Lennox Suspends Scouts’ Use of Schools

The Lennox School District has temporarily suspended the use of school facilities by the Boy Scouts of America while the Scouts investigate alleged improprieties by one of its project workers, including accusations that he showed a pornographic videotape to troop members at his apartment in Inglewood in January, 1990.

The Scout worker, Kevin Lawrence, denied the allegation last week involving the pornographic tape. He could not be reached this week for comment on the other allegations, which are that he visited a prostitute and served alcohol to his troop members.

Los Angeles-area Boy Scout spokesman Terry Tibor said administrators were told last week about the alleged tape-viewing session as well as other possible improprieties by Lawrence, and on Monday suspended him.

Two parents urged the trustees at their Tuesday meeting to stop allowing the Scouts to recruit or meet at Lennox schools. They were concerned that Lawrence was to participate in a Scout project to increase minority membership in Lennox.

No criminal complaints have been filed against Lawrence regarding his activities while with the Scouts.

During a discussion of the Scouting program and Lawrence’s alleged actions, Josefina Ruelas, a Lennox resident who until January had worked on the Scout project, questioned the competence of the Scout leadership.

“How are we going to permit . . . these persons to operate here? How can we trust these people with our children?” Ruelas said, adding that she has withdrawn her 10-year-old son from Scout activities.

School board President Carmen Martinez praised the Scout program, but she and other board members agreed to instruct Supt. Kenneth Moffett to draft a letter to the Scouts stating that a permit allowing use of Lennox schools will be suspended until Scout administrators make a determination about the accusations.

However, Martinez clearly was concerned about suspending the program.

“We’re forgetting the children,” she said. “Kids are not participating in any of the activities while you guys are having this investigation or whatever you call it. . . . We’re hurting the kids.”

The charges against Lawrence are part of a larger disagreement in the Scouts concerning the future of Lennox’s five Boy Scout troops and five Cub Scout packs.

One of the principal critics of Lawrence is former Scout Community Director Frank Madrid, who oversaw Scouting in Inglewood, Lennox and parts of South-Central Los Angeles. Madrid said he fired Lawrence in March, 1990, because of several allegations against Lawrence by parents of troop members.

However, Lawrence, a black, said last week that he was fired because Madrid, who is Latino, was biased against him for racial reasons. Lawrence said he was rehired to a paid position in July by other Scout administrators.

Madrid himself was fired by Boy Scout officials in January, prompting a protest on his behalf at the Los Angeles Scout headquarters by some Lennox parents and troop members. Madrid has accused Boy Scout leaders of discrimination against Latinos, allegations they adamantly deny. The officials say Madrid, who operated an after-school Scout program aimed at disadvantaged youth, was fired for unsatisfactory job performance.

Madrid was one of Lawrence’s accusers at the Tuesday school board meeting.

Madrid, appearing in his Scout leader’s uniform, told the board that until there is a change in leadership at Scout headquarters in Los Angeles, the Scouts should not be allowed to operate in Lennox. There are about 250 Cub and Boy Scouts in the community.

“We are thinking about the kids,” Madrid said. “Better to curtail and hold off on Scouting for the meantime, because if it continues it will (lead to) abuse, neglect, racism” toward Lennox children, he said.

Scouting officials do not fully corroborate either Lawrence’s or Madrid’s version of events in Lennox. They say Lawrence quit his paid position in April but continued to serve as a volunteer in the same position, which was running a troop. Tibor said Lawrence continued in his voluntary role until his suspension this week.

Tibor said nothing in Scout records indicated why Lawrence quit or whether it was other than voluntary.

Tibor has maintained that the Scouts are increasing Latino representation among its membership, but that Madrid is thwarting efforts in the Lennox area. Madrid’s for mer troops and packs have been inactive since his firing, Tibor said.

“He’s keeping us from doing exactly what he’s been complaining about us not doing enough of,” Tibor said.

Madrid disputes the Scouts’ version of his firing, saying he was dismissed because he became increasingly vocal about complaints of discrimination against Latinos and that Scouting rosters were inflated to indicate increasing minority membership.

In discussing Madrid’s charge that the Scouts were lax in handling the allegations against Lawrence, Tibor said it was never brought to the attention of top Scout administrators until last week.

“If we were made aware of it, we would have taken immediate and swift action,” Tibor said, adding that the allegations, if true, violate Scout policy.

Scout officials said law enforcement authorities were never contacted by Madrid or parents of the troop members.

Madrid said he heard reports of the tape incident in January, 1990, several weeks after it allegedly occurred, and that he reported it to administrators, including Tibor. Lawrence was not immediately fired because a Lennox-Inglewood parents’ committee “wanted to give him a second chance,” Madrid said.

However, the other accusations concerning prostitutes and alcohol surfaced, Madrid said, forcing Lawrence’s dismissal.

In an interview, Evelyn Lewis and her grandson, Anthony Mayo, who was one of Lawrence’s troop members, supported the accusations about the X-rated video.

Lewis said Lawrence was continually asking permission for the children to spend the night at his apartment. Eventually, she said, she allowed her grandson, then 14 years old, to spend the night as long as other Boy Scouts were present.

“He’s a Boy Scout leader,” Lewis said of Lawrence. “I was comfortable that he knew what he was doing.”

Anthony, now 15, said he and three others spent the night at Lawrence’s apartment. Lawrence had taken the boys to a video store where they rented two tapes, including a pornographic one. Anthony said no alcohol was present, but that the group watched the video, which consisted of “guys having sex with ladies.”

“Everybody was treating it like a joke,” Anthony said. “It was like a big comedy.”

Several weeks after the January sleep-over, Anthony said, Lawrence attempted to have the boys kicked out of the Scouts, so they told Madrid about the videotape incident.

In denying the videotape accusation last week, Lawrence said it is based on “rumors spread by kids who were mad at me for not letting them have their way.”

Madrid held a meeting with parents and teen-agers in late January to discuss the alleged videotape incident.

“I was totally shocked, to say the least,” Lewis said.