Out of Scouting

For some Beverly families, Scouting America's decision to end the diversity badge was the last straw

One of the nice things about writing about local news is that you mostly don’t have to write about the terrible things that are going on at the national level. But sometimes that stuff rolls down hill, as they say, and it’s hard to ignore when you’re standing in it knee-deep.

That’s what’s happening right now to the Frawley/Jefferson family in Beverly. They have always been involved in Scouting, dating back to the 1950s when Stanley Jefferson was an Eagle Scout. Now one of the Scouts in the family is 10-year-old Ben Frawley. Or at least he was, until a week ago Friday.

That’s when his mother, Sara Jefferson Frawley, got the email from Scouting America stating that the organization was discontinuing its Citizen in Society Merit Badge, effective immediately. It is, or was, one of the 14 badges required to attain the rank of Eagle Scout.

And why would Scouting America want to eliminate a badge as patriotic-sounding as Citizen in Society? Because it helps Scouts learn “the benefits of diversity, equity, inclusion, and ethical leadership.”

Uh-oh. There’s that trigger acronym, DEI. I think we all know how the current administration feels about that concept. The Pentagon and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth pressured Scouting America to drop the so-called diversity badge, threatening to no longer allow Scouts to hold activities on U.S. bases and facilities or provide other kinds of support. In a video, Hegseth accused the Scouts of promoting “an insidious, radical, woke idealogy that is anti-America and anti-American.” He has also called for the Scouts to remove girls as members and go back to becoming the Boy Scouts.

When Frawley got that email saying Scouting America had discontinued the citizenship badge, she knew she had to do something. She and her brother, Doug Jefferson, were serving as the leaders for Ben’s Webelos den in Beverly. They both agreed that they could no longer in good conscience continue their association with Scouting.

In a letter to their local Scout Pack leader, Sara and Doug wrote, “Removing that badge sends a very harmful message to our kids. Allowing a government to control the way a private organization functions is the epitome of un-American and reeks of authoritarianism. It’s hard to imagine standing with our Webelos at den meetings and saying the Pledge of Allegiance together in light of that.”

Here’s Ben, on the right, with two of his fellow Webelos den members, Zyan Kumar-Lane and Calvin MacKinnon.

The decision to leave Scouts cut deeply for Sara and Doug. As I mentioned, their father, now 77, was an Eagle Scout growing up in Michigan in the 1950s and maintained his involvement in Scouts for decades. A few years ago, he took Ben and his other three grandchildren to the same Scouting camp he attended and later served as a counselor. When his oldest grandson became an Eagle Scout last month in Mississippi, he and his wife flew down from Vermont, where they now live, to attend the ceremony. Sara and Doug’s younger sister, Julie, has three sons who are Scouts, including the Eagle Scout, and she herself has been very involved in Scouting for years.

Of course the hardest part about their decision was its impact on Ben. Sara said Ben loves Scouts, but understands their reasoning “as much as a 10-year-old can.” When she and Ben attended a recent No King’s Rally in Beverly, he made up a sign with a drawing of Trump and the line, “Keep your paws off Scouts.”

While I was interviewing Sara and Doug at the Frawley house in Beverly, Ben came downstairs to say hi, but not before gathering up the four trophies he has earned for winning the last four Pinewood Derbies, one of Scouting’s biggest events. He put them on the table in front of me, lining them up in chronological order.

When I asked him what he thought about leaving Scouts, he said, “I really hope I can do the Pinewood Derby again.”

“He’s devastated about the whole thing,” Sara said when Ben went back upstairs.

Two other mothers whose sons were in Sara and Doug’s Webelos den said they support their decision to leave Scouting. In fact, Lindsey MacKinnon said she has pulled her younger son from Scouts as well.

“Honestly it wasn’t a difficult decision,” she told me. “We’re pretty vocal about our opposition to the political climate that we live in and our kids are part of that. They don’t want to be part of an organization where all of their friends aren’t welcome.”

Jenny Lane, the other mother, sent me an email saying, “We decided as a family to no longer be involved in the organization -- unless they decide to adhere to their oath which includes keeping oneself ‘morally straight.’ We will be learning these skills with friends and community instead in order to truly follow the path.”

Sara and Doug said they plan to continue to meet with their now-disbanded den, which includes four boys, and they’ll continue Scouting activities like going on hikes and building things. Sara said she’s holding out hope that things will change and they can return to Scouting someday. She said Ben was looking forward to earning the Arrow of Light, the top badge in Cub Scouting for fifth-graders.

“He really wants that arrow,” she said.

Ben after one of his many Pinewood Derby victories.