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Office of Child and Youth Protection

Prevention program protects our children

Columns

Thursday, 23 May 2013 16:23

This week marks the beginning of the Jerry Sandusky trial. Soon the jurors will be selected, lawyers will posture for their respective sides, allegations and details will emerge and we will be inundated by the media. Not to be lost in all the expected reporting frenzy, now is a good time to focus on children and how to protect our children from sexual abuse.

Child sexual abuse is not a Roman Catholic clergy problem. Child sexual abuse is a pervasive societal problem. One in four girls is sexually abused before the age of 14 and one is six boys is sexually abused before the age of 16. Almost 50% of the offenders are household members and an additional 38% are already acquaintances of the victims. And according to an FBI report, like rape, child molestation is one of the most underreported crimes—only 1% to 10% are ever disclosed.

David Finkelhor, PhD, is a national expert in the area of child sexual abuse prevention. In his article Prevention of Sexual Abuse through Educational Programs Directed Toward Children, he concludes that prevention programs reduce self-blame and stigma and that they promote disclosure and reporting. Prevention programs also cause an increase in parent-child conversations on personal safety and sexual abuse.

In our diocese, Bishop Joseph Galante has directed that every parish catechetical program implement Child Lures Prevention: Think First & Stay Safe. This prevention program teaches our children the lures that predators use to harm children. Learning to recognize these lures teaches them to be safe and protected.

In a press release issued by the Child Lures Prevention: Think First & Stay Safe program based out of Vermont, Co-President Rosemary Wooden Webb notes that Sandusky allegedly used eight different lures to harm the boys he allegedly abused. These lures include the Affection Lure, the Authority Lure, the Hero Lure and the Games Lure.

Sister Denise Ware, SFCC, is the Parish Catechetical Leader at Incarnation Parish, Mantua. She has been using this prevention program for over seven years. She says, “I think it is good for the catechists to be able to talk about this issue and for the children to know it is OK to talk about it, too. We pray that we will always be safe and that those around us will keep us safe as well.”

At Saint Maximilian Kolbe Parish, Marmora, Marie Moran is the Parish Catechetical Leader. She adds, “This program reinforces what the students are presented in their public school settings. However, in our presentations we also draw upon the teachings of Christ and our call to love one another. It is very important that these presentations are Christ-centered.”

The best way to keep our children safe from sexual abuse is to talk openly with them about it. We need to talk about healthy relationships and what comprises inappropriate behavior. As parents, catechists and teachers, we need to continue to teach our children the lures that predators use and how to recognize and interrupt grooming behavior.

Prevention programs are effective. By using the Child Lures Prevention: Think First & Stay Safe program, our parishes are safe places for the children entrusted into our care. Over the next several weeks of the Sandusky trial, let us pray for victims of child sexual abuse and let us together continue to work together to protect our children.

Rod J. Herrera, LCSW is director, Office of Child and Youth Protection, Diocese of Camden.

National Child Abuse Prevention Month - As parents our role never ends

Columns

Thursday, 23 May 2013 16:23

It was the phone call I was desperately hoping I would never receive. But when my cell phone rang and I saw that it was my son calling me at a time that he never calls, I knew right away something was wrong. His shaky voice confirmed my fear, “Dad, I’ve just been in a very bad accident.”

Instantly, my parental instinct kicked in. “Are you OK? Are you hurt? Is anyone else hurt?” Aware of the adrenalin kick and the acute anxiety I was feeling, I tried to keep my voice calm and soothing for my son who was calling me from the side of the highway of a very busy Route 295. I told him to call the insurance company and promised to be with him as soon as I could get there.

When I arrived at the scene of the accident, even though he was safe and in the company of a New Jersey State Trooper, my heart stopped when I realized how much more serious the accident could have been, how many vehicles he could have hit or been hit by, what the possibility of a different outcome this could have been had it been a fatal incident. For several moments, my heart was shattered with what could have been the death of my oldest child. Instead, I thanked God and my son’s Guardian Angel for working overtime on this day.

