Courtesy of John Mark Buckland

John Mark Buckland, 42, of Huntington, W. Va., said he was sexually abused by a Boy Scout leader at Travis Air Force Base when he was 12 years old in 1982. The Boy Scouts' secret file documenting that abuse will be made public under a court order on Thursday, along with more than 14,500 pages of previously confidential documents detailing accusations of child sex abuse within the organization.

Updated at 2:35 pm ET to reflect release of the report:
John Buckland was 12 years old when an assistant Scoutmaster sexually abused him on an Air Force base in California. He has been waiting years for the day when a secret Boy Scouts file documenting that abuse three decades ago would be made public.

That day came Thursday, when more than 14,500 pages of previously confidential documents created by the Boy Scouts of America detailing accusations of child sex abuse within the organization were released under an Oregon Supreme Court order.

“It unveils all the secrecy, or at least a good portion of it, and the secrecy is the biggest demon there is when it comes to things like this, because it’s by being hidden that it basically just eats people away like a cancer,” Buckland, 42, of Huntington, W. Va., told NBC News.

“I think the release of the files will be instrumental as far as victims are concerned in being able to see that the dialogue is out there, and what I’m hoping to see is that there will be some really good self discovery of other people who haven’t come forward, people who will get a chance to see the files and actually being able to start processing it and getting their experience out in the open. But as long as the files were hidden that would never happen," he added.

The court ordered the Boy Scouts to release the “ineligible volunteer” files from 1965 to 1985 that chronicle suspected or confirmed instances of child sex abuse. Media organizations had sued for the release of the files, part of a 2010 case in which a jury decided that the Scouts were negligent in allowing a former assistant Scoutmaster to associate with the organization's youth after he admitted molesting 17 boys in 1983.

Lawyers for victims of the abuse say that the files, which they have dubbed the “perversion files,” represent reports of Scouts allegedly abused by more than 1,200 different Scoutmasters and other adult volunteers. The files, which includes Buckland’s abuser, were released Thursday on www.kellyclarkattorney.com.

A report by the Boy Scouts in September said that 829 of the files from Jan. 1, 1965, to June 30, 1984, involved suspicions or confirmations of inappropriate sexual behavior with 1,622 youth. The report was done for the organization by Dr. Janet Warren, a professor of psychiatry and neurobehavioral sciences at the University of Virginia.

At the time, the Boy Scouts said in a letter that they would review their files created from 1965 to the present “and ensure that all good-faith suspicion of abuse has been reported to law enforcement.” They also said that there “have been instances where people misused their positions in Scouting to abuse children, and in certain cases, our response to these incidents and our efforts to protect youth were plainly insufficient, inappropriate, or wrong.”

Boy Scouts admit response to sex abuse was 'insufficient' 

On Thursday morning, the organization also noted: “Where those involved in Scouting failed to protect, or worse, inflicted harm on children, we extend our deepest and sincere apologies to victims and their families.”

“While it is difficult to understand or explain individuals’ actions from many decades ago, today Scouting is a leader among youth-serving organizations in preventing child abuse,” the statement added.

In an interview with NBC DFW, National President Wayne Perry said: "I would ask parents to look at the programs we have and then judge us versus, maybe not the past, but judge where we are today and certainly judge us against any other youth service organization in the world and they will see that your kids are very, very safe."

Buckland said his life spiraled downward after Air Force officials came to his parents’ house on Travis Air Force Base in Vacaville, Calif., with photos depicting his abuse by a Scout leader. He dropped out of high school, got into drugs, attempted suicide twice, had many failed romantic relationships and eventually ended up in prison for two robberies that he confessed to doing.

His abuser was court-martialed and sentenced to hard labor, Buckland said, but it took him decades to figure out the source of what was troubling him since he, like the Boy Scouts, had buried the abuse. He said his life turned around when he got his dream job as a firefighter and then landed a two-year post in Iraq in 2009, where, while online, he came across stories similar to his own.

