SCOUTS: Wrong targets, Part II

As a mother of two very healthy, successful sons who spent her 40th birthday canoeing the Colorado River with 30 Boy Scouts and a Dutch oven birthday cake cooked over an open fire, I understand the concern of molestation. My concern, however, was not about an openly gay Scout leader with a partner and a son. I was and am more concerned about supposedly heterosexual, married fathers who take an exceptional interest in one or two individual minors.

Three weeks after it was discovered the father of one of the scouts had molested two of the boys, the father committed suicide.

I wonder why people are not concerned about their children when a coach takes special interest in a child during Little League, soccer, school field trips or church summer camps.

In the ‘70s I lobbied the California legislature for three years to implement laws requiring any adult supervising children in any venue; sports, church, school, must have a background check. I finally gave up but it was passed later in the ‘80s.

As a parent, it is incumbent upon you to be INVOLVED! Know the adults supervising your children in every activity. Have conversations about what is appropriate behavior between adults and children and what isn’t. Healthy relationships are not secret, ever, under any circumstances.

It’s not those who are confident enough in who they are to tell you who they love that you should worry about.

SHIRLEY THAGARD

Hayden