For many years, I was a pediatric oncology social worker. It was powerful work and I was blessed to know so many wonderful children and their families. But when a child lay dying, losing a gallant fight against cancer, I found myself questioning God. Are children a blessing and a gift from God? Of course they are! But then don’t our children also belong to us? Aren’t they “ours”?

I have learned that our children belong to us through the grace of God’s gift, but we raise them only to one day let them go. They are ours, but only for a short time.

In my parish when somebody has a birthday, parishioners say, “God bless your mother!” I find the exclusion of the father to be sexist, so I always add, “And your father, too!” My own father was nurturing, loving to me. One of my role models is St. Joseph, who fathered and taught Jesus how to pray, how to lead, how to love. Indeed what better role model do we have for a healthy family than that of the Holy Family?

As parents our role never ends. In this month of April, National Child Abuse Awareness month, we should have a heightened awareness of how we protect our children. We keep our children safe by paying attention to them, by making time to listen to them. No matter how busy our lives are, it is essential to eat meals, especially dinner, together. Laughter and joy bring families together and it is imperative to play together.

Research proves that as many as one in four girls and one in seven boys may experience inappropriate sexual contact by the time they reach the age of 18. At least 85 percent of child sexual abuse comes from relatives and adults known to the children and not from strangers. Parents have to talk with their children about who is allowed and more importantly who is not allowed to touch them. Using precise words is essential. Parents may be uncomfortable using words such as penis and vagina, but using code names or baby names for body parts does a child a disservice. Parents need to make sure children know that when an adult asks them to keep a secret, that this is wrong. At the heart of child sexual abuse is the notion of keeping secrets.

We keep our children safe by paying attention to them, by making time to listen to them. Laughter and joy bring families together and it is imperative to play together. And last, but not least, regular church attendance at Mass as a family and prayer time as a family invite the Lord to be a part of our lives and keeps us in the state of grace.

By the way, my son’s car accident occurred at 4:30 on a very busy Route 295. Dozens and dozens of cars and trucks were traveling with him, most of them perhaps on their way home. His car crossed a few lanes and went off the side of the road and over a fence. And nobody stopped to help him. But that’s another article for another day.

Rod J. Herrera, LCSW, is director, Office of Child and Youth Protection, Diocese of Camden.

National Child Abuse Prevention Month - Repercussions of a scandal

Columns

Thursday, 23 May 2013 16:23

In my job as director of the diocesan Office of Child and Youth Protection, I can see clearly how public perceptions to sex abuse have changed. We have become more vigilant, all to the good. Yet misguided by errant emotions, some will bring the unfortunate events of the past and in a perplexing manner tie them to events in the present.

For example: occasionally a student acts in a sexually inappropriate manner to another student in a Catholic school setting. When a student touches another in an inappropriate way, it is wrong and demands immediate attention. When such actions occur in schools in the Diocese of Camden, principals are trained to contact the diocesan Office of Child and Youth Protection. Every circumstance requires that the local police and the state Division of Youth and Family Services (DFYS) are called, particularly in cases where disturbing actions of a child indicate some type of sexualized behavior which require assessment, intervention and correction.

Still, even after these appropriate responses, some parents refer to these occurrences as “molestation” and in one case the implication was that one of the children might be a “predator.” One upset parent stated the diocese was “sweeping (the occurrence) under the rug” directly linking this incident with the manner in which some Church authorities handled the clergy sexual abuse crisis.

Clearly, contacting the local police and DYFS is not sweeping anything under any rug.

What’s happening here?

The clergy sex abuse scandal has been a horrific event that has rocked the entire Roman Catholic Church. Events in Europe have plainly shown that the scandal is not unique to the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. What adds to the dreadfulness of pathological priests sexually abusing children was the way in which Church authorities mishandled the perpetrators, choosing to protect the Church rather than children.

The anger about this dark time in the Church’s history is most prevalent when a child is endangered or hurt and that anger can cloud a person’s common sense and make connections that are not necessarily logical.

In the United States, there is an obvious move to recover from the scandal and to move forward. While the Church may never fully recover from the scandal, the bishops have made a promise to protect children and to heal the victims.

