Parents’ lawsuit claims Boy Scouts of America rejected their 15-year-old son with Down syndrome from Eagle Scout program

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/parents-lawsuit-claims-boy-scouts-205310078.html

Is this a morg troop!??

Outside of Utah/Mormon scouting, the Eagle Scout rank is much harder to earn, and not all Boy Scouts earn it, even those without disabilities. With the cult pulling out of Boy Scouts for older teens, you're going to see fewer Mormon Eagle Scouts among those who are allowed to join non-Mormon troops.

I have kind of mixed feelings about this. I think it's great this kid persevered and did everything adults asked of him and he probably has acheived a lot on his own initiative, but I think in life there needs to be a reality check. This kid, as with all of us has limitations, changing the rules for some kids and enforcing them for "normal" kids with other limitations is not fair.

The Eagle rank is supposed to be a difficult accomplishment. I had a friend who swam like a rock. It used to be the Life Saving Merit Badge kept a lot of kids from getting their Eagle. My friend nearly drowned in our life saving swim tests. It was harder for him to swim accross the pool than it was for the rest of us to swim a mile, no exceptions were made for him, and he tried harder than most people would do, and he was terrified of water. My father was an Eagle scout, I earned my Eagle too, one of my sons also earned an Eagle and loved the outdoor activities in a non-LDS troop. Another one of my sons thought scouting was "total bullshit." I served as an adult leader and Scout Master in scouting and I would never have told a family that "We could work out" different requirements for the Eagle award, I don't think that is something that the Scouting culture would accept. I also learned that the Scouting program has some real a$$holes and sketchy individuals even in Non-LDS troops sponsored by Churches.

I don't think accommodating someone's disability (i.e. "different requirements") is problematic, as long as the differences are as equally or reasonably challenging as possible, given the person's disability (e.g. if a scout is missing legs, are you going to require swimming?).

We make disability accommodations all the time at the university where I teach.

I think the real crime is that they stripped the young man of his merit badges and the rankings. That seems to be overkill and down right cruel. The local chapter had been meticulously documenting the accommodations made for the young man. They should have worked with him to make his eagle project more challenging.

I think the crux of the matter is that the National BSA has developed some rules and criteria to make scouting more inclusive but the local people were charting their own course. But the solution seems harsh, yes.

The Eagle Scout designation should mean something that the scout has earned the badges and also shown leadership and personal initiative with his project (yes, I know in LDS troops that is not always true). Anyway, if they go so far to dilute the requirements so much for a person who really can't plan and execute a project maybe they need to call it something else, but still something of distinction for Down's Syndrome kids.

Otherwise, I was bothered a bit by the quest for a label the parents expressed, he can't be an RM but he can be an Eagle Scout. Its great that he was learning a lot about himself along the way, that should be a good lesson for him and parents. And since the parents and troop had already started on the service project why not finish it? -- its not worth doing unless it leads to an award? Are you doing service just for awards?

Father sues Boy Scouts for rejecting son, 15, with Down syndrome, autism as Eagle Scout

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/father-sues-boy-scouts-america-rejecting-15-year-old-son-syndrome-autism-eagle-scout-153042248.html

It sounds to me that the local council overreached as far as accommodations.

“For example, if a task is cooking and the instructions are to pour a cup of flour, Logan won’t stop pouring,” dad Chad Blythe tells Yahoo Lifestyle. “In situations like that, the local chapter has awarded him a badge regardless, for his effort.”

That is not an accommodation. That is ignoring the fact that he can't do the task at all. What good is getting a cooking merit badge if you can't actually cook?

Scouting is not just about effort, it is also about accomplishment. If you need an accommodation in order to accomplish, then so be it. But the accomplishment must still be present.

I agree with the National BSA council that you can still enjoy the benefits and activities of scouting without necessarily qualifying for the ranks.

As an active Girl Scout for many years, I had maybe a third of the amount of badges that Logan had with three years in. I am always skeptical when I see kids with that many badges at a young age as I feel the quality of the program may be lacking. My brother and his friends were well advanced in high school when they got their Eagles.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/21/2018 10:36AM by summer.

BSA rarely gets things right and I'm not sure they deserve any kudos, but they have reversed the really really stupid decision.

If they believed that the troop had erred they should have taken it up with the troop and not the boy. It isn't/wasn't his fault that the adults in the troop made the decisions they made.

At this point I think it is cruel to strip him of his badges. It was not his fault that the local council overreached. But I don't have a problem with the national BSA saying that he is not qualified to pursue an Eagle.

I agree that the issue is more with the national vs. the local councils.

Good for BSA for reversing themselves. A win for compassion over institutional rigidity.

A tone deaf person rarely becomes a musician, a 300 lbs person rarely becomes a ballerina. etc. etc.

Americans have the mistaken idea that they can do/become anything they want to, but that's not how real life works.

Not knowing this young man's real limitations we will have to leave the decisions up to the courts.

But it seems the parents have a problem accepting those limitations, their son probably not so much.

It's the parents want to pretend their son is normally functioning in every way when he clearly isn't.
Well,those are the problems you run into when you decide to carry a Down's baby full term instead of terminating the pregnancy.