WASHINGTON (DC)
Stateline.org
January 29, 2019
By Elaine S. Povich
When a Virginia 16-year-old told her parents that their church’s youth leader, Jordan Baird, had been sending her sexually suggestive text messages, they immediately confronted their pastor.
Pastor David Baird, the perpetrator’s father, said the church would investigate, but he did not tell law enforcement authorities — and he wasn’t required under Virginia law to report a suspected case of abuse or face criminal charges. The abuse became physical, and later other girls accused Jordan Baird of assaulting them.
Jordan Baird served eight months in prison after being convicted on five felony counts of indecent liberties with a minor. But church members want state law changed to force pastors like David Baird, who still leads the Life Church in Manassas, Va., to join the list of professionals specifically required to report such incidents.
They brought their story to Democratic Virginia state Del. Karrie Delaney, who was a sexual assault crisis counselor in Florida before moving to Virginia.
“Their church was really torn up by the allegation and the fact that the young man who was the perpetrator ended up doing the same thing to another person after the first one wasn’t reported,” Delaney said. “When I sat down with them and heard the story I knew this was something I had to do.”
She and others introduced legislation this year that would add clergy to the state’s list of “mandatory reporters,” people who work with children — such as teachers, counselors and athletic coaches — and who are required by law to report suspicions of child abuse to law enforcement authorities.
While most states have broad laws calling on anyone who learns of child abuse to report it, mandatory reporters can be charged with a crime for failing to do so.
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