Ohio House passes Scout’s Honor Law

COLUMBUS, Ohio — It’s a major start, but it still is not enough. That’s how Eric Palmer was feeling after a crucial vote in the Ohio House of Representatives on Thursday.

Palmer is a Cincinnati attorney and survivor of sexual abuse by a former Chillicothe Boy Scout leader. He’s one of nearly 2,000 Ohio survivors who have filed claims against the Boy Scouts of America bankruptcy settlement. 

BSA filed for bankruptcy in 2020 when hundred of lawsuits flooded in from across the country. As part of the settlement, survivors can either apply for an expedited payout or for one that pays out money based on their level of abuse. For those survivors, the statutes of limitations in their states matter.

In Ohio, the current statute of limitation means survivors would only get 30% to 45% of what they might be eligible to receive.

That’s why, this past summer, Rep. Jessica Miranda, D-Forest Park, co-sponsored House Bill 709, along with Rep. Bill Seitz, R-Cincinnati.

The bill, dubbed the Scout’s Honor Law, would eliminate the statute of limitation for a civil action based on a claim of childhood sexual abuse for filing claims against a bankruptcy case.

It moved forward and was eventually rolled into Senate Bill 199, which the Ohio House voted on Thursday. It easily passed.

“It’s good for those people who claim to have been victims of sexual abuse by Boy Scout troop masters, Cub masters, etc., and it enables them to recover to the fullest possible extent from the multi-billion-dollar settlement that the Boy Scouts have voluntarily entered into,” Seitz said.

But Seitz was quick to point out that he fully supports statutes of limitations in other circumstances.

And that doesn’t quite sit right with Palmer.

“This is a very narrowly tailored piece of legislation,” Palmer said. “It only applies to those of us unfortunately who were victims in the Boy Scouts. As Rep. Seitz, I think unfortunately himself pointed out, this doesn’t apply to what may have happened to individuals as part of the Ohio State case, this doesn’t apply to what clearly happened to victims of the Catholic Church or any other survivors of childhood sexual abuse where it’s been shown that it takes people years and years to come forward with such abuse, on average 40 years and older, to come forward. 

“I think where I see Rep. Seitz falling short in his view on this is acknowledging that victims of child sex abuse take sometimes decades before they come forward. In a state like Ohio, that limits significantly the statute of limitations, really is doing injustice to tens of thousands of individuals in Ohio who were victims of sexual abuse.”

That’s why Palmer wants to continue to push for more changes to state law.

“In Ohio, the criminal statute of limitation is still so short that someone, as in my case and other victims from Chillicothe, Ohio, that individual has admitted to the wrongdoing, and there’s no criminal liability against that individual or others, simply because the criminal statute of limitations has expired,” he said.

Miranda was out of town and had to miss Thursday’s vote, but she did provide 10TV with a statement.

“I am delighted that the legislature has prioritized this critical piece of legislation restoring the public’s confidence that lawmakers believe survivors,” the statement read. “The ‘Scout’s Honor Law’ is necessary to provide Ohioans the compensation and justice they deserve from this national bankruptcy settlement from the Boy Scouts of America. This is a win for survivors, but it should only be our first step. We need to continue to look to the future and ensure there are policies in place that establish justice for all survivors of sexual violence and abuse.”

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