| Nothing is that simple... | for everyone |
Lest there be any doubt, all my liberal tendencies tend to go right out the window in cases of abuse, especially sexual predators who happen to be teachers. I have zero sympathy, zero tolerance of such abuse of power, no matter how willing the victims may seem.
That being said, I also believe in innocent until proved guilty.
There was an article in the local daily newspaper (I'm reluctant to call it by name anymore, it's become such a sad example of journalism) about a principal in the St. Louis City schools whose career is over because he wasn't quick enough on the trigger in reporting an (alleged) case of child abuse. He was convicted of a misdemeanor because he did not immediately hot-line the allegation against one of his teachers. As far as I know, the (alleged criminal) teacher hasn't been convicted of anything, yet, although it sounds like he'll get his just desserts eventually.
Neither, however, did the principal ignore the accusation. Because the (alleged) victim had voiced a false complaint previously and because she waited four days to report the new complaint to him, he began (immediately) to conduct his own investigation, which included talking to the girl's mother. You can read the story elsewhere, no doubt, but after the mother left his office (at 5 p.m.) she went to the police. Now, it appears she knew he was going to pursue the investigation but was not convinced that anything was going to happen, and thus took matters into her own hands and reported the principal (and, presumably, the teacher) to the police.
I'm seriously conflicted. If I'm that Mom I'm not sure I wouldn't do the same thing -- although I think I would have called the hot-line myself immediately as soon as I heard or if I thought the principal was stalling. It strikes me as kind of punitive to drag him down, too.
But the whole thing makes me think about a not dissimilar incident while I was doing my counseling gig. A girl (prior experience with her gave me knowledge that she was troubled) accused a school employee of inappropriate behavior. I have no special gift for spotting child predators, but it seemed out of character for this employee, whom I knew fairly well. I immediately went to an administrator who immediately began an investigation. We were (properly) chastised by the County police SRO,not for not hot-lining the accusation, but for not coming to him before confronting the accused employee (not my decision, but I didn't object, don't know what I would have done if I couldn't have passed it up/down the line). He was right; heck, the CSI franchise had only barely started; we were hardly trained investigators.
The girl fairly quickly admitted she was lying. But had we followed strict procedure, that man's reputation would have been forever tarnished. Absolutely we want to protect the victims, but don't we also want to protect the innocent? The single question most often asked of me by new counselors was, "How do you handle hot-line and abuse cases?" And my easy answer was, "Whether the kid is telling the truth or not, there's a problem and the kid needs help." But that help shouldn't automatically damage an innocent person's reputation and standing in a school or community.
The "mandated reporter" is one of those ideas that tends to work better in theory than in practice. I can tell you for a fact (at least in my experience) it keeps at least as many kids from reporting abuse as it gets into the (messy, inefficient, often ineffective) system. ["I need to tell you something but you have to promise you won't... …repeat it, …tell anyone, …call my parents, etc., etc." When I let them know that wasn't necessarily a promise I could keep, they frequently melted away.] It's not that simple, get the accusation, make the call.
"Professional judgment" will soon no longer exist in the education profession. (There's another entry on that topic, but not now.) Not even for a principal well-known, well-respected, seen as a mentor by many, with 37 years experience. I'm not worried about him starving, or even losing his (apparently) well-deserved reputation. But he did lose a career he clearly loved and my experience tells me there are NOT nearly enough good principal-leaders out there that we can afford to toss them for such a flimsy cause.
I fear this case will dump even more problems on a system that can't handle what it already has, and will destroy even more careers or parents' reputations. A kid or parent gets mad at a teacher, makes an accusation, destroys a good person, because who is going to hesitate dialing that 800-number now?
It's getting ugly out there, and simplistic solutions only make things worse. In Missouri we tend to love our simple solutions, probably because so many of our state legislators are simpletons.
That being said, I also believe in innocent until proved guilty.
There was an article in the local daily newspaper (I'm reluctant to call it by name anymore, it's become such a sad example of journalism) about a principal in the St. Louis City schools whose career is over because he wasn't quick enough on the trigger in reporting an (alleged) case of child abuse. He was convicted of a misdemeanor because he did not immediately hot-line the allegation against one of his teachers. As far as I know, the (alleged criminal) teacher hasn't been convicted of anything, yet, although it sounds like he'll get his just desserts eventually.
Neither, however, did the principal ignore the accusation. Because the (alleged) victim had voiced a false complaint previously and because she waited four days to report the new complaint to him, he began (immediately) to conduct his own investigation, which included talking to the girl's mother. You can read the story elsewhere, no doubt, but after the mother left his office (at 5 p.m.) she went to the police. Now, it appears she knew he was going to pursue the investigation but was not convinced that anything was going to happen, and thus took matters into her own hands and reported the principal (and, presumably, the teacher) to the police.
I'm seriously conflicted. If I'm that Mom I'm not sure I wouldn't do the same thing -- although I think I would have called the hot-line myself immediately as soon as I heard or if I thought the principal was stalling. It strikes me as kind of punitive to drag him down, too.
But the whole thing makes me think about a not dissimilar incident while I was doing my counseling gig. A girl (prior experience with her gave me knowledge that she was troubled) accused a school employee of inappropriate behavior. I have no special gift for spotting child predators, but it seemed out of character for this employee, whom I knew fairly well. I immediately went to an administrator who immediately began an investigation. We were (properly) chastised by the County police SRO,not for not hot-lining the accusation, but for not coming to him before confronting the accused employee (not my decision, but I didn't object, don't know what I would have done if I couldn't have passed it up/down the line). He was right; heck, the CSI franchise had only barely started; we were hardly trained investigators.
The girl fairly quickly admitted she was lying. But had we followed strict procedure, that man's reputation would have been forever tarnished. Absolutely we want to protect the victims, but don't we also want to protect the innocent? The single question most often asked of me by new counselors was, "How do you handle hot-line and abuse cases?" And my easy answer was, "Whether the kid is telling the truth or not, there's a problem and the kid needs help." But that help shouldn't automatically damage an innocent person's reputation and standing in a school or community.
The "mandated reporter" is one of those ideas that tends to work better in theory than in practice. I can tell you for a fact (at least in my experience) it keeps at least as many kids from reporting abuse as it gets into the (messy, inefficient, often ineffective) system. ["I need to tell you something but you have to promise you won't... …repeat it, …tell anyone, …call my parents, etc., etc." When I let them know that wasn't necessarily a promise I could keep, they frequently melted away.] It's not that simple, get the accusation, make the call.
"Professional judgment" will soon no longer exist in the education profession. (There's another entry on that topic, but not now.) Not even for a principal well-known, well-respected, seen as a mentor by many, with 37 years experience. I'm not worried about him starving, or even losing his (apparently) well-deserved reputation. But he did lose a career he clearly loved and my experience tells me there are NOT nearly enough good principal-leaders out there that we can afford to toss them for such a flimsy cause.
I fear this case will dump even more problems on a system that can't handle what it already has, and will destroy even more careers or parents' reputations. A kid or parent gets mad at a teacher, makes an accusation, destroys a good person, because who is going to hesitate dialing that 800-number now?
It's getting ugly out there, and simplistic solutions only make things worse. In Missouri we tend to love our simple solutions, probably because so many of our state legislators are simpletons.
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