Kim Gale  |  January 25, 2022

Category: Legal News

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Upset teen girl gets hug from mom

The Boys and Girls Club of America (BGCA) is a well-known community program that touts itself as a safe place for children and teens. However, a 2019 investigation by Hearst Connecticut Media found more than 250 allegations of child sexual abuse by Boys and Girls Club employees, volunteers, and others affiliated with the organization.

According to recent lawsuits filed by abuse survivors, the youth organization could have prevented the abuse with proper training programs and policies.

What Is the Boys and Girls Club?

The Boys and Girls Clubs of America operates nationwide and runs local clubs offering sports and recreation, education, art, health and wellness, workforce readiness, and character and leadership programs. According to the organization’s website, the programs are “designed to empower youth to excel in school, become good citizens and lead healthy productive lives.”

There are more than 4,000 Boys and Girls Clubs across the country, serving 4 million children between the ages of 6 and 16 annually.

BGCA programs are designed to provide safer childhoods, enhance academics, health and leadership, and offer caring mentors. The organization’s website notes that “[w]hen kids don’t feel safe, they can’t learn, grow, or develop resiliency that will aid them throughout their lives. We create a refuge, a second home, and a safe space where young people have the freedom to focus on reaching their full potential.”

However, Boys and Girls Clubs may not have been a safe place for all kids. Reports of sexual assault and abuse at Boys and Girls Clubs across the nation have recently surfaced.

Are There Reports of Boys and Girls Club Abuse?

As far back as the 1970s there have been documented allegations of rape and sexual abuse of children at the Boys and Girls Club, according to a Hearst Connecticut Media investigation. Perpetrators reportedly include adults working and volunteering with the organization, including coaches and club directors. Hearst Connecticut Media also compiled a database of Boys and Girls Club abuse reports.

As of September 2020, the Hearst investigation had found 351 victims across 35 states. More than 100 lawsuits have been filed.

“Some were molested by their abusers for years,” the Connecticut Post said court records show. “Others were abused while isolated in situations like sleepovers or club trips. They were molested by coaches, club directors and volunteers.”

The investigation details situations where the Boys and Girls Club failed to conduct appropriate background checks for employees and volunteers, allowing predators easy access to vulnerable kids. A 2019 Associated Press report detailed the case of five men who were allegedly sexually abused as children at Boys and Girls Club for years without action taken by the organization’s administrators.

Between 2007 and 2012, a coach, Paul Dwayne Kilgore, was allegedly permitted to continue working with children at two California Boys and Girls Clubs even after concerns about inappropriate contact with young children were reported to administrators. The organization reportedly never took steps to stop the abuse, which only ended after Kilgore quit in 2013 when he was no longer permitted to take children off-site.

A string of other reports of Boys and Girls Club sexual abuse pepper the organization’s record, the AP notes, including at least one criminal charge against an assistant director for sexual abuse in 2018. Additionally, court documents compiled by the Hearst Connecticut Media investigation revealed that Boys and Girls Club leadership often failed to report abuse to the authorities.

“They make statements about all their efforts to protect kids, but also try to take the position that the local clubs are independent entities and they don’t have the ability to control everyone that happens to be at those clubs,” an attorney representing a plaintiff in a Boys and Girls Club lawsuit told the AP. “My view is that if Boys & Girls Club of America wants to present (local) clubs as (being a part of the national organization), they need to do everything within reason to protect kids in all of their clubs.”

Can Sexual Assault Prevention Training Help?

For its part, the organization has reportedly strengthened its safety practices and procedures. The BGCA Employee Handbook details safety policies designed to protect children. In addition, employees and volunteers are required to undergo an annual criminal background check.

In addition, BGCA requires immediate reporting of “critical safety incidents” to local authorities and mandatory annual safety assessments by local clubs.

Experts agree that organizations must have clear policies about how to handle abuse reports as part of their prevention strategy. In addition, advocacy organization RAINN (the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, the largest anti-sexual violence organization in the United States) recommends teaching children about healthy and safe relationships, bodily autonomy, and how to report abuse.

Though the BGCA maintains that it has continually strengthened its sexual abuse prevention practices and policies, survivors say the organization failed on multiple levels to protect them and question the organization’s background check policy.

