Church Safety Policies Protect Children and Adults

When a child shared in her church school classroom that her mother had slapped her so hard that her nose bled, the revelation created anxious moments for staff and volunteers. The church had a policy to protect against abuse at church, but what if it happened at home? Was there a responsibility to report it? How should it be reported?

The congregation did have a youth safety code that required the usual things — that there be two teachers in each classroom and that no adult be alone with a child. It also spelled out that revelations of abuse should be reported to the DRE. But it didn't say what the DRE should do with the information.

"My quandary," the DRE said later, "was that I didn't know if the church had to make a report to state officials, or, if not, whether it felt morally obligated to anyway. As a staff member I was asked to make a decision without enough information."

After much investigation, she found she was not required to report the incident to state officials--but she did so anyway. She said, "The lesson to be learned is to think ahead about how the congregation wants to respond to these situations — legally, morally, and pastorally--so as not to leave the staff hanging in the breeze."

An increasing number of our congregations are adopting policies to protect children, volunteers, and religious professionals. The Rev. Pat Hoertdoerfer, the UUA's Children, Families, and Intergenerational Programs director, estimates that half to three-fourths of our congregations have at least parts of such policies in place. A decade ago only about 20 did. "Our religious heritage compels us to address the important, widespread, and complex social issues of sexual abuse and interpersonal violence," says Hoertdoerfer. "Our congregations have a sacred responsibility to be responsive and sensitive to these issues."

It's not unusual for some people in congregations to resist such policies, says Dori Davenport, religious education director for the UUA's Central Midwest District, on the assumption that communities of faith shouldn't need them. She encourages congregations to develop such policies before they're needed. She says about half the congregations in her district have some type of safety policy, but fewer than a dozen have comprehensive ones.

Second Unitarian Church, Chicago, Ill. (186), adopted its first safe congregations policy in June. "Our program was getting bigger, and we didn't know everyone anymore," said religious educator Jennifer Laboy O'Grady. "Also, the situation with the Roman Catholic Church was a big factor." Having the policy, which also covers disruptive activity by adults, has made it easier to make decisions in areas involving safety, she said. "If we have a question about what to do we go to the policy. Personal opinion no longer enters into it. We abide by the policy, and it backs me up."

RESOURCES

Start with the UUA's Congregational Services Web page. Contact your district office for a guidebook, Reducing the Risk of Child Sexual Abuse in Your Church. Some districts have Safe Congregations teams.

Creating Safe Congregations, Toward an Ethic of Right Relations, edited by Patricia Hoertdoerfer and William Sinkford, is $30 through the UUA Bookstore, (800) 215-9076, Item 5331.

Safety/Abuse Clearinghouse Resource Packet includes the pamphlet Honoring the Children: What We Can Do to Prevent Child Abuse, sample safety policies and contracts for religious education volunteers, reporting procedures, and prevention education resources. Contact Hoertdoerfer at (617) 948-4362.