Stop Child Abuse Now (SCAN) - 2453

Tonight's special guest is Richard Hayes Phillips from Canton, New York, a musician, historian, geologist, trail worker and published author, who has only recently come out as an adult survivor of child sexual abuse after half a century of silence. He was taken by brute force, twice, at Camp Boyhaven, not by adults, but by gangs of Boy Scouts, two the first time, five the second time. He told no one. He smoked marijuana as self-medication, got arrested for it, and was kicked out of his Boy Scout troop on the eve of becoming an Eagle Scout. All of this derailed his young life. Not until the age of 25 did he seek a college degree. He went on to earn a Ph.D., and became a college professor and a renowned investigator in numerous fields. Still he had recurrent nightmares about not becoming an Eagle Scout When he recently discovered that the rank of Eagle cannot be denied for any reason to any boy who meets the written requirements, he called up the Twin Rivers Council, expecting to get the records proving what merit badges he had earned, only to find out that the records had been destroyed, in all likelihood to purge the evidence of pedophiles in their midst. For him, the destruction of evidence was the tipping point. Silence was no longer an option. He searched the web for the instigators of the two sexual assaults upon his person and found them all within three days. He then wrote a detailed affidavit, now posted on this website, began searching for legal representation the next day, and his claim has been filed under the Child Victims Act. He is now a NAASCA volunteer, as a contact person and lifeline for fellow Boy Scouts, in hopes of encouraging others to come out of the darkness and into the light and begin the process of healing.