within the Boy Scouts of America, none are generating more interest than those that were never reported to authorities.
"If you read the documents; read the information, we're talking about things that happened well into the past. We're basically talking about things that happened in the early years of scouting up until 1991," said Dan Johnson, Scout executive at the Blue Ridge Mountains Council.
For leaders within the Blue Ridge Mountains Council, which covers most of our viewing area, there is confidence that there will be no surprises. But this is providing them the opportunity to educate the public on what the scouts are currently doing to keep their young men safe from predators.
"The scouting youth protection training talks about that and establishes how that happens so that there's barriers and also reporting aspect for anyone who suspects," said Johnson.
This proactive approach really took off in the early 90's. The scouts now address the issue at the very beginning of the Scout Handbook and more importantly, through this intensive online training that is mandatory for all adults who are interested in working with the scouts.
"One incident of child abuse is too many. Children need to be protected. Young people/minors need to be protected and it's our responsibility as adults to do that," said Johnson.
The training is so effective, that the scouts recommend other kid friendly organizations us it. If you want to go through the training, you can learn more here.
