The disclosure of sex abuse scandals that besieged
the Buffalo Diocese and its parishioners for decades has dominated water cooler
talk and reporting in Western New York for almost a year now.
The issue has hit home for a lot of people as the
Diocese, under pressure, has released the names of 80 confirmed abusers and the
press reports that the real number of accused priests and nuns is 111. With
numbers that great, names that well-known, and abuses having taken place in
communities large and small, everyone in WNY, it seems, has some sort of
connection to an accuser, an accused, or a church where it happened.
There’s been a lot of handwringing over this.
Everyone has wondered the following: How did the community not know this was
happening? How could trusted and beloved people and churches hide, even allow,
this? How does the Church attempt to make the abused whole again?
It’s been rare, though, that I’ve heard this
question posed: How do we prevent this from happening again?
The scandals should be a wakeup call not only for
the Catholic Church, but every Church and every organization that serves youth --
as well the parents who entrust their sons and daughters to them. That would
run the gamut from paid to volunteer, schools to day cares, little leagues to
varsity sports teams, theme parks to summer camps, and music clubs to scout
troops.
Every single entity that is of service to minors should
ensure that standards are in place to identify, prevent, and report all forms
of abuse that happens within and without their non-profits, businesses, and government
agencies. They all exist to better the lives of children, and those kids look
at those places as safe havens….we have to ensure they are.
Unfortunately, most of the youth-supporting
enterprises in the state don’t train their employees and volunteers in that
regard. If they do, it’s inadequately-done with perhaps a cursory handout and
no interactive education.
That doesn’t cut it when we’re talking about the
safety of minors.
The Boy Scouts of America addressed this in the
1980s when they adopted Youth Protection Training (YPT) after some conniving bad
seeds infiltrated scout troops to get access to kids. Now, every staff member,
volunteer, and scout is required to have some form of YPT.
Whereas the youth receive 3 Rs training (Recognize,
Resist, Report) every year that could take a good 30 minutes, the adults – who also
receive background checks in order to be accredited – have to receive biannual
training that is incredibly in-depth, an hour-and-a-quarter of
professionally-done and well-developed training that identifies the causes,
symptoms, signals, means, and reporting of physical and mental abuse, sexual
abuse, and bullying, while addressing the policies and procedures Scouting has
in place to prevent abuse within the organization.
That form of training so critical that I took the
BSA’s style of YPT and recently tailored it to outside groups, giving a nearly
two-hour class to two local Lutheran churches and their youth volunteers so
they could ensure that they could prevent abuse within the any outlets of the
churches (Sunday School, vacation bible school, youth group) while also
empowering them to identify and help kids who might be abused at home, in
school, or elsewhere. Kids, like adults, see churches as a place to be safe, to
go for help – you have to make sure that it is a safe place and also a venue
through which they can reach out if unspeakable things are happening in their
home lives.
What made that training perhaps even more effective
than the BSA’s excellent module was the fact that I had a lot of horror stories
to relay to the trainees, an outcome of being a member of the press and also knowing
people in law enforcement and education. Those stories gave teeth to the
training.
This all brings me to this point – everyone who
works for and volunteers for youth needs detailed and effective Youth
Protection Training. Childhood is too precious, too fleeting; every one of us
as caring adults have to ensure that it is free of horrible experiences which
then lead to a lifetime of nightmares, depression, insecurity, and, in some
cases, that individual unleashing upon children what had happened to him. Children
are, for the most part, defenseless…we have an obligation to protect them from
the perverts and abusers who want to take advantage of that and do them harm.
I encourage state officials, on the heels of the Buffalo
Dioceses scandal which is a tragedy and also a learning moment, to address this
and work with psychologists, social workers, law enforcement, and the
formerly-abused to develop a YPT system, something similar to that used by
Scouting, that can be administered to all who work with minors, either by an
online training module, properly educated trainers, or the local Sheriff’s
office. It should be a legal requirement -- not some feel-good suggestion that’s
not mandatory -- for teachers, coaches, leaders, camp counselors, and the like.
Similarly, every year, school students should be
educated on what constitutes all forms of abuse and what they can do to prevent
it, report it, and seek help.
Last year, as an outcome of the #MeToo movement, the
state put to law that sexual harassment policies and interactive training need
to be provided at all workplaces and to all employees annually. If we as a just
state can do that to protect adults it only makes legal and moral sense that we
can train adults to protect children, too.
From the 14
January 2019 Greater Niagara Newspapers and Batavia Daily News
No comments:
Post a Comment