“That was the first time that I understood the dynamics of what was going on inside of me that flawed my decision-making, that flawed my emotions, that flawed everything and really propelled me in that direction,” he said. “The light bulb goes off and that’s decades later.”

For Buckland, the Boy Scouts’ apologies are insincere and forced. He said they never contacted him since he was abused in 1982 to see if he was okay.

“These files had to be ripped from their hands,” he said, noting that the lawyers who fought the 2010 case, Kelly Clark and Paul Mones, had “taken us from being a piece of paper to being a person that was offended, and that’s a huge difference.”

“This whole thing empowers us,” he said. “We’ve been powerless up to now. We’ve been at the whims of a multibillion-dollar organization that … has all the money to keep us under a desk in a box. And for now, they can’t do it anymore.”

John Makely / NBC News

Ryan Andresen, 18, of Moraga, Calif., in New York on Oct. 12. After completing the requirements for the Boy Scouts' top honor, the Eagle rank, he was denied the award because he is gay. The organization has a longstanding, controversial policy banning gay Scouts and leaders.

NEW YORK -- On his 18th birthday, Ryan Andresen received a symbol of the Boy Scouts’ highest honor, which the national organization had denied him because he is gay: an Eagle Scout pin.

He got it on Monday from another Eagle Scout, Matthew Kimball, 30, who was also in his troop years ago and publicly came out as gay after learning about his fellow Scout’s plight.

“I look at it; it just gives me hope,” Andresen, of Moraga, Calif., told NBC News on Friday during a visit to New York. “I see it as there’s people out there that support me and care about me and believe that I earned it. And it also shows me that things are happening, change is happening, there’s hope in the Boy Scouts to change this policy.”

Andresen learned more than a week ago from his father, Eric, that the Scoutmaster of Troop 212 would not be signing off on his Eagle application even though he’d completed the requirements. The father said the Scoutmaster told him he was grappling with the conflict between Ryan’s sexual orientation and the policy set by the national organization that bans Gay Scouts and leaders.

The Scoutmaster has not responded to emails or a phone call seeking comment. Andresen said he had found his father crying over the rejection, which he then explained to him.

“It's not fair that gay people can’t go through it and can't get the recognition,” he said. "It’s especially not fair that people like me can go through the whole entire program, you know, do everything and get all the way to the Eagle award and at the very last minute be told they can’t get it. It's totally devastating, it’s terrible … that's bullying.”

Andresen came out in July to his fellow Scouts in a letter that was focused on bullying in the troop. But he said his Scoutmaster knew before then that he was gay and had encouraged him to stick with the troop when he had thought about not pursuing his Eagle Scout rank.

John Makely / NBC News

Andresen shows an Eagle pin given to him by Matthew Kimball, a fellow member of his Troop 212. Kimball, 30, publicly came out as gay after learning that Andresen was denied his Eagle award because he is gay. Kimball has asked other Scouts to send in their pins for the teen.

His final Eagle Scout project focused on bullying. Named the “tolerance wall,” it consists of 288 tiles depicting acts of kindness and is displayed at his middle school, where he says he endured name calling over his sexual orientation. He said he also was bullied in the Boy Scouts because he was gay.

Speaking about the bullying brought his mom, Karen, to tears.

“It's hard … when you're a mom and your kids are, you know, suffering in pain,” she said, adding that the Eagle Scout denial “was like the final straw because we were all in such shock about this decision. And I didn’t want Ryan to go down to a bad place again and be so depressed, and so I just had to step in and be his advocate.”

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The Boy Scouts of America have a longstanding policy denying membership to gay leaders and Scouts, which they reaffirmed earlier this year after a two-year confidential review of the controversial ban.

“While a majority of our membership agrees with our policy, we fully understand no single policy will accommodate the many diverse views among our membership or society,” BSA spokesman, Deron Smith, said in an email in August.