All adults in regular contact with children are required by the Diocese of Camden to have cleared a background check done by the diocese and to be trained in safe environment programs. Parents of children have a right to know that each parish and each school is in compliance.

Adults attend New Jersey Child Assault Prevention (CAP) sessions. Adults learn to recognize symptoms of abuse and assault and they learn to identify bullying and prevention. The children in our Catholic schools learn from CAP to be “safe, strong and free!” The children in our parishes are taught to be safe from potential predators through a program called Child Lures Prevention: Think First & Stay Safe. This program teaches children the lures, the maneuvers predators use to ensnare children. The children learn these lures and are safer. Recently, catechists from our diocese reworked this national secular program and infused it with Catholic spirituality.

Parents should always be protective of their children. That’s in their job description. Parents should know that in each and every one of our Catholic schools and parish programs, that all leaders hold the safety of the children to be of the utmost importance. The clergy sexual abuse scandal is still with us. But its effects motivate us to move forward and we join our bishops to protect our children. There will no longer be any sweeping under the rug; all is on the table now.

Rod J. Herrera, LCSW, is director, Office of Child and Youth Protection.

Background checks essential in protection of children

Columns

Thursday, 23 May 2013 16:23

National Child Abuse Prevention Month

On March 20, 2012, WSAV News 3, the NBC affiliate in Savannah, Georgia broke a disturbing story. A lawsuit had been filed against the Diocese of Savannah and the St. James Early Learning Center. The learning center, a preschool belonging to St. James Parish, had hired a woman to be a teacher’s aide. This woman started work at the preschool and after she allegedly inappropriately touched a 3-year-old child, it was discovered that she not only did not have the proper background check but she had a criminal record which would have disqualified her from employment around children.

This story was sent to all principals of elementary and secondary schools in the Diocese of Camden and to all parish Safe Environment Coordinators. Within a day of the story being sent out, I received a telephone call from a principal. “How could this have happened?” she asked and, “Could it happen here?”

Speaking from experience I told her three ways something like this could have happened in our diocese. The first is negligence on the part of the principal. A busy and unorganized principal would inform an applicant of the legal and diocesan requirement to be fingerprinted and then never follow up on the matter. Hired in September, an applicant would inform the principal that he or she would be fingerprinted and it could be months before it occurs to the principal that a clearance letter from the New Jersey Department of Education (NJ DOE) never arrived.

A second way this could happen here is attributed to a two-step process in New Jersey for school personnel. An applicant pays one on-line fee to the agency (MorphoTrak) that does the actual fingerprinting. But prior to that, the applicant should be informed by the principal that there is another on-line administrative fee payable to the NJ DOE. This additional fee is a consent to be fingerprinted and without paying this fee, a clearance letter will not be mailed to the applicant.

A third way is understanding that a background check is not a background check is not a background check. There are various background checks, each of which has a different cost and different disqualifiers. An applicant can present a background check from another agency to a principal and the principal could wrongly presume it was acceptable.

Frustrating is that state law does not allow for agencies to share background check information. What does that mean? As a clinical social worker, I must be fingerprinted and cleared by the Board of Social Work Examiners. As a catechist in my parish, I must be separately fingerprinted and cleared by the diocese. If I then wanted to teach in one of our schools, I would have to be separately fingerprinted and cleared by the NJ DOE. If I wanted to then adopt a child, I would have to be separately fingerprinted and cleared by DYFS. If I wanted to adopt a second child, I would have to be re-fingerprinted. If I wanted to purchase a gun I would have to be separately fingerprinted and cleared by I-don’t-know-whom (I really have no interest or desire to buy a weapon). All the above agencies are legally not allowed to share information with each other, causing some individuals to go through multiple fingerprinting.

I don’t know what went wrong at St. James Early Learning Center in the Diocese of Savannah. Somehow an individual with a criminal record was allowed to work in the preschool, causing alleged harm to a child entrusted into the care of that facility.

