Local Boy Scout council says scouts are safe

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - The Boy Scouts of America is in the middle of a child sex abuse scandal . It just released 20 years' worth of secret files on men suspected of abusing scouts. It covers 1965-1985. Click here to see the files.

While it doesn't justify any actions, national leaders said current policies are a lot different than decades ago.

"Paramount is protection of our youth and we have procedures that do that now," John Gliot, the director of the Anthony Wayne Area council in northeast Indiana, said.

The council has more than 7,000 scouts and Gliot said they are safe.

All potential volunteers go through several local reference checks and a national criminal background check. All the leaders are also continually trained on the youth protection procedures.

"We're not allowed to have any one-on-one contact with a scout at any point. All activities are required to have two-deep leadership," Gliot said. "A newer thing the last couple years is they're required to report any good faith suspicion of abuse to local law enforcement and authorities even before contact with me. With suspicion, call authorities first."

The council is recruiting now and around 2,500 have already signed up this fall. Gliot doesn't think the scandal will hurt membership.

"It just gives us the opportunity to talk about what we're doing today. Yeah, it's taking a lot of time and there's going to be some negative impact from it but what we're doing today is better than what we were doing for youth protection 20 years ago," he said.

Gilot added that ineligible volunteer files, like the ones recently released, have worked and prevented people from volunteering with a new council.

"We do a lot better communication than we used to and technology has changed and made it easier for us to keep kids safe," he said.