The organization said last week in a statement that because of Andresen's sexual orientation and that he did not agree to Scouting’s principle of "Duty to God," “he is no longer eligible for membership in Scouting.”

But the family has disputed that, saying the only reason Andresen was denied the rank is "because the Boy Scouts of America has a problem with Ryan being gay."

Andresen has had his emotional ups and downs since he learned he wouldn’t get his Eagle, though is family is still appealing that decision and Karen Andresen started an online petition calling for him to get the award. He is also hurt that his Scoutmaster has not responded to a letter he wrote him.

“He still won't talk to me and, it’s sad," he said. “He was a huge role model to me so it’s devastating. I really looked up to him.”

Andresen said he has received some critical messages online that he was bullying the Scoutmaster.

“I apologized that it looked that way and I said that this is not what I’m trying to do and I’m very against bullying,” he said. “I’m not targeting anyone. I love Boy Scouts. I love the boys in my troop and I really just want this policy to change.”

To earn the Eagle rank, which is in its 100th year, Scouts must progress through five lower ranks, earn 21 merit badges and serve six months in a leadership position, among completing other tasks. More than two million young men have received the Eagle rank.

Kimball, who started a campaign to collect Eagle regalia for Andresen, said he has gotten up to 170 pledges of pins. Scouts for Equality said last week that some 300 Eagle Scouts had returned their regalia to the Boy Scouts in protest since mid-July.

But many other Eagle Scouts have said they agreed with the policy.

Brian Groenig, 36, of Lake Stevens, Wash., said he backs the BSA’s decision.

“This is an organization that has set ‘their own’ standards and set ‘their own’ values. All those (who) want to join are only asked that they live by those standards and values.We’re not forcing it upon anyone … but it is a private organization that can choose what they will and will not accept,” Groenig, a charter organization representative with his troop, told NBC News in an email. “I find comfort in knowing there are organization that won’t bend and conform to the ‘social norm’ just because of peer pressure and political positioning.”

A spokesman for the Boy Scouts of America, Deron Smith, said 50,000 Scouts earn the Eagle rank every year. He said in August that a “few” had returned their medals, badges or certificates since the membership policy announcement. On Tuesday, he said he didn’t have an update on numbers of regalia returned, but noted such items were either kept at the national office or stored in the National Scouting Museum.

Andresen said he is looking forward to returning to high school and being out of the spotlight, though he knows this experience has changed the course of his life. He initially thought he would go into the family business after college, but now has some new ideas.

“What if I could help people when I’m older and share my experiences?” he asked. “It's really just making me thing about all of that. … I don’t have a good idea of what I’m going to do going forward, but I definitely think this is going to be a part of it.”

If you are a current or former member of the Boy Scouts and would like to share your thoughts on the membership policy, you can email the reporter at miranda.leitsinger@msnbc.com.

State of Oregon via AP file

This undated image made available by the State of Oregon on March 18, 2010 shows Timur Dykes. In April 2010, a jury decided the Boy Scouts were negligent for allowing Dykes, a former assistant scoutmaster, to associate with Scouts after he admitted to a Scouts official in 1983 that he had molested 17 boys, according to court records.

As the Boy Scouts of America prepares for the court-ordered release of records detailing accusations of sex abuse by members and leaders, the organization acknowledged in an open letter this week that its response in some of the cases had been “plainly insufficient, inappropriate, or wrong.”

The letter comes after the Oregon Supreme Court ordered the Boy Scouts to release “ineligible volunteer” files from 1965 to 1985 that chronicle suspected or confirmed instances of child sex abuse. Media organizations had sued for the release of the files, part of a 2010 case in which a jury decided that the Scouts were negligent for allowing a former assistant scoutmaster to associate with the organization's youth after he admitted molesting 17 boys in 1983, court records show, according to The Associated Press.

