Innovative Strategies to Prevent Educator Sexual Misconduct

By Jetta Bernier
MassKids
September 25, 2017

http://www.masskids.org/

Who Should Attend: national and state education leaders, public school superintendents and principals, heads of private, independent schools, child sexual abuse prevention advocates, researchers, directors of schools of education and other strategic decision makers would all benefit from attending this national-level conference.

What You Will Learn: This convening of national and state leaders will explore the elements of a comprehensive set of child sexual abuse prevention policies and practices schools can implement to increase their protection from educator sexual misconduct and abuse. Through “TED Talk”-style presentations, theatrical vignettes, case presentations, real time audience surveys, and other innovative techniques, attendees will participate in interactive exchanges aimed at increasing their knowledge and skills about:

Training of school employees to reduce adult perpetration and child-on-child sexual abuse

Screening of prospective employees to avoid the hiring of sexually high-risk individuals

Developing Codes of Conduct that detail prohibited boundary-violating behaviors

Modifying physical spaces to reduce opportunities for sexual abuse to occur

Handling suspected or disclosed cases of child sexual abuse to meet mandated reporting laws

In addition, participants will learn about:

the latest research on the prevalence of educator sexual misconduct in U.S. schools;

the new federal prohibition against “passing the trash” and confidential agreements aimed at suppressing investigations;

lessons schools facing sexual abuse scandals are learning about the need for transparency; and

model legislative efforts aimed at comprehensive prevention education within schools.

Accessibility: District Hall is a single story, fully accessible and ADA compliant building with easy access on Boston’s MBTA. We have two entrances. The Northern Ave. entrance has 3 stairs leading to the front door, as well as a ramp, and the Seaport Boulevard entrance has wide, street-level double doors.

For other accessibility concerns please email us at info@masskids.org

MassKids is the oldest, statewide citizen-based child advocacy organization in the country. Its mission has been to research the pressing issues facing the state’s most vulnerable children and promote solutions to improve their lives. Throughout its 58-year history, MassKids’ hallmark has been its willingness to tackle the tough and complex issues affecting children.

It launched the first statewide media campaign on child sexual abuse in the country in the mid-80s and since then has fulfilled thousands of requests for prevention education and materials to parents and professionals. In the wake of the clergy sex abuse scandal in 2002, MassKids was already working to address a finding it made public in its earlier State Call to Action report that warned: “Massachusetts lacks a comprehensive, state-wide strategy to reduce sexual assaults against children …” That fall, MassKids was among only three grantees in the country chosen to receive a 5-year, $1.2 million grant from CDC to address the federal agency’s challenge to “build adult and community responsibility to prevent child sexual abuse.” With public and private collaborators, MassKids launched the Enough Abuse Campaign, a community mobilization and citizen education initiative which has been adopted now in eight states.

MassKids has certified hundreds of trainers who have in turn educated thousands of parents, youth and child-serving professionals using the Campaign’s research-based training curricula. Its “Sexual Abuse Safe Child Standards” is providing a roadmap for schools and youth organization looking to strengthen their policies to prevent child sexual abuse. Criminal and civil Statute of Limitations reform in Massachusetts has been achieved through MassKids’ partnership with legislators, survivors of sexual abuse and legal advocates. It currently leads the private-sector effort to pass a comprehensive law to address educator sexual abuse/misconduct, age of consent loopholes, and prevention education in schools and youth organizations. This spring it launched the Pledge to Prevent social media campaign to inspire citizens to take prevention actions to end child sexual abuse. It released a new e-learning course specifically developed to provide school personnel with the knowledge and skills to prevent child sexual abuse from ever occurring.

Since the mid-80s MassKids has served as the Massachusetts Chapter of Prevent Child Abuse America. It was a co-developer of the National Coalition to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation’s “National Plan to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse.” It currently serves on the National Independent School Task Force on Educator Sexual Misconduct.

The National Center for Victims of Crime is the nation's leading resource and advocacy organization serving victims of all types of crime. Founded in 1985, the National Center has a proven record of accomplishment in working across disciplines to effect changes in public policy and culture. It led the effort that persuaded 32 states to amend their state constitutions to include legal rights for crime victims. It was the key organizer of the successful 2013 legislative campaign which eliminated Minnesota's civil statute of limitation for child sex abuse and created a three-year window which gave abuse survivors access to justice. The National Center helped shaped the culture of how America talks about sexual abuse by working with the news media. It has crafted substantive tools to combat child sex abuse, including its 2014 publication, "Preventing Child Sexual Abuse in Youth-Serving Organizations; Guidelines for Managers and Parents." As part of its efforts at cross-discipline collaboration, the National Center has convened more than a dozen national-scope conferences in excess of 250 participants.

Citizens to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse

On January 20th Senator Joan Lovely (D - Salem) filed legislation to address several gaps in Massachusetts’ current policies to protect children from sexual abuse. Working in close collaboration, Sen. Lovely and MassKids proposed a single, “Omnibus Bill” that would include several of the provisions introduced last session in a number of separate bills – bills that despite strong support from legislators and citizens alike, never advanced beyond the Judiciary and Education Committees.

With your support, we believe we can make the Comprehensive Child Sexual Abuse Prevention bill of 2017 one of the top legislative proposals on Beacon Hill this year. We are asking you to band together with other citizen advocates, survivors, and their families to achieve passage of this crucial legislation by joining Citizens to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse. MassKids will send you regular emails highlighting specific provisions of the bill, the data that support it, and how passage of the bill will strengthen the practices and policies of our schools, youth organizations, and communities. We will keep you informed about which legislators have formally supported the bill, when public hearings on the bill are scheduled, and any press conferences, rallies, media coverage, or State House events to promote the legislation.

What we ask you to do is to agree to speak or meet with your Senator and Representatives to encourage them to formally co-sponsor the bill. MassKids will be happy to accompany you, if you wish, to any meeting with your legislators at the State House. The deadline for signing on as co-sponsors to new Senate bills has been extended until just before the Committee on Education takes formal action on the bill. This gives us a few months to secure broad support from both Senators and House Representatives.

With your advocacy, we can successfully push for passage of the Omnibus Bill and its comprehensive provisions, some of which include:

Ensuring that public and private schools educate their staffs about preventing child sexual abuse before it can occur;

Assisting schools and youth organizations to strengthen their screening of prospective new employees to reduce the risks of sexual abuse occurring;

Providing schools with protection from any legal liability when they share information about educator sexual misconduct of an employee with other schools;

Closing the loophole that currently protects those working in schools from any civil or criminal actions if they engage in sexual misconduct with a student 16 years or older;

Including athletic coaches, domestic violence workers, Internet Technology service personnel, and others among those mandated by law to report suspected child abuse.

The push to reform the criminal and civil Statute of Limitations in Massachusetts succeeded because of the strong and persistent support of citizens like you. Our goal to ensure justice for survivors and accountability for their abusers has been realized for many. As a result, survivors have now taken their cases to court and several have won.

Building on that victory, we must now focus on protecting our children from ever having to experience sexual abuse and its devastating and often life-long health and mental health consequences. The Omnibus Bill will go a long way in achieving those protections.

Children’s tiny voices are not often heard on Beacon Hill. They need us to be their megaphone, collectively advocating as one, powerful voice for their safety and right to be protected from sexual abuse and exploitation.