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 Tip of the Week:
Arrests of School Staff
When sexual misconduct happens at school
Wa-a-a-a-ay too often, trusted adults who work with children are arrested for sexual misconduct of some sort with a minor. Well, actually if we look at how very many people work with kids and actually how few are arrested, the percentages are certainly not high, but even one is one too many. Child sexual abuse has been big in the news from the Catholic church and from many other churches as well, and Boy Scouts, and, of course, also sometimes schools.
The calls I receive to coach people through difficult crises are those that are unusual and challenging, and every year I get a few on staff members who have engaged in inappropritate sexual behaviors with youth. I wish it weren't so, but I'm guessing that a few of you may face this some time this year or in the future, so I decided that, rather than quickly generating it when you call, I'll just do a general guideline for managing these events and upload it on my web site now. This one is geared toward parents, as I think the most difficult part of this in some ways is empowering parents with concepts and language so they have somewhere to go with this. Often the blame that flares at times such as these are borne of fear, and the more we can support parents, the more they trust us.
Although it is geared for parents, it will give you lots of helpful information as well, especially language and concepts that will be helpful when working with youth. After reading it, if you would like guidelines more specific to schools, send me an email with the specific issues or questions you'd like addressed and I'll do another one from the staff or administrator's perspective.
To view the download on Dealing with Difficult Issues, you can follow this link or, at any time in the future, go to the downloads page on our web site and look for it in alphabetical order in the pull down menu.
I'll probably do more on this over time, but at least for now, this will give you lots to go on - this is a four page guideline, and although I like guidelines to all fit on one page double-sided, but this is a complex issue and I just couldn't keep it short this time. You are welcome to post this on your web site for parents should you have this situation arise in your district, or you could send them emails with links to the correct page for this download on my web site. Actually, that would also let them see that we have many other resources for parents as well.
Let me know what other kinds of prickly issues for which you'd like to be prepared and we'll see what I can do for you.
For now, enjoy the kids - and keep a watchful eye.
In gratitude for all you do ~
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