Some 829 of the files from that time period (Jan. 1, 1965 to June 30, 1984) involve suspicions or confirmations of inappropriate sexual behavior with 1,622 youth, according to a report by Dr. Janet Warren, a professor of psychiatry and neurobehavioral sciences at the University of Virginia, for the Boy Scouts. The report, released Tuesday, was completed in 2011.

“Dr. Warren’s report shows that, as part of our broader Youth Protection program, the BSA’s system of ineligible volunteer files functions to help protect Scouts,” Wayne Perry, national president, Tico Perez, national commissioner, and Wayne Brock, chief Scout executive, said Tuesday in an open letter to the Scouting community. “However, we also know that in some instances we failed to defend Scouts from those who would do them harm. There have been instances where people misused their positions in Scouting to abuse children, and in certain cases, our response to these incidents and our efforts to protect youth were plainly insufficient, inappropriate, or wrong.

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“For any episode of abuse, and in any instance where those involved in Scouting failed to protect, or worse, inflicted harm on children, we extend our deepest apologies and sympathies to victims and their families,” according to the letter. “While we believe the files are an inconclusive record, the BSA will undertake a similar review and analysis of the IV (ineligible volunteer) files created from 1965 to present and ensure that all good-faith suspicion of abuse has been reported to law enforcement.”

The developments were first reported by the Los Angeles Times, which noted that Warren’s team was paid $75,000 to complete the study.

Warren’s findings included:

--  The total number of alleged youth victims identified in the files was 1,622. Of these, 1,302 were involved in Scouting, for 112 it was unclear, and for 208, they were not involved in Scouting.
--  486 of the men identified in the files as suspects were arrested at some time for a sex crime. It may have occurred before they got involved with Scouting, as a result of the incident noted in their file or after they left the organization.
--  In 531 of the cases, there was information indicating alleged inappropriate sexual behavior with multiple youths. 
--  In 252 of the cases, the available information indicated alleged inappropriate sexual behavior with only a single victim. 
--  128 of the men in the files had their registration revoked within a year of signing up.
-- Police were involved in the investigation of 523 cases.
-- Six men placed on probation offended against a Scout during their probationary period, while two men were accused of inappropriate sexual behavior with a youth after their probationary period had ended.  
-- After being denied registration by the BSA, 175 men were identified as having sought to re-register with the organization, in some cases under a different name at another location many years after their initial entry into the files. They were denied entry into the Boy Scouts.

“My review of these files indicates that the reported rate of sexual abuse in Scouting has been very low,” Warren wrote in a summary of her report, in which she also said the “files broadly refute the notion that these were ‘secret files’ of hidden abuse.”

“I believe that these files show that children in Scouting were safer and less likely to experience inappropriate sexual behavior in Scouting than in their own families, schools and during other community activities supervised by adults,” she wrote.

But an attorney who has filed several suits for former Scouts said Warren’s review didn’t take into account abuse cases that weren’t in the files.

"Personally I have represented more than a hundred men abused by Scout leaders whose names were never entered in the ... files -- even after BSA paid out substantial settlements on account of these abusers," Timothy Kosnoff, a Seattle attorney, told the Los Angeles Times. "The files are only the tip of the iceberg. Most perpetrators never get caught."

The Boy Scouts said they expect the files from the Oregon case to be released soon. They said that, beginning in 2010, the organization mandated that all suspicions of abuse be reported to law enforcement authorities and that they have always required members to follow local laws on reporting of abuse.

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Elise Amendola / AP file

Keegan O'Brien of Worcester, Mass., leads chants as members of the LGBT community protest the Defense of Marriage Act outside a Democratic National Committee fundraiser in Boston on June 23, 2009. A battle over the federal law appears headed for the Supreme Court after an appeals court ruled on May 31, 2012, that denying benefits to married gay couples is unconstitutional.

When Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg told a group of students that the Supreme Court would probably hear challenges during its upcoming term to the Defense of Marriage Act, which bars federal recognition of same-sex marriages, she confirmed what many observers were already thinking: The nation’s high court is poised to weigh in on the battle over same-sex marriage.

