Child Sexual Abuse and Prevention within the Church

[Dawn R. Morton]

This was my dissertation subject and I am curious from any of you that would like to respond...

Higher Education - If you are a professor, do you teach on this in any way? Just wondering what other institutions are doing to prepare pastors and leaders in churches regarding prevention.

Church - If you are a leader in the church, what does your church do to prevent Child Sexual Abuse within the church? See the attachment of 16 steps of prevention. How many steps do you have in place and what are they?

As always, I am still researching and considering issues of this subject. Thanks for the response. Blessings, Dawn

[Megan]

A few years ago, the single male youth director at my church admitted to having “inappropriate relations” with female students. I was not on staff or at all involved with the youth program, so I only know what was shared with the congregation. I do know that there were at least some policies in place prior to this, but they certainly got overhauled afterwards! I think they have about 9 of the 16 steps in place … it’s possible they have a few more, but I’m not sure on those.

[Dawn R. Morton]

Thanks Megan for sharing! I find it amazing that churches do not really take it serious until something happens. I would like to see churches take it serious before the possibility of incidents. I am glad that your church has something in place at this time. How did this affect your congregation? Did you lose families?

[Megan]

Surprisingly, there was not a mass exodus. And this happened just a few months after a pastor resigned after having had an affair with a married member of the congregation. Which happened just a few months after another pastor left the church. Needless to say, it was a turbulent time. I really thought that all of this would tear the church apart, but it didn't. It was awesome to see how many lay people stepped up to help lead ministries and support the senior pastor. We may have lost some families, but not many. From what I heard, they did a great job with the youth ... they had at least one meeting for the parents and youth together, followed by a meeting for the parents and a separate one for the youth. They brought in Christian counselors to talk with all the youth as a group and to be available for anyone who wanted further help/support. They met with the youth's small group leaders (adult volunteers) to help equip them to help the kids. One of my friends was a girls small group leader and she seemed to think it was handled well, and that the kids were healing and recovering.

[Dawn R. Morton]

It is great to see that things were handled well. Sometimes this is the part where churches "fall apart" because of the shock and then trying to handle it without understanding what is taking place in the congregation. I am also glad there was not a mass exodus. In many churches this exodus does take place and unfortunately, it can even destroy the church. Thanks for being willing to share the experience of your church.

[Lucas E. Randall]

We have implemented most of the basics concerning security and accountability. We have windows in all doors (or doors are left open), we implement the two-adult rule, and our young children (Babies-5) are signed in and out with a double-door entrance. We are getting better in regards to training and all volunteers must be "seasoned" members in good standing with the congregation.

When ministering to an individual teenager (whether male or female) I always do so in only semi-private settings where we are visible and others are aware of our presence. I never offer a ride to a female student without another individual in the car and I am coming closer to the point where I will refuse to do so even with a male student.

I absolutely agree that applications and background checks are of utmost importance. I have attempted to begin to implement this practice in my current setting on two or three occassions, but it has yet to take hold. I believe the primary reason it is met with resistence is because I have insisted that in order for this to be legitimate and effective all current volunteers (40+) will need to go through the process in addition to all new volunteers. Concerns regarding offending current volunteers or the expense of processing so many individuals at once are often brought up.

My personal opinion is that if a volunteer is offended: a) they have something to hide OR b) their spirit is contrary to the work they are doing. I feel that both of these are legitimate reasons to cease using such volunteer. Secondly, I do not believe that a church can afford (financially, spiritually, and otherwise) NOT to put a comprehensive protection plan into place.

Comments? Advice?

[Dawn R. Morton]

Thanks Lucas for your comments! First, you are correct that you must screen all volunteers, including those that are current. Retroactive screening is required as a court of law will look at your paper trail and what you do to screen workers. Afterall, how will you share in court that "we only screen part of our volunteers?" That sounds strange to a judge who will definitely declare the church as negligent on this issue.

Cost is an initial issue, of course...but consider the cost of $500,000 which is what is required just to start litigations in an abuse case. That cost is only for one victim involved. Now what is the cost for 12 victims? Add that up and then add into the factor of counseling for the accused and for the victim and families involved? Now add...you get the point. Which cost is the least amount of cost? The background checks. It cost $700 some 7 years ago to begin our process at our church. The board approved it and said we needed to do this. Continue to educate and make aware of the cost of just one accusation and compare it with what it would cost to do background checks for those in the church. Sure 40 volunteers will cost maybe $30 per person.

