Safety First at Church, by Tracie Simer, Jackson Sun, November 13, 2010

Safety First at Church

By Tracie Simer
Jackson Sun
November 13, 2010

http://www.jacksonsun.com/article/20101113/LIFESTYLE/11130304/Safety-first-at-church

West Jackson Baptist Church uses security cards for each child to ensure safety. A parent or guardian must have the childÕs card upon pick-up from the churchÕs child care.

Kim Persons signs in her twin daughters before helping one of her students to the restroom on Wednesday at West Jackson Baptist Church.

While churches offer faith and community, they also must offer safety for all who enter, including children. That is the message from Jackson police to members of the faith community.

Larry Price, former interim Jackson police chief, organized a church security seminar in October. The focus was on child safety in churches. Investigator Glenn Buckley with the Jackson Police Department led the presentation. Buckley is part of the new Internet Crimes Against Children unit.

Buckley said the Police Department partnered with leaders from many churches to provide training and information on church-related crime awareness and prevention.

Topics included preventing child sexual abuse, responding to child abuse, and Internet crimes against children as related to the church, Buckley said.

"With technology ever growing, it is becoming easier for pedophiles and sex offenders to prey on our children," he said. "Almost every child has access to a computer and the Internet, whether at home, school, on their phones or at a friend's house."

Churches are a prime target for pedophiles, Buckley said, due to the "large number of children in attendance and the nature of the church as a whole of being very trusting and forgiving. Churches are open to the public and often do not inquire about a member's past or their personal life."

It's important that churches implement prevention measures, such as doing background checks on staff and volunteers who will work with children, he said.

"It is suggested that churches should implement policies and guidelines that are based on the needs of their particular church," Buckley said.

Background checks can eliminate the possibility of a large percentage of offenses from occurring within the church, he said. If someone suspects that a child is being abused, the church should report it to the authorities immediately.

If a child is abducted, church leaders should identify who last saw the child, what the child was wearing and with whom the child was last seen, Buckley said.

"It is also very important to have other identifying information ready and available to law enforcement when they arrive, such as the missing child's date of birth and a recent photograph, if possible," he said.

Price is part of the security team at Fellowship Bible Church in Jackson.

Those who attended were intrigued with Buckley's informational classes on pedophiles, the Internet Crimes Against Children squad and what to do in cases of child abductions from a church,

"We have implemented some of his suggestions and have others in mind at Fellowship," he said.

Carol Williams is the preschool director at West Jackson Baptist Church. She said the church believes children are prized possessions and should be taken care of. West Jackson has safety measures in place.

"I grew up in a day when no one locked their doors — ever," she said. "I grew up a pastor's kid, and I would run around the church while my father was in his office, and we thought nothing of it."

There is a balance to keeping children safe and being a welcoming atmosphere to families, Williams said.

"We want to be faithful in protecting children," she said. "We can't be perfect, but we can do what we can. We've heard horror stories from other churches, and we try to keep these situations out of our church."

West Jackson wants to make it easy for parents without going overboard with safety, but some rules must be in place — such as only allowing parents to pick children up from the church, Williams said.

"If a parent gets upset on how the rules cause some hardship, I can live with it," she said. "If something were to happen to a child while under our care, I couldn't live with that."

Buckley said many churches use a safety team — members of the congregation who act as liaisons between the church and the Police Department, should an incident occur.

Williams said the safety team at West Jackson is well trained.

"They know what to do in different situations," she said. "It takes the whole church working together to make it happen. Parents, teachers, the entire church needs to work together."

Buckley said a church's safety team could perform duties such as patrolling the parking lot and performing roaming security checks within the church building.

"The Jackson Police Department is offering training to any church that has or is wanting to start a church safety team," he said. "With the training offered to the safety teams through the department, they will become better equipped and know how to respond to variety of situations, which will ensure a safe worship environment for the members of the congregation."

Contact: TSIMER@JACKSONSUN.COM