‘Scouts Honor’: Netflix Reveals the Boy Scouts’ Child Sexual Abuse Cover-Up
On Sept. 6, Netflix will debut Scouts Honor: The Secret Files of the Boy Scouts of America, a documentary about how one of the largest youth organizations in the U.S. — with over 700,000 members — tried to cover up one of the most widespread child sexual abuse scandals in history.
Directed by Brian Knappenberger (The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez) and executive produced by Orlando von Einsiedel (The White Helmets), the doc features exclusive interviews with survivors and ex-employees, including the first interview with Michael Johnson, the Boy Scouts’ former youth protection director turned whistleblower, since he went public in 2021 about how the youth group systematically covered up thousands of cases of child sexual abuse. The film also has the first interview with the Boy Scouts’ former general counsel. It continues the work of Patrick Boyle, the journalist whose 1994 book Scout’s Honor about the Boy Scouts’ damning track record helped inspire the film.
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“There are over 82,000 and counting survivors of sexual abuse in Scouting. By coming forward I hoped to spur a congressional or, at the least, a state attorney general investigation asking why so much sexual abuse occurred, identification of those accountable, and the ongoing inherent risks,” Johnson tells Rolling Stone. “Most importantly, if the organization is to continue to exist, we need to put in place assurances for American families that the boys and girls in the Scouting program are safe. Don’t believe what the Boy Scouts of America says about their own safety.”
According to Knappenberger, whose 2020 short film Church and the Fourth Estate examined a series of child sexual abuse allegations within the Idaho Boy Scouts that implicated the Mormon Church, Scouts Honor couldn’t have been made without the participation of Johnson, who provided valuable insight into the inner workings of the Boy Scouts of America and revealed how they dealt with this horrifying epidemic internally.
“This film is about a failure of leadership inside the Boy Scouts of America that lasted decades and led to one of the worst child sexual abuse scandals in history,” says Knappenberger. “Our hope is that this film makes people take a deeper look at this 113-year old organization and ask some serious questions: How did a failure at this scale happen? After declaring bankruptcy and having nearly 82,000 claimants come forward, have they done enough to make kids safe even now?”
Watch the trailer to Scouts Honor here:
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