Is a Catholic school principal legally obligated to report suspected child abuse?

[proud2BlibKansan]

I posted this last night. A local priest was arrested and charged with possession of child porn. It was found on his computer in DECEMBER by a tech who was repairing it. The tech contacted the church, who waited until MAY to report this to the police. There are calls from many for the bishop to resign or that he be arrested for an attempted coverup. Here is his response: http://www.kansascity.com/2011/05/27/2908930/bishop-says-he-failed-in-ratigan.html

Meanwhile, yesterday, the principal of the school in the parish where the priest was assigned announced that she had contacted the bishop a year ago about her 'suspicions' - also shared by the teachers at the school - regarding this priest. http://www.kansascity.com/2011/05/26/2907168/principal-warned-diocese-about.html

Today I received an email and a link to a petition in support of the principal.

"I support the principal of St. Patrick School, Julie Hess, and her attempts to protect the children there. I would consider the termination or reprimand of Ms. Hess by the Diocese to be in direct conflict of all that the Catholic Church stands for. The protection of children is central to our beliefs and Ms. Hess did her best to fulfill that obligation."
http://www.petitiononline.com/4530971/petition.html

I am floored. As an educator myself, I am appalled that this principal only contacted the church and NOT the police. My understanding of the child abuse laws is that any professional who works with children is mandated to report SUSPECTED abuse or neglect to the child abuse hot line. The bishop is NOT law enforcement. I think the principal failed to meet her legal mandate.

Just wondering what DUers think of this. I absolutely will not sign this petition.

[MineralMan]

1. I think state laws vary on who is a mandatory reporter.

Of course this should have been reported immediately.

Churches sometimes feel they do not have to follow the same rules as the rest of us, and they're sometimes supported by the courts in that. They should not be. The government is not required by the Constitution to ignore violations of laws. Separation of church and state should never be extended in that way.

[proud2BlibKansan]

9. It's a FEDERAL law, not state

States are mandated to have a child abuse hotline. But the law mandating abuse is federal, and has been on the books for at least 30 years.

[MineralMan]

12. Yes, thanks.

I note that Minnesota, my own state, exempts clergy if it involves the confessional.

Missouri does not, as far as I can see.

But thanks for the information.

[MineralMan]

2. In Missouri, clergy are mandatory reporters, per this link:

http://www.glpby.org/documents/Mandatory%20Reporting%2005.pdf

The principal should be charged, in my opinion, and removed at once from his position.

The information given him by the worker is not in any way covered by the confessional thing. The responsibility is there for that principal to report such things. It must not be left to the church to deal with criminal behavior. We have a system to deal with that.

[Zoeisright]

3. Any teacher OR principal is a mandated reporter in many states.

It looks like Missouri is one of them. That principal violated that law and should be charged.

http://www.commpartnership.org/mandated-reporter-trainings.php

[Scuba]

4. Everyone is MORALLY bound to report it to the police, starting with the Tech. n/t

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. Not sure about the tech but i do think he should have called the police

The child abuse laws apply to those who work with children. The tech wouldn't be under that umbrella.

[Scuba]

13. Legally, perhaps not. Morally, yes. n/t

[ejpoeta]

5. should be if s/he isn't. i thought they were.

[rocktivity]

6. Not only should you not sign the petition, you should explain why

just as you have here.

The principal or her superiors should have called the police immediately. They should be fired for dereliction of duty AND lawbreaking.

:mad:
rocktivity

[Zoeisright]

7. Here's the mandated reporter database:

http://www.rainn.org/public-policy/legal-resources/mandatory-reporting-database

[The Midway Rebel]

8. Nobody steps inside a Catholic school to work with kids without VIRTUS training.

I think Principal Hess should have been well versed in the law due to her position as school principal as well as the VIRTUS training that Catholic schools require. Very sad and ironic that VIRTUS training was created and started by the Archdiocese of St. Joseph/Kansas City to prevent EXACTLY this type of situation.

I have met Julie Hess, she is a nice person, but I will not sign the petition either.


http://www.virtus.org/virtus/

[proud2BlibKansan]

11. I used to teach in Catholic schools

ALL teachers are given training regarding their obligations to report suspected abuse and/or neglect. ALL - that includes teachers in Catholic schools.

I believe it is part of the law to train the teachers. We are definitely trained every year.

I have had situations where children have reported bad things happening to other kids. I have had parents report neighbors, parents report ex-spouses. And even though I had not directly witnessed the abuse and/or neglect, I was legally obligated to report it. In many situations, I suspected it was just a mother angry at a father she had divorced, or vice versa. I suspected neighbors settling neighborhood spats by making false claims against each other. But that didn't matter. The law is VERY clear. I am mandated to report these situations. So I did.

I would be shocked if Julie Hess did not understand her legal requirements.

[sudopod]

17. Does it take special training to keep men who look at child porn away from the children?

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[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[PeaceNikki]

16. Like this?

"A parent who accompanied a Brownie troupe to plant flowers at Ratigan's house found a pair of girl's panties inside a planter in the backyard."

[H2O Man]

15. He had both

a legal and moral obligationj here. And he failed dismally on both accounts.

[Courtesy Flush]

18. I'm a CPS worker

School staff in my state must report abuse, but I've never heard of anyone getting in trouble for not reporting. The vast majority of reports we get from schools come from public schools. Private schools don't report abuse unless they really have to.

Possession of child pornography is not something we would investigate, unless the children can be identified, and located. Otherwise, it's probably porn from the internet, which would be a police matter.