Here are some things to do. If the person is a school teacher - most schools are required to have a fingerprint on file. Ask for the person to have a copy faxed to you from the school or a letter to you with their background check letter. This is free and you have a background check on file for that worker. Some people have background checks already accomplished, you merely need to ask for it from their employer. Some jobs such as working for the county, or in children's services, or a preschool classroom require background checks today.

Then consider, who still needs background checks. Maybe you now have gone from 40 current workers and 10 had a background check somewhere else. You now need 30. Do a background check on those that work in the Nursery first - these children are the most vulnerable - Why? They cannot speak and tell us what is wrong. Then next, do background checks on the Preschool volunteers/staff. Then the Youth volunteers. If you can do it in stages, then the cost is less shocking to deal with as an initial start up.

I find it amazing that we are concerned with "offending" a volunteer, yet we put our children in "offensive" situations by not doing background checks. Our children are precious and valuable. We need to be advocates on their behalf.

Sometimes they are offended because they think "I am a good person and I would never do that." Wonderful, but we need to be sure all of us are following the same policies. A church cannot have different policies for new people than they do for not-so-new people, nor should they have different policies for members as non-members. Let them know that by them getting the background checks, they are helping to set the atmosphere of "we will not tolerate abuse at our church." This is a strong statement to those new people that want to serve.

I agree with not setting yourself up in a situation such as one-on-one without being in a public place or another person present. When I discipline children at our church, I always have another adult present. When I counsel a child, I always have another adult present. We practice this so that nothing is in secret or could be misunderstood.

Hope this helps. Let me know what you think of the comments. Are there struggles beyond this?

[Robb Hand]

The church I am at does about half of the items you have listed. Some of the items you have listed (such as two adults present, hall monitor, windows in doors) are good to have, not just for preventing sexual abuse, but also for child safety in general.

The only thing that I would disagree with is 9. Doors left open when classes are in session. If there are windows then the doors would not need to be open. When working with children and youth there is almost a guarantee of noise. I like noise. I like young people laughing, having fun, being loud at appropriate times. The door being open would stifle this more than I would like. Maybe a good alternative would be to have a large window in the door, or replacing wooden doors with glass doors.

As for offending volunteers; I have no problem with that at all. I am not entrusted with the safety of volunteers to the degree that I am with children. Any volunteer that would be offended at the notion of fingerprinting, background and/or reference checks would automatically raise suspicion as to why they are involved in child/student ministry.

[Dawn R. Morton]

Thanks Robb - Glad to hear your discussion of the subject. Yes, I agree the noise would be a problem in some respects, but if it meant keeping an "open" classroom so that when people look in they can see what is taking place in the room, then it is worth it for me personally. The concern is this, sometimes we are in classrooms where windows are not in the doors, so we close the door with inadequate staffing ratios and then that is when accusations arise. To eliminate the appearance of closed so no one can see in, then opening the door may be the only option in that case. I agree if doors can be changed to include some type of look through, it is the better way to go for the safety of all involved.

[kenny udokporo]

Thanks for your post Dawn,- i completely agree to your solution to this problem. this incident happened in my church back in Nigeria, where my pastor turned his office as a room for adultery. unfortunately he was caught by an outsider (non-christian) who came for counseling. This incident and its outcome was the worst thing i have ever heard or sen i the life of my church started around 1936. Non strong member left, the church's reputation in the community finished, but the pastor refused leaving the church when he was asked to leave, causing the church to split. However, he finally left, but the stigma still remain till date.
So eliminate the occurrences of such, look through doors should be the solution.

[Dawn R. Morton]

Thanks Kenny for sharing a tough situation in which could have been prevented. Obviously there were secrets taking place and no one could "see" in the room. We had a window added to an office for the reason of creating a place so that people could see into it as our youth pastor was counseling teens. These are wise things to do. Obviously, it takes consideration of these kinds of issues so that everyone involved is safe. Your example of how it affected the church as a whole is not uncommon. It can leave great devastation upon the church. Thanks for sharing!

[Dawn R. Morton]

A new source of information for churches and leaders is the "Reducing the Risk" part 3. It includes a dvd, 10 workbooks, a folder to help you organize your beginning process for prevention and reducing the risk of abuse in your children/youth ministry. It is a nicer version of the older one, but with new up-to-date information and helps for your church. The first one was created in 1993, then second in 2002? and this one is 2008. It is worth adding to your library as a church leader or as a professor that may want to teach on reducing the risk for congregations.