• Are you tired of your old church building?
• Do you have extra money in your church budget that you want to get rid of?
• Would you like to get rid of a staff member?
• Do you want more visitors coming to your church?

If any of these apply to your church, I have a quick and very painful way to help you out. All you really need to do is have a child get hurt at your church because of the church's negligence, or have an allegation of child abuse filed against the church. If not handled correctly, you will quickly see many visitors at your church - police, lawyers, press, etc. Churches that make mistakes are big news! Churches are also prime targets for lawsuits. What you may perceive as a “small thing” could easily turn into a major crisis. A preventable accident or child abuse incident could (and has in the past) drain a churches budget, ruin its reputation, cause staff to resign, and close a church.

Our response to this threat should not be fear or over-protection. Rubber bumpers on the pews are not the answer. Neither is shutting down a nursery or Sunday School. We don’t need to subject every volunteer to a check as if they were applying for a government security clearance. What we do need to do is exercise a little caution. We do need to implement some extra security precautions in our building and volunteer selection.

The basic areas we need to address are physical security, personnel selection/screening, and classroom management.

PHYSICAL SECURITY

Physical security refers to the children’s facilities and their accessibility. How easy is it for an unauthorized person to get to one of the children’s classrooms? Could somebody walk in the church, go to a child’s class, and take the child out of the church without being seen or questioned? Are there “dark areas” in the children’s wing of the church where someone could hide?

If you are already in an existing building, it may be impossible to move all the children’s classrooms into a single area of the church with limited access. An alternate solution would be to install some security cameras. These cameras should be small and rather discrete. Nobody wants to walk down the hallway of a church and see a large camera pointed at them. The cameras should be monitored constantly by a responsible person while church activities involving children are going on. By using a split screen monitor or other technology, one person is able to monitor several cameras. These monitors could be placed in public view to show that you are watching out for the children or placed in a closed room. You may want to put a sign up where the cameras are monitoring saying that the area is monitored because you are concerned about the safety of the children. If your budget will allow, you may want to attach a recording device to the cameras.

If possible, consider moving all the children’s classrooms to one area of the church. A check-in desk placed at the entrance to the wing can be used to limit access to the children’s classrooms. Only children, their parents, and teachers should normally have access to the classroom areas. A sign-in and sign-out sheet should be maintained at the desk that to track who has passed in and out of the area. This can be a computerized church management solution or a simple pencil and paper record on a clipboard. If done on paper, I suggest that it be kept on file for six months to a year “just in case”.

Budget, building design, or church attitude may prevent either of these solutions from being implemented. You can still improve the security of the children’s classrooms by checking the hallways around the church. Try to keep hallways free of clutter. Keep doors leading to furnace or storage rooms closed and locked. One or two people standing near the main entrance to the church (they could also act as greeters) may be enough to discourage an event from occurring.

VOLUNTEER SELECTION/SCREENING

I walked into a church once and volunteered to help with a Wednesday night boy’s group after only being at the church for about 2 weeks. They gave me a class by myself with no questions asked. The guy in charge did not even know my last name till after church was over!

That could have been a disaster!!!

At a very minimum, anybody that works with children or youth should be required to fill out an application. The application should ask for previous churches attended, if they have ever been arrested or convicted of a felony, basic personal information, and references. The form should also contain a statement giving the church permission to do a criminal check and talk to their references. Many churches are also requiring that the applicant be a member of the church and in some cases take certain classes offered by the church before working with children.

The values and convictions of your church/church staff will determine what kind of background check is done. They will also need to determine what factors would disqualify a person from working with children.

Your local police station should be able to do a criminal records check if you provide them with the applicant’s social security number and fingerprints. Most police stations will charge a fee for this service. The fee varies according to community, but is always going to be cheaper than the cost of a lawsuit. There also several services available through the internet that will do the background check for you.

Background checks can be a very delicate subject for some people. Some people may be offended when you suggest that it needs to be done. Always ensure that the mention of a background check is handled with sensitivity and understanding. Assure the volunteer applicant that results of the background check will be kept confidential.

CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT

Even after a volunteer has been properly screened, the potential for a problem still exists if classroom activities are not properly managed. The guidelines for classroom activities should generally apply to trips as well.

The first and probably most important rule is to always have two adults present in a classroom. By doing this, each adult becomes accountable for the other’s action. If an allegation of misconduct is made, two adults will be able to give their account of the situation. If possible, it is good to have classroom doors open or a small window where people in the hallway can see into the classroom.

In addition to this, all volunteers should receive training in appropriate discipline, handling incidents, and reporting problems. It is best if the church has a written policy on these areas that is given to each child/youth worker. Some churches will even require that the worker sign a statement saying they have received and read the policy.

Final notes:

If an event does occur that causes police or lawyers to become involved, the church staff must know how to deal with it. The volunteer involved should be counseled about the incident and informed as to what the church expects them to do. The church staff will need to work with the volunteer and authorities to minimize the impact of the incident to the church and volunteer. Even an allegation that is not true can have negative consequences if not handled properly. Written policies need to exist outlining the church’s response to an incident.

It may not be possible to prevent an incident from occurring, but proper training and precautionary measures may decrease the chances.

**More information on safety, policies, and documentation will be available in a future article.**