Girl Scout Volunteers Help Curb Rowdy Demonstrators

Out of 7,000 federal, state and local police, it took a few dozen Girl Scouts to maintain the peace during inaugural ceremonies for President Bush.

About 2,000 Boy and Girl Scouts from the Washington area had volunteered to help take tickets and guide people to their seats at the Capitol and along the Pennsylvania Avenue parade route. Clad in yellow rain jackets, the teenagers became an unanticipated facet of inaugural security when about 500 protesters entering a demonstration site along the parade route occupied a large set of bleachers reserved for spectators with tickets.

As protesters bearing anti-Bush signs and banners overflowed the bleachers, the girls, with only limited help from several Secret Service officers on the scene, formed a cordon around the demonstrators to keep them contained.

The Scouts stood their ground but shied away from confrontation. At one bleacher entrance, a protester in a top hat posing as a ticket taker kept yelling that people should hand him their tickets.

As confused Bush supporters kept offering him tickets, Scouts rushed ahead to usher them to seats.

Many of the girls were caught between Bush supporters chanting “George W. Bush! George W. Bush!” and rowdy demonstrators shouting “Hail to the thief!”

“This was supposed to be our community service,” said Deborah Musgrove of Lake Ridge, Va., standing in the wall of Scouts with her 14-year-old daughter, Lynn. “But we didn’t sign up for this.”