Latino Parents Complain of Racism in Boy Scouts

In the middle of a nationwide campaign to recruit Latino youths, the Boys Scouts of America was accused of racism Friday by a group of Latino parents who staged a protest in front of the Scouts’ Los Angeles headquarters.

About 40 Lennox-area parents denounced the recent firing of their community’s Boy Scouts director, Frank Madrid, and complained of discrimination against their children at camping outings with other Los Angeles-area Scouts troops.

“They have been very prejudiced against our children,” said Felicitas Paredes, mother of a Scout. “They violate some of the very rules that Scouting is supposed to support . . . to help one another at all times. What happened to the motto and promises?”

Several parents said their children were called derogatory names on a camping trip last summer, had food withheld and were frisked in a search for a missing camera. In October, they said, Boy Scouts officials failed to send buses to pick up 500 children in their district who were awaiting a weekend camping trip.

“They have no respect for our community,” said Madrid, a 39-year-old Norwalk resident who supervised Scouts in South-Central Los Angeles, Lennox, Watts, Inglewood and Compton. “Hispanics are not welcome here.”

He said he was fired from his $18,000-a-year-job Jan. 11 because of his increasingly vocal complaints about discrimination in the Boy Scouts.

Los Angeles-area Boy Scouts spokesman Terrence M. Tibor denied any discrimination against Latinos and said Madrid was fired because “his performance on the job was unsatisfactory and he was unwilling to improve.”

Madrid failed to adequately supervise his Scouts, mishandled funds and was insubordinate, Tibor said.

“We are very proud of the Hispanics we have in Scouting,” Tibor said. “Nearly half--some 38,000--of our Scouts are Hispanic and we are encouraging more to join.”

He said Boy Scouts officials had investigated Madrid’s complaints of poor treatment of Latino campers at the outing last summer and acknowledged that there were problems.

“We discovered there were some basic problems of leadership and communication,” Tibor said. “It was a bad experience and we were determined not to repeat it.”

“A few months later, in October, we held another camp-out and it was much better organized,” he said. “We didn’t have the same problems.”

Tibor said about 500 Scouts from Madrid’s group were unable to attend that outing because of a lack of buses, but blamed the incident on Madrid’s failure to fill out forms needed to order the vehicles.

“Mr. Madrid told the parents that it was just another problem with the administration, but it wasn’t,” Tibor said.

The allegations of discrimination in Los Angeles come just weeks after the 81-year-old national organization launched a campaign to recruit more Latino Scouts with the help of a $1.5-mililon grant from the Kellogg Foundation. Boy Scouts officials said the purpose of the campaign is to try to dispel the myth that Scouting is a white, middle-class activity.

The Los Angeles office has requested copies of Spanish-language brochures and videotapes on Scouting for distribution to local schools, Tibor said.

Despite the parents’ complaints, Daniel Jurenka, assistant superintendent of the Lennox School District, said he is looking forward to working with a new Scouting director--also a Latino--named this week to replace Madrid. About 200 students belong to Scouting programs in four schools in the school district.

“The problems between Frank and the Scouting organization will have to be resolved somewhere else,” he said. “Scouting has been a positive experience for our children and we plan to continue to work with the organization.”