While answering questions from students at the University of Colorado in Boulder, Ginsburg was asked Wednesday about the equal protection clause and if the court might consider applying it to sexual orientation, an argument used in challenges to DOMA, the 1996 federal law that denies various benefits to same-sex couples.

Though she said she couldn’t discuss matters that would come to the court, she also said, according to The Associated Press: “I think it’s most likely that we will have that issue before the court toward the end of the current term.”

The justices have been asked to hear five different challenges to DOMA that have been decided in lower courts, said Brian Moulton, legal director of Human Rights Campaign, an advocacy group for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender rights.

But just one of those, Windsor v. U.S. out of New York state, is listed for the court’s conference on Sept. 24, when they will have a first look at a range of cases seeking to be heard by the justices this year. They may hold that case until they have all of the DOMA challenges in front of them to consider, but Ginsburg’s comments reinforced what they were hoping for, Moulton told NBC News.

“I think it’s quite likely the court will … take one or more of the DOMA cases,” Moulton said. “Beyond that, I think we’re all just kind of waiting to see what that’s going to look like and when that might happen.”

Michael Klarman, a Harvard Law School professor who clerked for Ginsburg nearly 30 years ago when she was a DC Circuit judge, said he assumed that the Supreme Court was likely to take the case, so her comments make “it seem that much more probable.”

AP file

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg participates in a panel discussion, on Aug. 3, during the American Bar Association's annual meeting in Chicago.

“ … with a bunch of lower court decisions and this being a pretty important issue, I think most people expected that they would grant review. She didn’t say they have granted review and obviously she is not supposed to say anything until it’s public, but she also has inside knowledge. So, I would say this just increases the likelihood that they’ll review the DOMA case,” said Klarman, author of “From the Closet to the Altar: Courts, Backlash, and the Struggle for Same-Sex Marriage.”

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Klarman said opposing sides on the bench, such as liberal justices who support same-sex marriage and conservatives who opposed federal intervention into states’ rights, potentially could come together on the issue.

“I think it’s actually a pretty easy case for them to some extent that’s reflected in the lower court decisions, where even judges who were appointed by Republican presidents have signed on to invalidating the statute,” he said. “So that’s probably a factor in granting review as well … if a bunch of the justices think this is a fairly easy constitutional issue to resolve, it might make them more inclined to grant review.”

He noted, however, that the court could issue a narrow ruling that kicks the issue back to the states or a broad one that would have big implications for state laws and constitutional amendments.

Brian Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage, which opposes same-sex marriage, said he was confident his side would win the court argument.

“It’s so far out to claim that somehow the states can force the federal government to redefine marriage. That’s so far out legally, I don’t see the Supreme Court siding with these decisions of lower courts,” he said.

DOMA was passed in 1996, when it appeared Hawaii would legalize same-sex marriage. Since then, many states have instituted their own bans on gay marriage, while eight states have approved it, led by Massachusetts in 2004, and followed by Connecticut, New York, Iowa, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maryland, Washington state plus the District of Columbia.

The Maryland and Washington laws are not yet in effect and are subject to referendums in the November ballot. Maine is also holding a vote on whether to allow same-sex marriage, while voters in Minnesota will decide whether to add a same-sex marriage ban to their state constitution.

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Jacquelyn Martin / AP file

Education Secretary Arne Duncan is planning to be on hand with NBC News to answer questions on college affordability.

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan will join NBC News for a live web chat on Friday at 11 a.m. ET to discuss education-related topics, such as student loans and the cost of college. He’ll also answer general questions about how to finance an education.

Duncan is the ninth U.S. secretary of education. He has served in this post since his confirmation by the U.S. Senate on Jan. 20, 2009, following his nomination by President Barack Obama.

Have a question for Duncan?

If you so, sign up for an email reminder for the chat here, or you can send in your questions for the secretary in advance of the chat here.

