A Must for Christian Schools
Dorothy Haile, MA, was born in England, where she completed her education. After teaching in London for 2 years, she went to Zambia, where she spent a total of 15 years as a teacher and a principal. She now serves as the international personnel director for SIM (Serving in Mission).
How good are your child safety policies and procedures? I thought we had everything in order, but I got a nasty shock.
As the international personnel director for the mission agency SIM (Serving in Mission), I really believed we had done what was necessary to fulfill our duty of care for the children in our mission. Five years ago, we thoroughly reviewed and revised our child protection policies, updated our manual to make the new policies compulsory, and emphasized the importance of screening for all who join the mission. Since then, I have communicated frequently with the schools we work with and emphasized the importance of screening in the selection process, our guidelines for good practice, and the procedures for times when something goes wrong. I really thought we had our act together.
Then I attended a meeting of mission agencies that are developing an international, interagency network called the Child Safety and Protection Network. I was shocked, and somewhat embarrassed, to see that although our policy statements are adequate, our training, investigation, and administrative follow-up are far from satisfactory. We have been involved with this developing network throughout the months that have followed, and I believe that the standards established by the network will be very helpful to us as a mission agency.
How does this lesson apply to Christian schools? We pay attention to child safety because we care about children; we believe they are very precious to God. Thus we value all children committed to our care and strive to protect them. Unfortunately, the breakdown of morals and purity in our fallen societies has invaded our Christian circles. Therefore our organizations—such as churches, schools, mission agencies, and others—must establish policies and procedures to deal with the prevention, investigation, and discipline of all forms of child abuse. We certainly cannot claim that sexual misconduct will not touch us, and we know that violations in our organizations, which claim to be Christian, will damage God’s reputation as well as that of our specific organization. Ignoring the issue and doing nothing to prevent child abuse also leaves us vulnerable to punitive damages should such misconduct occur and a lawsuit result. Certainly we do not establish good policies and procedures simply as a defense mechanism against being sued. But good policies, thoroughly and consistently implemented, will protect both our children and our organizations.
I would like to suggest that all Christian schools commit to the following:
- listening to, relating effectively to, and valuing children and young people while ensuring their safety in all locations and facilities where we are responsible for their care
- striving for excellence in the care and nurture of all children and young people for whom we are responsible
- encouraging and supporting parents
- ensuring that all staff members receive support and training
- having clearly understood and regularly communicated procedures for dealing with concerns about possible abuse
- maintaining good links with the appropriate statutory childcare authorities
- complying with legal requirements in the country and state where the school is incorporated
What areas of policy should a school address?
The Child Safety and Protection Network standards include the following as minimal policy areas:
Definitions of abuse. A school should include definitions of the various kinds of abuse and of child-to-child incidents. These definitions need approval by the school board, and the school must apply the definitions in culturally sensitive ways.
Definitions of outcomes. A school should include clear definitions of the possible outcomes of an investigative process. These could be “allegation substantiated, discipline recommended,” allegation not substantiated,” or “inconclusive.” The investigation report would be submitted to the relevant administrative leaders.
Policy on decisions. A school should have a clear policy stating the administrative decisions for each possible investigative outcome. In the specific case of child sexual abuse, the norm for the network is a policy specifying that child sexual abuse by an adult would result, where legally allowed, in termination of employment of the offender, rather than the opportunity to resign without the option for future employment. Network members would commit themselves not to employ anyone with a prior conviction for or history of child sexual abuse or related offenses at any time during his or her adult life. Network members would also supply accurate employment references to other organizations regarding offenders. The policies must also state that the school has clear protocols for reporting allegations to appropriate authorities.
Written code of conduct. A school should have a written code of conduct explaining not only the specific behavioral standards for all adults in their interactions with children but also clear written guidelines about unacceptable behavior of children towards other children. The school should require all new and current staff members and volunteers to acknowledge that they have read the school’s child safety policies and code of conduct and that they agree to abide by them.
Statement about procedures. A school should have a statement that it has procedures in each of the following areas: screening, training of adults in child safety, training of parents and children in child safety, childcare guidelines for all age groups, reporting procedures, investigative procedures, and follow-up programs.
Does that sound overwhelming? Most of us are gasping at the scope of these policies and procedures. However, we recognize that a mission agency, or a school that receives teachers or other staff from a mission agency in the network, will be seriously disadvantaged if we ignore these issues. For example, once a mission agency has committed itself to the network standards, it may refuse to recruit for a school that is not working on policies and procedures that are consistent with the minimum standards, and a mission agency may stop recommending that its parent families enroll children in such a school. Even worse, if an agency or a school is not maintaining or at least seriously working towards the standards, it will be much more vulnerable to applicants who want to avoid the stringent screening and guidelines that the network requires. Children in an agency or a school like this will be protected less well—and none of us want that.
In addition to policy statements, we also need strong prevention and response procedures.
Prevention procedures include the following:
Screening procedures. A school should apply strong and consistent screening procedures for all staff and volunteers. These procedures should include written applications, references, interviews, and background checks.
Training. A school should establish initial and ongoing training for all staff and volunteers, as well as child safety training for parents and children.
Guidelines. A school should have written guidelines for each age group and activity. These guidelines are designed to reduce risk by minimizing isolation, increasing accountability, and balancing power and control. Risk decreases as isolation decreases, as accountability increases, and as power and control differences decrease. The absolute basic here is the “two-adult rule.”
Agreement to guidelines. A school should require all staff and volunteers to demonstrate—by signing, for example—that they have read the guidelines, that they understand them, and that they are committed to them.
Response procedures include the following:
Allegations procedures. A school should have procedures for accepting and acting on all allegations of abuse: confidentiality guidelines, procedures for preliminary investigations to determine whether a full investigation is needed, and procedures for reporting to appropriate authorities.
Investigation procedures. A school should have internal investigation procedures stating safety for the child as the top priority; providing suitably qualified, experienced, and trained investigative staff; and requiring standard interview formats for the victim(s), the alleged offender, and others who may be relevant to the investigation. The goal is to establish the truth.
Reporting. A school should require reporting by the investigation team to the relevant administrators, who are then responsible to act accordingly. The administrative action may include implementing the established discipline policy if the offense has been substantiated.
For us in SIM, I think the hardest part of all these tasks has been the work on the response procedures and the publicizing of the whole sequence of events in a way that makes the resources accessible to our offices all around the world. In a school, the communication aspect may not be as difficult, but keeping up with the policies and procedures may be a struggle over time. It takes only one incident to make an organization realize that these policies and procedures are essential.
For obvious reasons, I am not at liberty to provide real examples of this important subject. But I am absolutely convinced that we must act responsibly for our children (no one doubts that child abuse has long-term effects), for the adults who are involved with them (what could be worse than being suspected unjustly and never being able to clear your name?), and for our testimony as Christian organizations.
Child Safety 12.3