Ronald Patterson is one of the thousands of men the Boy Scouts of America added to its secret list of “Ineligible Volunteers” over the decades.
Like the other men found in the BSA’s confidential “Perversion Files,” Patterson was caught sexually molesting Boy Scouts. In Patterson’s case, he sexually fondled several boys in Troop 112 while they were sleeping in tents at Camp McLaughlin at Lake of the Woods in Klamath County, Oregon.
While the sexual abuse Ronald Patterson inflicted on these boys is sadly familiar to anyone who has reviewed the Boy Scouts’ confidential files, at least three things stand out from Patterson’s file:
- Although the Boy Scouts knew within days of when the crimes occurred in 1986 – from the victims, the police, and Patterson himself – that Patterson had sexually fondled at least three little boys at Camp McLaughlin, it took the BSA almost two years to open an Ineligible Volunteer file formally banning Patterson from Scouting.
- It took the BSA another three years, until 1991, to inform the National Association of Eagle Scouts that Patterson, an Eagle Scout and member of the NAES, was ineligible to participate in any Scout activities.
- In fact, Patterson was only barred from officially volunteering with the Scouts. As Paul Ernst, the BSA Director in charge of the Ineligible Volunteer file system, explained in a 1991 letter to the paid Scout Executive of the Crater Lake Counsel, Patterson “should not participate in any leadership capacity or assume any responsibility in the Boy Scouts of America. He could participate as a parent if he has a son or daughter involved.”
That last point is astounding when you stop to consider it . In effect, the Boy Scouts official policy, at least as of late as 1991, was that known pedophiles were allowed to volunteer and participate in Scouting activities, as long as they had a child – or stepchild – involved in a Scouting program.
Talk about a loophole! It’s not like pedophiles don’t have children of their own.