CHURCH BOARD GUIDE TO A CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE PREVENTION POLICY


Potential criminal sanctions with youth workers. Adults who work with children and adolescent youth should understand that sexual relation- ships with minors can lead to a felony conviction and imprisonment in a state penitentiary. The law views such misconduct very seriously, as it should. Church workers also should understand that the church insurance policy will not provide them with a legal defense of a sexual misconduct charge, or pay any portion of a jury verdict assessed against them on account of such conduct.


Facilities created with open environments. Appoint a person to monitor the facilities during church services. Sunday school superintendents or other church leaders should make random visits to all classrooms and frequently visit or inspect areas of church buildings that are isolated. If feasible, consider installing windows on the doors to all classrooms or other areas used by minors. The windows should be made out of shat- terproof glass. Alternatively, the doors to such classrooms should be left open during use so that persons passing by can observe inside. Some churches now use video systems to monitor facilities.


Establish guidelines for arrival and dismissal from church programs, so that children are not left unsupervised prior to and following church activities.


Use a church nursery identification procedure that clearly identifies the child and the child’s parent or guardian. Children should only be released to a properly identified and preauthorized adult.


Discuss appropriate and inappropriate touching. Touching should always be age-appropriate, and based on the need of the child and not the need of the adult. Clearly, touching is an important way of showing comfort and affection to small children, but should only be done in response to the child’s need.


In Summary The goal of supervision should be to lower isolation, increase accountabil- ity, maintain a proper balance of power and authority, and provide appro- priate levels of observation, control, and feedback concerning higher risk activities. As we noted at the offset, principles can provide an underlying sense of direction so that we can better understand and manage risks.


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