Newark Archdiocese, Bergen prosecutor host child safety workshops

By Aaron Morrison
Record
June 21, 2014

http://www.northjersey.com/news/newark-archdiocese-bergen-prosecutor-host-child-safety-workshops-1.1039355

Karen Clark, safety director for the Archdiocese of Newark, holds a class about sexual abuse prevention Saturday at Our Lady Mother-Church in Woodcliff Lake.

WOODCLIFF LAKE – The Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office and the Archdiocese of Newark united Saturday for a daylong series of child-safety workshops, presented to adults who work with children within and outside of the parish.

More than 100 church-affiliated leaders, parents involved with scouting and coaches were registered for the programs — held in the recreation room of Our Lady of the Mother Church — on child sex abuse prevention, Internet safety and drug-abuse prevention.

Karen Clark, the archdiocese’s child-safety director, said the partnership with County Prosecutor John Molinelli, who’s a member of the parish, proves each other’s commitment to keeping the area’s children safe.

Last year, Molinelli had criticized the archdiocese over its follow-up monitoring of Michael Fugee, a now defrocked priest who had been accused of groping boys. But Molinelli and an archdiocese spokesman said last week that that the workshop partnership had nothing to do with the Fugee matter.

Clark thanked the attendees for talking the time to come to the session. “We’re human beings and busy people. We tend to only do things we’re required to do. The only reason I can do this is because there are people like you,” she said.

Saturday’s program began with “Protecting God’s Children,” a course on child sexual abuse, required for all archdiocese employees and volunteers. Detectives from the Prosecutor’s Office presented the Internet safety and anti-drug abuse courses that they’ll give to organizations and at schools year round.

The 2½-hour morning session included videos covering the “nature and scope” of abuse and how predators earn children’s trust. Among the strategies for reducing risk were controlling access to areas where abuse could occur and actively monitoring all programs in which parents entrust their children’s safety to leaders and volunteers.

“You can’t be too safe anymore,” said attendee Tammy Marcus, a resident of Mahwah with two daughters, ages 5 and 7. “It reminded me that it could be people you thought you can trust.”

Marcus, 43, said she took the class because she works with children as a leader in a northern New Jersey Girls Scouts troop, as a cheerleading coach and a church confirmation mentor.

During a question-and-answer period, Clark fielded several questions on the Internet and social networks, which Molinelli and a detective from his office covered extensively in the afternoon session. A handful of children and teens also participated in the session.

In the 12 years he’s been the county’s prosecutor, Molinelli said, online risks for children and adults have grown exponentially.

“From day one as prosecutor, I saw the dangers,” he said. “I think awareness programs are working. But we still have a ways to go, to help kids understand that gravity of what they post. Parents have done a good job. They are more aware.”