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Courtesy of GLAAD

Jennifer Tyrrell, right, addresses the media with her partner, Alicia, after delivering a petition to the Boy Scouts of America in Dallas, Tex., on Wednesday in which she calls for an end to the private group's policy banning gay Scouts and leaders.

A woman who was ousted as the head of her son’s Tiger Cubs pack because she is a lesbian on Wednesday delivered a petition with more than 300,000 signatures to the Boy Scouts urging them to end their longstanding policy banning gay Scouts and leaders, saying the organization’s recent decision to stick with the controversial membership standards will not end her campaign.

Jennifer Tyrrell, a 32-year-old, stay-at-home mother of four, was removed from her post as den master in April because she is a lesbian. She has been fighting since then to get the Boy Scouts to change its longstanding policy, starting an online petition calling for the change.

But on Tuesday, the private organization said it was keeping the ban on open or avowed homosexuals.

"I feel like this isn’t going to deter me because I truly love Scouts and I truly ... want to see this change take place, and not just for myself, but for families and children everywhere who have flooded me with emails thanking me for having the courage to stand up because they actually, you know, couldn’t," she told NBC News just after handing over the petition and meeting with two Boy Scouts representatives at the private group's headquarters in Texas.

The three large boxes that Tyrrell gave to the group also contained comments from current and former Scouts and leaders who support ending the policy. Wearing her den master uniform, she was joined by two of her children and her partner, Alicia Burns.

The purpose of the meeting was not to discuss changing the policy, BSA spokesman Deron Smith said in an email to NBC News, but to listen and to receive the petition.

“The Boy Scouts of America works to treats everyone with courtesy and respect," he said. "The discussion was mutually cordial and very respectful. The BSA values the freedom of everyone to express their opinion and believes to disagree does not mean to disrespect.”

Tyrrell said the representatives were polite and professional during the 10-minute meeting, but that "they don't see any change in the future" on the policy. She said they were adamant that the right decision had been made in deciding to maintain the policy after a recent confidential review of it, but also said they were saddened by what happened to her though it was in line with their membership standards.

"It was a very respectful meeting. I think it was productive. I think ... we were both willing to listen," she said, but "we disagree still."

Two of Jennifer Tyrrell's children and her partner, Alicia, wait while Tyrrell speaks to the media after delivering more than 300,000 signatures to the Boy Scouts of America at the group's headquarters in Dallas, Tex., on Wednesday.

She said she told them, "'Well, I guess I’ll see you in the future because we’re going to keep on meeting until we win.”

The Boy Scouts said Tuesday that it began a confidential review of the policy in 2010, convening a diverse committee of 11 senior volunteers and professional leaders to review the membership standards after a resolution was put forward to reconsider them. The committee reached a "unanimous consensus" that it was the "best policy" for the BSA, Smith said. That conclusion was shared at a February board meeting and recently reviewed by the officers of the board.

“The vast majority of the parents of youth we serve value their right to address issues of same-sex orientation within their family, with spiritual advisers, and at the appropriate time and in the right setting,” Bob Mazzuca, chief scout executive of the Boy Scouts, said in a statement. “While a majority of our membership agrees with our policy, we fully understand that no single policy will accommodate the many diverse views among our membership or society.”

The review was conducted confidentially "to allow the committee to make the best decision for the organization," Smith said.

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Tyrrell said she asked the Boy Scouts if they could provide documentation about the review, but her request was declined.

“I would actually like a little bit of proof backing up what they say,” she said before the meeting. “They think that all the Scout parents feel that this is a bad move, they don’t want to change the policy. They’ve never provided any proof saying that. I have proof. I have over 316,000 signatures on a petition,” plus comments from many “relaying the message this is why we want to see this policy changed.”

