Boy Scout Council Defends False Names | Washington Post

[Ediacara]

Boy Scout Council Defends False Names

By Jay Reeves
Associated Press
Saturday, February 12, 2005; Page A02

BIRMINGHAM, Feb. 11 -- A Boy Scout group under FBI investigation amid questions over whether it inflated its membership rolls said Friday that it sometimes registers youths by false names to protect at-risk youngsters, not to create fictitious members.

The Greater Alabama Council of the Boy Scouts of America released a statement about the practice after claims by a volunteer director who reported seeing child after child with the last name Doe on the roster of a Scout group.

Federal authorities are investigating whether the council, which operates in northeastern Alabama, has overstated membership, which could boost funding for the Scout group by organizations such as the United Way.

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[slor]

1. Was gannon a...

boy scout too?

[dsc]

2. That strikes me as absurd

What possible reason could there be for 20 4th graders to be kept confidential? They can't all be in rehab. Though I have to admit a scheme to defraud would have used different last names.

[VegasWolf]

12. "a scheme to defraud would have used different last names," just

consider the source.

[AlCzervik]

3. ok, i used to be a Girlscout troop leader

and every year we all had to register, the form we used required the parents names, signatures child's birthdate and SS#. BTW, Girlscouts don't exclude anybody, even boys, not that any boys joined but still if they wanted to we couldn't turn them down. Also i don't rmemeber us getting any federal money.

[TahitiNut]

4. SS#?? That's insane.

There's no possible legitimacy for asking SS#, imho. I'd refuse.

[AlCzervik]

5. you could skip if you wanted to.

[1monster]

7. They asked for that when I signed my son up for soccer a few years ago...

I didn't have it with me and left it blank. They told me I could give it to them later, but I never did. I remember when it was illegal to ask for the Social Security number as ID... not anymore. It has become a tracking number for all of us.

[AlCzervik]

8. Those forms ask for a lot of info so that chapter really

went out of their way to lie. I wonder if the section that requires the parents names was actually filled out.

[TahitiNut]

9. Yep. That's an over-reach as well.

At most, they have a legitimate right to ask for parent/guardian consent and an emergency contact. To ask for parentage is an unwarranted intrusion, imho. It marginalizes those kids under non-parental or non-traditional circumstances.

[AlCzervik]

10. i just looked at a form, it gives many options under guardian

Girlscouts guidelines are very different from the Boyscouts.

[Purrfessor]

6. They also cast a spell on these fake-named members

rendering them invisible, which ensures that their identities will ramain secret.

[Igel]

11. I thought the United Way stopped funding Boy Scouts.

Was it just some states or did they resume the funding. (UW objected to the Scouts' gay policy.)