Girl Scouts Settle in Pledge Dispute

The Girl Scouts’ national organization has settled a religious discrimination lawsuit involving a 6-year-old Calexico girl who refused to recite the word God in the Girl Scout Promise.

Under terms of the settlement, the girl may substitute a word or words consistent with her spiritual beliefs for the word God in the promise, Girl Scout officials said Monday.

The girl’s attorney, James G. Randall of Anaheim Hills, said the girl “may say, ‘my conscience’ or nothing at all, in place of the word God . . . . It’s up to her.”

Randall, who successfully sued the Orange County Council of the Boy Scouts of America on behalf of his twin 12-year-old boys in a similar case, said he was “very pleased with the settlement,” which was reached last month.

The girl, Nitzya Cuevas-Macias, and her parents filed suit in November, 1992. She subsequently won an injunction against the Girl Scouts of the USA to remain in Scouting pending the outcome of the suit.

Randall said Nitzya was very happy with the settlement and is still active in Scouting.

Unlike the Boy Scouts organization, which is appealing the court verdict in favor of Randall’s sons, Girl Scout officials were willing to work out an out-of-court compromise.

Girl Scout officials said the new Girl Scout Promise policy was implemented last month when delegates to the organization’s national convention voted to be more flexible. Before the vote, Scouting officials had established a special committee to examine the issue.