‘Victims of child abuse’: California survivors urge others to take action against Boy Scouts

For most of his life, Johnny O’Bannon buried the physical and sexual abuse he endured by his Boy Scout troop leader who was also a Fresno youth pastor.

It all came rushing back to him when he was at church in Oregon, where he now lives. His son ran up to him crying and said a youth pastor threw him to the ground.

“I got up, walked outside, …and I beat that guy half to death,” O’Bannon said.

He later confided in the church minister, connecting his violent temper to the Boy Scouts’ abuse. It was the first time as an adult he told anyone what happened.

But the damage was done, the minister said, and O’Bannon and his family were kicked out of the church.

“That was the last time we’ve been to church,” O’Bannon said.

Now, O’Bannon is one of thousands of survivors across the country who are hoping to get a small slice of justice and acknowledgment for what happened to them while they were Boy Scouts. O’Bannon filed a claim seeking damages in a bankruptcy case for the Boy Scouts of America. The deadline for others to do the same is quickly approaching.

He shared his story with The Fresno Bee to encourage others who were abused in Scouting to speak up and file their own claim before it’s too late.

“It’s something I need to do,” he said. “And it’s mostly for me. But if it helps one other person out there that reads it, maybe they won’t come out and say anything. Or, maybe other people in their family will understand a little bit more if they know about it. You know, it’s hard to tell somebody that you love that stuff like this happened to you.”

History of abuse

The history of sexual abuse in the Boy Scouts of America is long and documented.

Shortly after the Boy Scouts formed, the organization began keeping “ineligible volunteer” files tracking sexual abuse allegations in an effort to weed the organization of predators. The confidential files later became known as the “perversion files” and the Boy Scouts was accused of, at worst, covering up the abuse, and at best, failing to report it to law enforcement.

The perversion files likely paint an incomplete picture of how widespread and common the abuse was because of under reporting and a file purge in the 1970s.

The Boy Scouts of America organization doesn’t deny the abuse and eventually reported any allegations to law enforcement. The organization apologized and promised to support survivors.

“First and foremost, we care deeply about all victims of child abuse and sincerely apologize to anyone who was harmed during their time in Scouting,” Boy Scouts of America said in a statement to The Bee.

The statement is the same language that appears on the Scouts’ website, and the Scouts provided the same exact quote to The Bee earlier this year for another story.

“We are outraged that there have been times when individuals took advantage of our programs to abuse innocent children,” the statement reads. “ We believe victims, we support them, and we encourage them to come forward.”

Legal proceedings

A new California law — Assembly Bill 218, known as the Child Victims Act — allows survivors of sexual abuse a new avenue to seek justice. The law went into effect this year and created a three-year “look-back window” for survivors to pursue claims in which the statute of limitations passed. The law also allowed courts to triple the amount of damages awarded to a victim if there was an attempted cover-up.

In February, Boy Scouts of America filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and is using the process to create a trust fund to compensate victims. The organization said the bankruptcy will enable it to fulfill its “social and moral responsibility” to compensate victims who suffered abuse during their time in Scouting while also ensuring “that we carry out our mission to serve youth, families and local communities for years to come,” according to the Scouts.

But law firms representing survivors of abuse say the Scouts filed bankruptcy as a way to avoid financial ruin from payouts that would be owed in the mounting number of lawsuits.

“The bankruptcy is a legal tool Boy Scouts of America is using to try and get out from underneath this overwhelming pressure put on them because of how many kids were abused in their organization,” said Andrew Van Arsdale, a lead attorney for the group Abused in Scouting. “That has really given courage to men who have forever held their secrets to stand up and tell the Boy Scouts of America that they’re not going to let them get away with it, and their stories will be told.”

They allege abuse decades ago in Boy Scouts. Now they’re suing, thanks to new California law

Now, survivors of abuse must file claims in the bankruptcy case by Nov. 16 of this year to receive monetary damages for the abuse they endured.

Meanwhile, Boy Scouts of America said in its statement to The Bee that the organization is paying millions for an advertising campaign that encourages all survivors to file a claim in the bankruptcy case by the November deadline.

