New Boy Scout Sex Abuse Suit Involves Ex-Hicksville Bus Driver

HICKSVILLE, NY — A new round of lawsuits has been filed against the Boy Scouts of America and one of the cases involves a former Hicksville school bus driver and a troop reportedly connected to a local elementary school.

The law firm of Jeff Anderson & Associates announced nine lawsuits Tuesday against the Boy Scouts and its Greater New York Councils for what the attorneys called sexual abuse of nine minors by nine adult Scout leaders.

"BSA has created and continues to maintain a nuisance by concealing sexual abuse of scouts by its present and former leaders in its secret Perversion Files," the attorneys wrote in a news release.

All nine lawsuits accuse the organization of negligence.

In one case, former Scout leader Robert Izzo was accused of sexually abusing a boy beginning when the child was 8 years old and ending when the child was 12 years old. Newsday reported that the alleged abuse happened through a troop tied to Dutch Lane Elementary School. That troop was named as a defendant in the lawsuit.

In documents provided by the attorneys, Izzo, then 39, listed his job in May 1989 as a school bus driver for Hicksville schools. He was denied Scout registration after being arrested on charges of sodomy and sexually abusing a boy, who was not a scout.

Izzo was convicted in 1991 of sexually abusing four boys, including three who were members of his Boy Scout troop. He was also convicted of molesting 16 kindergartners. He died in prison in 2002, according to Newsday.

The Boy Scouts said in a statement Wednesday it strongly supports efforts to hold sexual abusers accountable. The organization apologized to the people harmed while in the scouting program and said it cares deeply about abuse victims.

"We are outraged that there have been times when individuals took advantage of our programs to abuse innocent children," the Boy Scouts said. "We believe victims, we support them, we pay for counseling by a provider of their choice, and we encourage them to come forward. It is BSA policy that all incidents of suspected abuse are reported to law enforcement."

The organization added that it has safeguards in place to prevent abuse, including mandatory youth protection education for all volunteers, parents, and scouts and a policy that at least two trained adults must be present with children at all times. The organization also has a volunteer screening database designed to ban people who should not be working with children.

"We believe victims and remove individuals based on only allegations of inappropriate behavior," the group said. "We steadfastly believe that one incident of abuse is one too many and we are continually improving all of our policies to prevent abuse."