Foxboro Home Rule Petition on Reporting Child Sex Abuse Could Be "Game Changer"

By Bera Dunau
Sun Chronicle
October 8, 2015

http://www.thesunchronicle.com/news/local_news/foxboro-home-rule-petition-on-reporting-child-sex-abuse-could/article_4090b08b-5985-5b8f-887c-e5c9b8d07ebf.html

Foxboro Town Hall. (Staff file photo by Mike George)

The town's efforts to widen the scope of state law designating who is considered to be a mandated reporter of child sexual abuse has taken the next step, thanks to state Rep. Jay Barrows.

And, it could have a big impact, he told selectmen this week.

Foxboro's child sexual abuse committee asked Barrows, R-Mansfield, to run the home rule petition the committee has drafted for the town through the proper channels in state government last spring. Barrows took the petition to legal counsel for the Massachusetts House of Representatives.

"It's a game changer, what was drafted," Barrows said Tuesday.

He said that the house's counsel has come back with some suggestions, and that he would like to meet with the child sexual abuse committee and town counsel to discuss how to go forward. Barrows will talk with the committee at its Oct. 15 meeting.

As currently written, the petition would define a mandated reporter to include any public or private school employee, any paid or unpaid person who works with children in any public or private facility, all employees of the Town of Foxboro and all volunteers who work with children in Foxboro, as well as any other person in an organization who has contact with children.

The home rule petition would also require that mandated reporters receive a basic training course, as well as refresher training.

"We're defining and clarifying what we think the state law should say," said William Dudley, pastor of Union Church of South Foxboro and a member of the child sexual abuse committee, who called the current state statute "really sloppy."

A complaint that he leveled against the statute was that it does not clearly define whether certain unpaid people who work with children are mandated reporters.

Dudley was joined at the meeting by fellow child sexual abuse committee member Lynda Walsh as well as Bob Correia, the committee chairman.

If the home rule petition passes town meeting it will need to be approved by the attorney general and pass through the legislative process before it can take effect.

Barrows also talked about introducing a bill that would expand the mandatory reporter definition statewide, in addition to supporting passage of the home rule petition. However, he said that he would need the support of both houses and the governor for either effort to succeed.

"Regardless if it goes for Foxboro only, or the rest of the state, I need the same body politic to approve," Barrows said.

He encouraged Foxboro residents to reach out to friends and family in other parts of Massachusetts and ask their legislators to sign on to the effort.

The creation of the child sexual abuse committee was largely inspired by the reports of the numerous men who described being sexually abused by William Sheehan, a former Foxboro teacher, swim coach and scout leader, in the 1960s and 1970s.