Parent Protest Scuttles Lennox Scouting Drive

The Boy Scouts of America canceled a recruitment drive in Lennox this week after a group of parents staged a protest over the recent firing of their community scouting director.

The former director, Frank Madrid, has accused Boy Scout officials of discrimination against Latinos, allegations they adamantly deny. The officials say Madrid, who operated an after-school scouting program aimed at disadvantaged youth, was fired in January for unsatisfactory job performance.

A recruitment meeting at Whelan Elementary School was cut short Wednesday night after about a dozen parents bombarded scouting officials with questions about Madrid’s firing. Terry Tibor, a Los Angeles-area Boy Scout spokesman, said the disruption led officials to cancel a similar meeting planned at Jefferson Elementary School on Thursday.

Parents who attended Wednesday’s meeting said they were especially upset that the Boy Scouts had hired a project worker for the area who has been the target of rumors that he showed a pornographic videotape to his troop members last January at a friend’s Inglewood apartment.

The project worker has said the accusation is untrue and based on “rumors spread by kids who were mad at me for not letting them have their way.” He said the youths making the accusation are gang members and no longer in the Boy Scouts.

Tibor denied knowledge of the accusation against the project worker, who formerly was assigned to the Inglewood area. Douglas Hernandez, the new community director for the area, declined comment and referred questions to Tibor.

Guillermo Cabada, another project worker in the after-school program, estimates that 250 youths were involved in five Boy Scout troops and five Cub Scout packs in Lennox under the direction of four project workers.

After the firing, Cabada said, Madrid told him and the other three leaders that the Lennox program was being suspended while he appealed the decision. Cabada said the other three project workers were replaced by Boy Scout officials after they failed to attend a meeting to discuss resurrecting the program.

David Solis, whose 8-year-old son was in Madrid’s program, said he will keep his son out of the Scouts until Madrid is rehired.

“How can we place our children with these kind of people?” Solis said, referring to the new Lennox Scout leaders.

Madrid, who was at Wednesday’s meeting, said parents would continue to protest the Scouts’ presence in Lennox until the organization changed its leadership in the area.

“There are some changes that have to take place to show good faith,” Madrid said. “The parents have decided to shut down this program until these changes are evident.”

Madrid and several parents said Lennox children were called derogatory names on a camping trip last year at a Scout facility near Crystal Lake, had food withheld and were frisked in a search for a missing camera.

“They show no sensitivity for Latinos and the community here,” Madrid said, adding that he was fired because he became increasingly vocal in his complaints of discrimination.

Boy Scout officials have acknowledged problems with the camping outing but said they have been addressed and are not likely to be repeated. Tibor said Madrid was fired because of unsatisfactory job performance, including insubordination and failing to adequately supervise his Scouts.

Tibor said the Scouts will attempt to reactivate Madrid’s units, but he was unsure when the next recruitment meeting would take place. Some parents and school district officials, he said, would like to see the program resume.

“There is no question that it’s a valuable program,” Tibor said. “We are certainly concerned about activating our units there. We have the full cooperation of the schools.”

However, Kenneth Moffett, superintendent of the Lennox School District, said the protest might cause the district to stop allowing the Boy Scouts to use its schools for meetings. Moffett said he would bring the issue before the Lennox school board on Tuesday.

Madrid had singled out Moffett for criticism, saying he was unresponsive to the community.