(Image source: Los Angeles Times )

BY CHRISTINA HARTMAN

Two decades of knowingly covering up sexual abuse.

The Los Angeles Times reviewed some 1,600 confidential Boy Scouts of America files to conclude, “... that Scouting officials frequently urged admitted offenders to quietly resign — and helped many cover their tracks.”

WFTV : “In more than 500 instances, the organization found out about the alleged abuse … but in about 400 of the cases, scouting officials never reported those allegations to police.”

The confidential files date from 1970 through 1991. The Times says both employees and volunteers suspected of abusing youths were allowed to leave the organization for so-called “bogus reasons” like:

- Business demands, and
- “Chronic brain dysfunction”

Those alleged molesters would go on a blacklist in the BSA’s confidential “perversion files.” The problem, according to Times reporting, is that some of the alleged abusers slipped right back into the program. CNN discusses one in particular — a man named Arthur Humphries.

“Three decades of leadership. a preference of working with handicapped children. Scout leaders knew and documented alleged cases of his abuse and they even gave him a recommendation letter, Don to participate even further...”

When CNN reached out to the Boy Scouts of America, a spokesperson said the cases in question date as much as 40 years back, and that the organization cooperates fully with law enforcement and requires suspected abuse to be reported directly to law enforcement.