UNITED STATES
The Worthy Adversary
Posted by Joelle Casteix on October 1, 2013
My inbox fills up this time every year with emails from panicked parents who write and ask me if their school is a safe place for their kids. Sometimes, I can give parents a history of accused or arrested predators who have worked or volunteered at a particular campus, but that usually doesn’t tell the whole story.
Abuse and cover-up thrive because of an administrative and organizational attitude. “Safe environment” programs and background checks are useless unless this attitude is changed from the top down AND the bottom up.
But how do you know the attitude of your school?
I do not provide answers to the questions I give below. You will see that many of the positive and negative scenarios I pose apply equally to public and private education. My goal here is to create a discussion and and a starting point for parents who—for way too long—have simply not known the right questions to ask. While there are no right or wrong responses, your answers will clue you in to your school’s “attitude” and whether or not it is a place where transparency, accountability and child safety can thrive.
Questions to ask yourself about the safety of your child’s school
1) Are pastors, teachers and/or administrators hired without input from parents?
2) Does campus leadership have to answer to an off-site administrator? If so, are problems dealt with swiftly, openly and according to the law and common sense … or behind closed doors? Are wrongdoers held accountable?
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