“The discrimination with adults is bad enough, but you can’t be a gay Scout, either, so that’s … [a] dangerous message that you’re sending the kids, that they are not good enough, that they’re not accepted,” she added. “It’s just not fair to treat children that way and it’s not fair to tell parents that you can’t be involved in your child’s life. So, we’re not going to stop until every parent can participate in Scouts with their child.”

In June, the Boy Scouts said it was considering another resolution proposed at the group's annual meeting the month before that also called for ending the policy. But the decision announced Tuesday means the Scouts’ board will take no more action on that resolution and had no plans to further review the issue, Smith said.

The Boy Scouts’ policy became a focus of the U.S. Supreme Court in 2000, when the justices sided with the organization in a lawsuit involving a former assistant Scoutmaster who was gay, citing the protections of the First Amendment.

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NEW YORK -- A Brooklyn teenager was blinded in one eye after being assaulted by bullies who shouted anti-gay epithets during an attack at his middle school, his family says. 

Kardin Ulysse, 14, has undergone two surgeries on his right eye since the June 5 attack in the cafeteria at Roy H. Mann Junior High School in Bergen Beach, his family said.

"I can't see from my right eye," Ulysse during a news conference on Tuesday. "I can't see from it at all." 

Ulysse now wears a bandage over his right eye. Doctors have said they are not sure if the blindness occurred as a result of the punches or by shards of glass from his eyeglasses.

"They were beating him, kicking him, punching him in the face many, many times," Ulysse's father, Pierre Ulysse, said. 

Read NBCNewYork.com's story on Brooklyn boy's account of school attack

New York City Department of Education spokeswoman Margie Feinberg said in a statement that the boy's beating was "taken very seriously," noting that two students were arrested.

"The matter is under investigation," Feinberg added.

The eighth-grader says he was beaten up by a pair of seventh-graders who shouted insults and slurs at him, including "transvestite" and "gay," according to a report released by the Department of Education.

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One classmate pinned Ulysse down while the other punched him repeatedly, according to the boy. The fight continued in the cafeteria until it was broken up by school safety officers and school aides, Ulysse said. 

The Ulysse family has filed a lawsuit against the New York City Department of Education, seeking $16 million for failing to properly supervise the students. Their lawyer said the school report was evidence that the attack was unprovoked. 

"This should not have happened in this school," said Sanford Rubenstein, the family's attorney in Brooklyn. "This should not have happened in this school system." 

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A West Virginia man who was hitchhiking across the United States and writing a memoir titled “The Kindness of America” was shot by a motorist in a random attack in northeastern Montana, authorities say.

Valley County Sheriff Glen Meier said Raymond Dolin, 39, was sitting on his backpack on the side of U.S. Highway 2 west of Glasgow about 6 p.m. Saturday when a man drove up in a pickup, rolled down his window, shot him in the arm and drove off.

“He was preparing to eat his meal when the truck pulled in and he thought ‘hey, here’s a ride’ and jumped up to walk over to the driver,” Meier told msnbc.com on Monday. “When he got closer he saw the gun and as he was starting to walk back, the guy pulled the trigger.”

Dolin was struck in the upper arm. Meier said Dolin was able to flag down another motorist and was taken to the hospital in Glasgow with non-life-threatening injuries. Hospital officials refused comment for an update on Dolin’s condition.

Meier said authorities arrested a suspect in Culbertson, about 100 miles east of Glasgow, about four hours after the shooting. Glasgow is community of about 3,100 residents.

Charles Lloyd Danielson III, 52, of Washington state, was jailed in Roosevelt County on suspicion of felony assault with a weapon and driving under the influence, Meier said.

Danielson had been in the area looking for work, Meier said.

“This is unusual for our community or any community," Meier told msnbc.com, adding "for two people from opposite ends of the nation to end up here and this to happen – it’s totally random.”

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• Sandusky child sex-abuse trial under way
• 3 killed, 3 wounded in shooting near Auburn University
• Report: NYPD fires Orthodox Jew recruit for refusing to trim beard
• Video: Stepfather in hot water for child beating

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