CHURCH BOARD GUIDE TO A CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE PREVENTION POLICY


Furthermore, it makes no difference whether the supervisor is a paid employee or a volunteer worker. One court made the following observation:


As a general rule, a person who undertakes the control and supervision of a child, even without compensation, has the duly to use reasonable care to pro- tect the child from injury. Such a person is not an insurer of the safely of the child. He is required only to use reasonable care commensurate with the rea- sonably foreseeable risk of harm. Wallace v. Boys Club of Albany, Georgia, Inc., 439 S.E.2d 746, Ga. App. 1993


The use of principles and polices Principles provide an underlying sense of direction while policies pro- vide specific direction. When it comes to supervision, many churches struggle with the concept of reasonable care. On the one hand, some church leaders desire to establish a policy for every situation. Yet, such a response rarely works because the policies are continuously broken or they are not enforced. Furthermore, policies create a self-imposed duty of care. As a result,


failure to keep policies can help establish the basis for negligent super- vision. On the other hand, some church leaders do nothing. They leave supervision to the discretion of each individual worker, sometimes with catastrophic results. An alternative is to combine the use of principles with the selected


use of policies. Principles provide an underlying sense of direction, that while general in nature, can be applied to specific situations. For exam- ple, a simple, but well known principle regarding risk is, “Do not risk a lot for a little.” Such a principle can guide actions in many different situations. Policies, on the other hand, provide specific direction that is to result in a definite course of action. For example, a church may establish a policy that says, “All activities that involve children and that are held off of church property must have two or more unrelated adult supervisors.” While principles provide a general sense of direction, policies guide behaviors under specific circumstances. Principles are important for supervision, since it is impracticable to have a policy in place for every situation. Sound principles can help supervisors make good decisions as they face changing circumstances and new situations that impact risk.


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