A Greendale pediatrician surrendered his medical license after he was identified as a child sex offender under an investigation of confidential records of the Boy Scouts of America.
The state Medical Examining Board accepted the surrender on Tuesday, according to the Wisconsin State Journal.
Dr. Thomas Kowalski, 75, admitted to leaders that he touched himself while fondling two teenage staff members at a Wisconsin summer camp when he was a volunteer doctor for the Milwaukee County Council of Boy Scouts in the 1980s.
According to records, Kowalski was prohibited from working with Scouts after his admission. He was not prosecuted criminally and was supposed to be reported to the medical board — but no complaint was filed. The Medical Examining board opened their own investigation soon after the records were made public.
Kowalski’s case was first revealed in a Los Angeles Times review of secret Boy Scouts of America files. The Times reviewed 1,600 confidential files spanning more than two decades, which found that scouting officials "failed to report hundreds of alleged child molesters to police and often hid the allegations from parents and the public."
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Even though Kowalski was prohibited from working with Scouts, he was never prosecuted after the victims' parents were told he would be reported to the medical board and was getting therapy.
The semi-retired Kowalski had been a licensed physician in Wisconsin since 1964 and continued working with youth for at least 14 years after his admission to scouting authorities. He left Children’s Hospital in 2002 to work at Marquette University’s Student Health Service. He also worked at the Greenfield Health Department and Greendale Health Department as a medical advisor from 1996 to 2008. As an advisor, he only consulted on medical orders and policy procedure, said Greenfield Health Director Darren J. Rausch.