This should not happen here in the Diocese of Camden. Proper and correct background checks through the NJ DOE for all school personnel are a legal and diocesan requirement. Working collaboratively with the Office of Catholic Schools, this office directs and guides our principals to sort through any bureaucratic entanglements or confusion to ensure that we have the proper clearance for all staff. The safety of the children in our schools can never be compromised.

Rod J. Herrera, LCSW, is director, Office of Child and Youth Protection, Diocese of Camden

There is no end to working for a safe environment

Columns

Thursday, 23 May 2013 16:23

Earlier this month, the Diocese of Burlington in Vermont hosted the sixth annual National Safe Environment Leadership Conference. The chair of the USCCB’s Committee on the Protection of Children and Young People, Bishop Blase Cupich of Spokane addressed the conference attendees. In his talk, Bishop Cupich told us that people ask him when the issue of safe environment was going to be over. In other words, people would ask him when dioceses can just move on and not pay so much attention to safe environment. This clearly upsets Bishop Cupich who says that these people are missing the mark. “We will never finish with creating safe environments,” he says, “because this is what Jesus wants us to do.”

Establishing and maintaining safe environments for the children entrusted into our care is a Gospel mandate. The protection of children is indeed what Jesus would ask each of us to do. Let the children come to me. Do not hinder them. The kingdom of God belongs to such as these (MT 19:14-15). The Roman Catholic Church has a long history of ministering to the poor, to women and to children.

The recent and very tragic story of Skyler Kauffman from Souderton, Pa., is a painful reminder to each of us that we must always be vigilant in the protection of children. Details from what happened are still being revealed and already there has been some confusion. This 9-year-old girl had been inside the alleged murderer’s apartment a few weeks before her murder. Did the alleged murderer lock her in or not?

What is clear is that Skyler was sexually assaulted and murdered. It appears very clear, too, that she was lured into the apartment a second and final time.

Kenneth Wooden is an international personal safety expert and the founder/author of “Child Lures Prevention/Teen Lures Prevention.” He says, “This little angel joins too many other fallen victims in what the American Medical Association calls ‘a silent, violent epidemic.’ (According to the AMA, sexual assault continues to represent the most rapidly growing violent crime in America, claiming a victim every 45 seconds.) From this tiny Pennsylvania town to colleges and universities, U.S. Armed Forces, National Peace Corps Association, schools and faith-based organizations across the United States, sexual assault continues to occur at alarming rates. Everyone must do their part to help face this epidemic as a national priority.”

For several years, the Diocese of Camden has used “Child Lures Prevention: Think First & Stay Safe” as the safe environment program for our children in the parishes. This same program is used by over 40 other dioceses in the United States. The program teaches that predators use lures on children.

Perhaps the most famous lure is that of the lost puppy. A predator will approach a young child and ask the child to help him find his lost puppy. Because children are especially susceptible to puppies, they wander off with the predator who intends to get them alone. Teaching our children the lures predators use teaches them to be safe.

Bishop Joseph Galante requires every parish catechetical program to implement “Child Lures Prevention: Think First & Stay Safe” each year. Parish catechetical leaders inform my office when they have completed the program. The idea is to educate children about a different lure each year. The goal achieved is to provide our children with the tools they need in order to be safe.

Jennifer Mitchell and Rosemary Webb, co-presidents of “Child Lures Prevention/Teen Lures Prevention” wrote regarding the tragedy of Skyler: “Our hearts go out to little Skyler Kauffman, her family and the community of Souderton, Pennsylvania. Parents, please take some quiet time today to talk to your children about their personal safety. Given that the same lures are used generation after generation to entice youngsters into unsafe and abusive situations, it is essential to teach youngsters how to recognize and steer clear of these lures.”

Our responsibility on the safe environment issue never ends. And neither does our desire to follow Jesus and to do his will. We will continue to background check all adults in regular contact with children, we will train these adults in safe environment and will teach our children to be safe and aware of potential dangers. Without a doubt, it is what Jesus wants us to do.

Rod J. Herrera, LCSW is director, Office of Safe Environment for Children, Youth and Adults, Diocese of Camden.