New Safety Measures

The Boys and Girls Clubs adopted improved safety measures in the summer of 2020, per its website. Even though many local clubs already followed many of these guidelines, the Boys and Girls Clubs decided such measures should be mandatory at all Clubs. These recent safety improvements reportedly include:

  • Adding to the requirements that already existed regarding “barrier crimes” that stop job applicants from volunteering or working at the Club
  • Any Club that fails a licensing inspection must report this failure to the national headquarters within 24 hours
  • Ensuring all Clubs adhere to reference check requirements for candidates for staff or volunteer positions who have previously worked or volunteered at another Boys and Girls Club location before becoming employed or allowed to volunteer at a different location
  • Requiring that every Club location prominently display contact information for safety resources, such as the Crisis Text Line and the Child Safety Helpline
  • Creating a standard of policies that make sure each Club has a Safety Committee that is held accountable to identical metrics and responsibilities
  • Any time a Club receives a youth membership application, parents and guardians are provided with safety policies

The Boys and Girls Club abuse prevention policy includes advice to parents to talk to their children about the differences between good secrets, such as a surprise birthday party, and bad secrets, which are those that make the child feel scared or uncomfortable.

“Parents must model that it is okay to talk about these issues, and this is done by having these conversations regularly, not just once. It is also helpful to include this in other conversations about being safe,” said Chris Newlin, executive director of the National Children’s Advocacy Center.

Boys and Girls Club Abuse Lawsuits

Serious teen boy stands next to chain link fence

A number of lawsuits have been filed by survivors who allege they were sexually abused at Boys & Girls Clubs. Child sexual abuse is not only traumatic at the time — it has also been linked with long-term health effects, as well as early death.

Many victims of childhood sexual abuse have only begun coming forward in recent years because several states have expanded statutes of limitations and lookback windows, including New York and California. These new laws have allowed childhood abuse victims to come forward and pursue litigation, even if the abuse occurred years or decades ago.

Four lawsuits have been filed against the Boys & Girls Club of Greenwich, Conn., per Greenwich Times. One of the suits alleges that six boys were sexually abused by a BGCA employee between 1976 and 1984, but their reports were ignored by other employees and even the club’s director.

In January 2021, a judge found that the Greenwich Boys and Girls Club breached its duty of care toward the six young children, now adult men, who claim they were sexually abused at the hands of a locker room supervisor in the 1970s and 1980s.

“The club had a very lax method of conducting its operations,” said Judge John F. Kavanewsky, in his ruling regarding potential damages during a pre-trial hearing. “Especially given the number of boys who came and went through its portal on a daily basis.” The judge also noted that the club had no viable system to report this abuse at the time.

Another lawsuit alleges that BGCA employees ignored and concealed reports of sexual abuse by another member of the Greenwich Club. According to the plaintiff, a teenage counselor sexually assaulted the plaintiff when he attended programs at his local club. He says BGCA staff threatened him to stay quiet about the assault and he never reported the alleged abuse for fear of getting in trouble.

The lawsuits may be consolidated into one action against the Boys and Girls Club, according to Greenwich Time.

The Santa Fe New Mexican reports that six lawsuits have been filed against the Boys & Girls Clubs of Santa Fe. The complaints allege that the club’s former executive director, Louis Montaño, sexually assaulted at least six individuals during the 1970s and 1980s. Montaño went on to become mayor of Santa Fe. He is accused of grooming, then sexually abusing and manipulating the plaintiffs while he was the BGCA director.

The AP also reported allegations of sexual abuse at Boys & Girls Clubs across the country, including Connecticut, New York, New Hampshire, Virginia, Illinois, Oregon, Nevada, California, and Hawaii.

Can You File a Boys and Girls Club Abuse Lawsuit?

Those who suffered abuse at a Boys and Girls Club program may be able to file a lawsuit to hold the organization responsible for pain and suffering and failing to protect them. As noted above, BGCA has been accused of improperly handling reports of abuse and may have exposed children in its program to known abusers. In one such lawsuit, a Connecticut judge said that the Greenwich Boys and Girls Club had a “very lax method of conducting its operations” that contributed to the abuse and assault the six plaintiffs say they suffered as children in the organization.

Litigation cannot take away the pain and suffering caused by abuse, but it can at least provide some compensation, as well as hold accountable any organization or individual that may have ignored, allowed, or even actively covered up the abuse.

Filing a lawsuit can be a daunting prospect, especially when dealing with a subject as traumatic as abuse, so Top Class Actions has laid the groundwork by connecting you with an experienced attorney. An experienced attorney can help you decide if legal action against the Boys and Girls Club is the right decision for you, as well as navigate the complexities of litigation, and maximize your potential compensation.

Join a BCGA Sexual Assault Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

If you were a victim of sexual misconduct by someone affiliated with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, you do not have to bear the burden alone.

Help hold perpetrators and those that abet them accountable for sexual assault. Submit your information now for a free case review.

If you qualify, an attorney will contact you to discuss further free of charge.

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This article is not legal advice. It is presented
for informational purposes only.

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