“We have taken great care to ensure that our advertisements are clear, accurate, impartial, informative, and sensitive to survivors. The court has approved the content of these advertisements,” Boy Scouts of America says in its statement.

It remains unclear how the bankruptcy case for the national Scouting umbrella will affect lawsuits against local Scouting organizations and lawsuits under California’s Child Victims Act.

Abused in Scouting said it knows of at least 600 survivors in California who have filed claims in the bankruptcy case. About 150 of those survivors either hail from the Central Valley or suffered abuse here while in Scouting, the organization said. The organization, like others, has compiled a database of confirmed abusers and locations of where it occurred.

Like O’Bannon, two other men told their stories to The Bee and urged other survivors to take action in the bankruptcy case.

Predators in churches, at camps

The Boy Scout campouts seemed to foster the ideal circumstances for predators, said Van Arsdale, the attorney with Abused in Scouting.

“It happened a lot here in California because we have all these wonderful places to go,” he said.

Many predators were camp staffers.

“They would just prey on these kids, and it was the perfect setup because each week they’d have new victims” as different troops cycled through the camp, Van Arsdale said. “A lot of clients say they enjoyed Boy Scouts, but ‘one summer I went to this camp and it was the worst experience of my life that continues to impact me today.’”

That was the case for Robbie Pierce, who now lives in Los Angeles.

Pierce started Cub Scouts when he was 8 years old and was an active Boy Scout until 18. He enjoyed camping and many of the outdoor survival activities.

The abuse he endured happened once at Camp Wolfeboro in the Stanislaus National Forest when he was 13. He and some of his fellow Scouts went to the medics lodge after getting sick, and one of the top camp staffers evaluated each boy in an office one at a time. Pierce said the man fondled him for several minutes.

Pierce said he repressed the memory for many years, but looking back the effects of the abuse are evident, he said. He described his teenage years as rebellious, saying he would “rage against authority.”

Pierce was raised in the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which had a longstanding partnership with the Boy Scouts until last year.

O’Bannon joined the Boy Scouts through the Catholic church he attended with his mother. His Scout leader was also a youth pastor at the church. O’Bannon was an exemplary Scout, and quickly earned 100 badges.

His Scout leader abused him physically and sexually several times over the span of two years in the mid-1970s. The abuse started at church camp where his Scout leader fondled him.

The abuse grew more intense and more violent each time it happened. Fondling led to forced oral sex, rape and beatings. It ended dramatically when another Scout leader walked in on it happening after O’Bannon screamed out in pain.

Neither O’Bannon nor Pierce know the names of the men who abused them. Pierce didn’t know the Scout camp staffer well, and O’Bannon was so young he only vaguely remembers his Scout leaders’ first names.

Mike Dennison joined the Cub Scouts in Hacienda Heights in Southern California when he was in elementary school because his mother wanted him to and “it’s what good boys did.” His father accompanied him on his first camping trip to Catalina Island.

But once he advanced to the Boy Scouts, meetings were farther from his home at a Mormon church. His Scoutmaster first groped his buttocks at a Scout Jamboree event in a park.

Dennison tried to avoid the Scouts after that, but the Scoutmaster began showing up at his house in what Dennison described as a “blue rape van.” The Scoutmaster developed a rapport with Dennison’s mother, and looking back as an adult, Dennison said he realized the Scoutmaster was grooming him.

The Scoutmaster took Dennison and one other boy for what likely wasn’t an official Scouting camping trip to Yosemite in December. Since he lived in Southern California, Dennison didn’t even own a winter coat. He assumed they would stay in a lodge, but the Scoutmaster and two boys ended up sleeping in the blue “rape van.”

In Yosemite, the Scoutmaster told the boys to use the outdoor shower. He groped Dennison while bathing him with an erection. Later that night while they slept in the van, the Scoutmaster sexually assaulted Dennison.

“Something changed in me after that event,” Dennison said. “For the next four years I didn’t think about it.”

Looking back, the concept of Scouting and allowing grown men to take children into the woods disturbs him, Dennison said.

