At least 1,793 claims of sexual abuse have been made against Boy Scouts councils in Pennsylvania amid a national reckoning and what is shaping up to be the largest single child sex abuse case in U.S. history.

The claims against the Scouts span decades and were made public through a bankruptcy process initiated by the national organization last year, with more than 83,000 abuse claims tallied nationwide.

Pennsylvania claims have been made in every corner of the state — Erie, Chambersburg, Wilkes-Barre, Pittsburgh, McKean and Potter Counties, and beyond. Often, those brought to Scouts leaders were kept from authorities.

Meanwhile, ongoing pushes to make it easier to file legal claims against abusers and the institutions that hide abuse in Pennsylvania drew forceful resistance from powerful organizations, including the Scouts, which alone spent $486,505 between 2016 and 2018 to quash such an effort here, a USA Today investigation found.  
 
THE CONTEXT: The Scouts may have seen bankruptcy as a way to "get out, limit their liability, and protect their local organizations,” attorney Michael Pfau told the Seattle Times. Instead, Pfau said the organization revealed "the largest number of sexual abusers of any institution in our country, ever."

The deadline to file abuse claims for compensation via a victims fund set up as part of the national organization's bankruptcy plan has already passed, severely limiting the options of survivors. 
 
While other states have passed so-called "lookback laws" that temporarily open the door for civil suits and legal claims regardless of when the abuse occurred — many with the Boy Scouts of America and Catholic Church in mind — Pennsylvania isn't one of them, meaning a more rigid standard and timeline will be applied to claims emanating from here.

“They are no doubt going to be looking to the statute of limitations in Pennsylvania for how much they will pay,” attorney Jason Amala told WHYY of the Scouts.

An effort is underway now to open a two-year lookback window in Pennsylvania. The measure has House support but faces an uncertain future in the state Senate, all while the clock keeps ticking for Boy Scouts victims across the commonwealth.

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