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September 07, 2006
Max Taves ,
At the end of August 2005, 12-year-old Casey Reilly didn't go with Palisades Boy Scout Troop 223 to Emerald Bay for a weeklong, much-anticipated funfest in Catalina. In fact, he didn't go this August either. But it wasn't because of his lack of interest.
Understanding why is the subject of a new and potentially precedent-setting lawsuit against Troop 223 and the Boy Scouts of America.
After four years of involvement as a Cub, a Webelos and a Boy Scout, Casey's participation in the Scouts ended with an e-mail.
In the four years since he joined the Scouts, Casey's autism has posed obstacles: He hiked slower and spoke louder than the average Scout, and interpreting orders didn't always come easily.
His specific form of autism, known as Asperger's Syndrome, is often associated with impaired communication skills, repetitive patterns of thought and behavior and often entails weak motor skills, according to the National Institute of Health. People with Asperger's frequently have difficulty interpreting emotions and understanding linguistic subtleties like idioms, irony and humor.
Doctors recommend that patients with Asperger's participate in activities that build on their interests in a structured and social environment. For Casey, that meant being a Boy Scout.
Casey's parents searched for ways to reconcile his illness to the social and physical demands of being a Scout. Jane Dubovy, his mother and a Palisades-based disability lawyer, hired a children's development specialist to attend Scout meetings and suggest ways of accommodating the Scout curriculum to his individual needs. Casey's father, Mike Reilly, volunteered as an assistant Scoutmaster and attended meetings and hikes.
And their efforts often produced results.
'When his dad was present, his behavior changed very noticeably,' said Troop 223 Scoutmaster Mike Lanning.
Upon turning 10 years old, Casey graduated from the Cub Scouts to the Boy Scouts, and the demands on him increased. Hikes became longer. Backpacks became heavier. And Boy Scout camp outs became larger.
The success of Reilly's transition to the Boy Scouts is now a subject of debate. Given these new challenges, the Scout leadership of the Troop requested that Casey's father attend all Scout events as a condition of his son's participation. But when Casey's father could not attend the week-long Emerald Bay campout because of previous obligations and leaders of Troop 223 refused to allow someone else to chaperone Casey, his future in the Scouts seemed uncertain.
Historically, attending Emerald Bay has been a prerequisite for advancing from the first to second year of the Boy Scouts.
Days after the Emerald Bay campout in August 2005, Casey's parents received an e-mail from Dr. Paul Kazimiroff, an assistant Scoutmaster in the troop and a pediatric neurologist. Kazimiroff wrote that 'due to his disorder Casey is not mature enough to interact with the Scouts as well as the adult leadership appropriately on an individual basis.'
Kazimiroff cited Casey's use of profanity and physical weakness as obstacles to his participation in the Scouts. And he concluded that Casey could return the following February as a Boy Scout but would have to begin again as a first-year Scout. (Kazimiroff would not return phone calls from the Palisadian-Post.)
Reentering the Scouts as a 'rookie' was not an option that Casey's parents accepted. They said that Casey would lose the friends that he had known in the Scouts since he was 6 years old. And they feared that Casey's return to the Scouts would not mean increased sensitivity or preparation for his needs.
After their son's temporary dismissal from the Scouts, Mike Reilly and Jane Dubovy searched for solutions from other Scout leaders throughout Southern California. Those Scout leaders suggested that Casey join a more 'disability-friendly' troop. But for Mike Reilly that would mean abandoning a troop in which he had invested 10 years of his time as an assistant Scoutmaster. Their older son, Tyler, was an Eagle Scout in that same troop.
Last July, Casey's parents sent the Western Los Angeles County Council of Boy Scouts of America a letter that detailed their grievances and threatened legal action. They argued that leaders of Troop 223 were unwilling to make accommodations for their son and unfairly excluded him from Scout activities because of his disability. When the Council did not reply to their letter, they filed a lawsuit on August 16, 2006.
Their lawsuit charges Local Troop 223 and the Western Los Angeles County Council with violation of the state and Federal law, namely the Americans With Disabilities Act, or the ADA.
Although the Scouts accepts all boys with special needs, troop leaders' training to deal with special-needs children varies widely. According to the Western Los Angeles County Council, troop leaders receive no specific training for boys with disabilities. And Casey's parents hope to change that.
'The Boy Scout motto is one of inclusion,' Mike Reilly said. 'But this Troop doesn't espouse those particular values.'
Casey's parents point to the Troop's unpreparedness and unwillingness to deal with students with special needs. And they claim that Lanning's leadership made little room for students with disabilities.
When Casey would use profanity, or students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder would not follow orders, Scout leaders responded by yelling and threatening them with punishment, Reilly said.
'They have no idea how to work with kids with special needs,' he told the Post. 'And when they were offered education and training for students with special needs, they declined.'
Lanning redesigned the Boy Scout program in Palisades to focus on earning merit badges relatively earlier than most Scout troops. And his efforts have paid off: in the past 50 years with Lanning as leader, the Troop has produced more Eagle Scouts than any other troop in the country.
But Casey's parents argue that Lanning has turned the Troop 223 into an 'Eagle Scout mill' that has little room for boys with special needs.
In a conversation with the Post last week, Lanning defended his leadership of the troop and his decision to dismiss Casey. He said that the physical demands of his troop were high and that Casey was not strong enough to participate. Lanning said that he acted on 'behalf of the child's safety.
'We assist every Scout that joins us to succeed,' Lanning said. 'Our record is incredible in that regard. We only have one or two boys per year that leave the troop.'
Ross Harrop, the executive of the Western Los Angeles County Council, oversees 27,000 Scouts in LA County, and he supported Lanning's decision in an interview by telephone on Tuesday.
'The needs of special-needs boys are best met with the involvement of parents. That is why the father of the boy was asked to be involved,' he said.
Lawyers for Casey said that the success of their case will likely depend on whether the Boy Scouts of America, a private organization, is required to follow the ADA. No court date has been set. In a landmark ruling in 2000, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Boy Scouts. The decision allowed the Boy Scouts to dismiss troop leaders for being homosexual.
Jane Dubovy successfully sued the Los Angeles Unified School District in 2002 over Casey's right to speech therapy at Marquez Elementary.
In the year since Casey was dismissed from the Troop, he has not returned to the Scouts. In place of going to Emerald Bay this August, Casey attended volleyball camp. He began the seventh grade this week at New West Charter School in West Los Angeles.
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