“Men that want to take other people’s children out into the woods, something is fundamentally wrong there, to me,” he said. “…I just think during the ‘70s and ‘80s, it was just a pedophile breeding ground.”

Lasting effects of abuse

Dennison was a straight-A student and athlete, but after the abuse he lost motivation in school and dropped out. He started drinking alcohol, and while he did eventually earn his GED and attend college multiple times over the years, he could never stick with it.

“I’m a smart guy, but I never never was able to apply myself there,” he said. “My issues manifested with my self-esteem.”

In his 20s, his interpersonal relationships were “a mess.” With sports, he became a bystander.

“You don’t you don’t see it at the time. I have to become a 50-year-old man to put the pieces together,” he said. “… To reflect and look internally, it’s a long process, and there’s a lot to soak up. It wasn’t until probably within the last 10 years I started to realize, wow, this is related to this event, and this is related to that event.”

Pierce buried the abuse until college. The memory came flooding back while reading a college paper written by his brother, who also endured abuse in the same incident at Camp Wolfeboro.

“I carried around this shame,” he said. “Even when I finally remembered what had happened, it still took me many years to get rid of that feeling that it was my fault.”

Pierce said he realizes now why as a teenager he was averse to physical touch and he struggled with affection and intimacy in his relationships. After seeking out mental health professionals, he learned those things were common for survivors of abuse.

Both Dennison and O’Bannon are very protective of their children.

Besides beating up the youth pastor, O’Bannon also never allowed his children to attend church retreats that were out of town alone.

Dennison, who now lives in Pennsylvania, has four daughters. He said he didn’t trust any other adults with them, not even his brothers. He also brought up his daughters to question authority and to be vocal if anyone ever made them uncomfortable.

“None of them were molested because I was a paranoid father,” he said.

Why they’re speaking out

All three men said telling their stories is an important part of healing, and each time they talk about it, it gets easier.

By sharing their stories, they hope it helps other survivors know they’re not alone and encourages them to file claims in the bankruptcy case. The three men also hope it prevents any future abuse to children.

After hearing an ad about the bankruptcy case, Dennison realized sharing his story could help someone else.

“It was a message that I needed to hear, to be honest,” he said. “You know what? I can do something about this. I want parents to open up their eyes and realize, you know, listen to your kids.”

Connecting with others who survived abuse in the Boy Scouts was also helpful for Pierce. He played an active role in the early bankruptcy process and found camaraderie with the other survivors who joined him in court.

Since confronting the abuse as an adult, he always looked for ways to take action, even though he knew the statute of limitations for legal action had long passed. Learning there were thousands of other men who experienced the same abuse strengthened his resolve to help put an end to the systemic abuse.

Pierce doesn’t care about getting a settlement.

“What’s fascinating and exciting to me about this case, what I get emotional about, is this idea that whatever form the Boy Scouts take after this, they will no longer be able to systemically abuse children the way they were,” he said. “The days of children being abused by the Boy Scouts of America are coming to a close.”

Resources

If you were abused in Scouting you are not alone, and there are resources available to you.

For a free case evaluation, contact Abused in Scouting at 888-99-SCOUT or visit the organization’s website at abusedinscouting.com/.

Fresno residents can contact Rape Counseling Services of Fresno at 559-222-7273.

The hotline number for the Rape, Abuse, Incest National Network is 800-656-HOPE.

Boy Scouts of America supports survivors and pays for counseling by a provider of their choice. BSA encourages survivors to come forward.

BSA partnered with the organization 1in6 which helps men who experienced unwanted or abusive sexual experiences to live healthier, happier lives.

1in6 offers a free and anonymous helpline, available 24/7 at 1in6.org/helpline.

To access in-person counseling for survivors of past abuse in Scouting, you can also call 866-907-BSA1 or email restructuring@scouting.org.

To request in-person counseling by a provider of your choice, contact the BSA’s Scouts First Helpline at 844-SCOUTS1 or email scouts1st@scouting.org. The BSA requires no proof. A survivor need only make a request.

For questions about the BSA bankruptcy case and filing a claim, call the restructuring hotline at 866-907-BSA1, email restructuring@scouting.org or go to OfficialBSAClaims.com.