Another Object Lesson in Child Protection Gaps
A South Carolina church now faces four criminal defendants and four civil lawsuits, all traced back to a volunteer with a criminal history. The details of that case matter less than the pattern behind it.
Most of the failures that lawyers and sources allege in recent coverage of the case aren’t unique to this organization. They’re ordinary gaps that I see all too often. Here’s how to check for them in your program.
Compassion Without Verification Is Not a Safety Plan
Although we have only unproven allegations at this point, we can draw lessons from the claims. Leaders reportedly knew a volunteer had a criminal history and chose to keep that information from parents and staff. Their reason is that they wanted to treat the volunteer with dignity. That instinct isn’t wrong on its own. Every YSO eventually faces a person with a difficult history who deserves a fair chance.
The mistake in such situations is letting compassion substitute for verification. According to reporting on the case, leaders reportedly trusted the man’s own word that he was complying with legal restrictions on his conduct. Subsequently, an outside agency allegedly caught a violation leaders didn’t know about. A safety plan cannot rest on someone’s self-report. If your program ever gives a second chance to someone with a relevant history, build in outside verification: a written agreement, a named staff member who checks in regularly, and periodic contact with any supervising authority.
An Unmonitored Policy Protects No One
Leaders reportedly said supervision safeguards kept the volunteer from ever being alone with a child. Parents disputed that claim, and a lawsuit alleges daily, sometimes unsupervised, contact over an extended period.
A policy nobody checks is worse than no policy. The main problem is that a policy, even if no one follow it, gives leadership false confidence. It also creates a standard that people will hold you to.
Another problem can be confusion about screening tiers. A separate lawsuit argues the man functioned as an employee in practice, with keys, a recurring schedule, and direction from staff, and that his role should have triggered employee-level screening regardless of his title. Audit your own supervision rules this month. Don’t assume they’re being followed just because they’re written down, and don’t assume a “volunteer” label exempts a role from the screening its actual duties require.
The Costliest Mistake Is a Report You Ignore
A parent reportedly disclosed abuse directly to a school leader, who allegedly did not act on it. If true, this is the failure most likely to have caused direct harm to a specific child.
Every staff member needs training on exactly four things when someone discloses abuse: report immediately to a supervisor (if state law allows it), ensure that the supervisor follows through on a report to authorities, document what was said, and never personally judge whether a disclosure sounds credible. That judgment call belongs to whichever investigators the state designates, not to anyone in your organization.
Fixing Your Policy After You’re Caught Is Damage Control, Not Leadership
Leadership reportedly promised broader background checks only after a concerned citizen alerted authorities and an outside investigation forced the issue. A good policy change made under pressure is still a good policy change, but it doesn’t undo the fact that it may come too late to help anyone.
Put It Into Practice
Check your policies for these gaps, and plug whatever holes you find. Look closely at the following areas:
- Replace any safety plan that depends on a person’s self-report and add outside verification.
- Audit your supervision safeguards this month. Confirm staff are actually following them, not just that they’re written down.
- Check every recurring role on your campus against the access it actually involves, regardless of whether you call it paid or volunteer.
- Retrain staff on immediate escalation of any abuse disclosure, with no internal credibility judgment calls.
- Review your screening and supervision policies on your own schedule, not only after an outside authority forces the issue.
It’s very easy to get caught up in the press of daily urgent challenges in your organization. Give yourself a regular task of taking a step back and being sure that you don’t have any of these gaps in your child protection policy.
Want to go deeper? Our on-demand course, 120 Days to a Strong Child Protection Policy, walks through building a policy that covers screening, supervision, and disclosure response before a crisis tests it.
