As much as it pains me to say it, I feel as though they shouldn't have given him those badges he didn't earn, but I'm also wondering if they actually got approval from whoever they need to get approval from to give him them in the first place, as taking them away for something everyone involved already knew about is stupid, and whoever decided to do that should feel stupid... but on a related note, why are they letting girls into the boy scouts? doesn't that defeat the purpose of having two separate scout groups? Especially since AFAIK the reverse isn't also true, which could theoretically lead to a discrimination suit for the girl scouts AFAIK since not letting boys into it if the girls are now allowed into the boy scouts seems like one of those things that could be successfully sued for, but also might not be....
The biggest difference between Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts is more that they are two completely different organizations and thereby have different ways of running their respective businesses. Beyond that when you get into the nitty gritty, it's all based upon what the local chapters are into. Back home, the Girl Scouts didn't do a whole lot of camping or anything like that, while the Boy Scouts had a host of different activities.
As for the other story... Damn that's cold hearted. Per the article, they did say that they were communicating with the nationals as the badges were being rewarded; they fudged a few areas, but they were ok with it at the time. It was only near the end where they did a gut check and decided to revoke the prior badges. Which, yes, probably by the exacting standards, the kid would have missed out.
But I do think this is one case where, rules be damned, you do the right fucking thing. The kid and his parents did their damndest to make sure that he was doing his best and living up to the ethical and moral guidelines set by the national organization. Abandoning your word at the last second is dishonorable at best and amoral at worst, especially in a situation like this where it takes advantage of someone who isn't armed to understand this kind of situation.
Ugh... Hopefully they do what they can to correct this.