South Florida Scout exec: We're strong as ever

BY SUSAN FERRECHIO
sferrechio@herald.com

Jeff Herrmann, Scout executive for the South Florida Council of the Boy Scouts of America, stepped into one of the organization's biggest controversies, three years after he took over the group in 1997.

The Scouts are embroiled in a battle with the Broward County School Board, which tried to ban the group from after-hours meetings in schools because of its prohibition against gays as Scouts or Scout leaders. A U.S. district court judge recently ruled in favor of the Scouts, permitting them to use the schools until a final court resolution. The judge awarded an injunction, giving the Scouts temporary access to the schools. His final ruling is pending.

The Boy Scouts agreed to give up public funding, stop recruiting at public schools, and develop a training program to help its leaders deal more sensitively with gay youth.

About the same time, the Broward School Board backed down on a proposal to charge rent to the Scouts and other nonprofit groups that use the schools. It is now proposing a plan to charge usage fees to nonprofits, which Herrmann, 59, says the organization may not be able to afford. He awaits the School Board's decision.

Other groups, including the United Way of Broward County and the city of Fort Lauderdale, are withholding money from the Scouts because of the gay ban.

The South Florida Council, which includes about 36,200 boys in Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe counties, received $127,850 from the Broward United Way last year. In the meantime, Herrmann says, he stands by the Scouts and its viewpoint on gays.

Q. How has the recent decision by various groups, including the Broward School District, to estrange themselves from the Boy Scouts affected the organization?

A. ``We're stronger than we've ever been. Our relationship with our charter partners is better, and our relationship with our faith-based institutes is probably stronger than it's been.

``Our fundraising situation is a lot different from a year ago. We no longer have the fee-for-service contracts with the city of Fort Lauderdale and the Children's Services Board, which provided $98,000 a year for us to provide scouting programs to kids in high-risk neighborhoods.''

Q. Has the organization suffered as a result of recent events?

A. ``Absolutely. What we've been forced to do is go out and try to raise the money through the private sector. The cutoff from funding was so immediate, we didn't really have the time to gear up and find the money somewhere else. So there was a lapse in services for a while in some communities, and that wasn't a good situation.''

Q. What is your perspective on the community's reaction to the Scouts' policy?

A. ``I've become energized by this whole thing. Throughout this entire ordeal, the Scouts have never sought to impose our values on anyone. We've never tried to force that down anyone's throat. We welcome anyone who shares our values and certainly we respect the right of others to walk a different path.

``There are groups that are using the Boy Scouts to further their own political agendas, and I find that distressing. I think that there are political entities out there that want to use the Boy Scouts and our issues as their calling card to further their own situation. We are an apolitical group, and our mission is to serve children.''

Q. Following the Supreme Court ruling, you came out in favor of the policy banning gays from becoming Scouts or Scout leaders. Was it difficult to stand behind the national organization, particularly given the public's disapproval of the national policy?

A. ``I think there was tremendous self-examination on the part of the local Boy Scout council, volunteers, parents and staff. We had to do quite a lot of introspection to think about the policy, what our role in the community is and what our responsibility is to parents who have children in our program. It involved a fair amount of discussion.

``I think this was an emotional issue. I had very few people say `Let's just sign the [anti-discrimination policy].' People had strong feelings on both sides. People said the Boy Scouts policy is important, and others said it is outmoded. There was no one who was ambivalent about it.''

Q. How do you feel about the decision by the county School Board to at first ban the Scouts and later decide to charge them rent for using schools?

A. ``Quite frankly, I thought the School Board and the Boy Scouts would be able to work things out. I believed the greater issue was more important -- about servicing children. Those feelings went away in November when the board decided this was intolerable and the only solution was to throw the Boy Scouts out.

``It was at that point that I realized negotiations were no longer going to find a solution. That is something that I never imagined would happen with two institutions that are pillars of our communities, the Scouts and the school system. When you have two pillars of the community squabbling like this, it's not healthy for the community.

``I also recognize that the Boy Scouts had an important responsibility when our constitutional rights were literally stomped on. We had a much bigger obligation to stand up for what's right.''

Q. How has the community responded to the Scouts since the group decided to exclude gays and subsequently began battling with the school district over use of space?

A. ``We run about 75 to 80 percent support from the calls and letters we get. Parents tell us on a regular basis this is part of the reason they are in the program, because of the values we teach, and because their children can be matched up with the role models and mentors they can be comfortable with. The vast majority of complaints we get are from people who are not in the program who have a problem with the values of the Boy Scouts.''

Q. How long have you been a Boy Scout?

A. ``Since I was 8 years old. I started working for the Scouts when I got out of college. I have been here in South Florida since March 1997. Previously, I held the same position in Little Rock, Ark.''

Q. How do you feel about the decision by the Boy Scouts to exclude gays?

A. ``I'm in full support of the membership standard. I did give it a fair amount of examination, particularly in the early days when this came up and it looked like it was going to the Supreme Court.''

Q. Why is sexual orientation so important?

A. ``You have to understand how it is the Boy Scouts teach values to kids. It's much more than words written in books. We have adult leaders who are responsible for passing on those values.

``It becomes very difficult for kids to separate out messages when we have adults that are compromising the message because of their behavior. It's important that we ask those folks to step aside.''

Q. Why are gay Boy Scout leaders prohibited?

A. ``Part of the issue goes back to the religious tenets the Scouts are based upon. We see an inconsistency with some of those religious teachings that homosexuality does not fit into.

``Spirituality is the bedrock of what we are all about. Part of the Scout oath, the very first line is, On my honor I will do my duty to God.'

``We are not a religious movement, we are a movement that is supportive of religious teaching. From our perspective, what we are doing is consistent with what the family and religious organizations we are most closely affiliated with want us to pass on.

``If you look at the teachings of the world's great religions, I think all of them are committed to the concept that sexual intimacy is the province of a man and a woman in the bonds of marriage.''