{"id":47,"date":"2007-07-17T17:04:13","date_gmt":"2007-07-17T17:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/2007\/07\/safety-a-top-priority-for-vaca.php"},"modified":"2007-07-17T17:04:13","modified_gmt":"2007-07-17T17:04:13","slug":"safety-a-top-priority-for-vaca","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2007\/07\/safety-a-top-priority-for-vaca","title":{"rendered":"Safety a Top Priority for Vacation Bible School"},"content":{"rendered":"

RNS
\nMICHELLE RINDELS
\nWhen planning Vacation Bible School activities, Nicole
\nCarmines decided it wasn’t enough to require background checks on
\nvolunteers and to inspect photo IDs at child pickup time.
\nSo she decided to hire two uniformed police officers to stay on
\nchurch premises for the entire week. Excessive? Carmines doesn’t think
\nso.
\n“We constantly hear comments about extra measures that we go
\nthrough,” said Carmines, Vacation Bible School director at Concordia
\nLutheran Church in San Antonio, Texas.
\nShe says parents are grateful for the precautions — which include
\neverything from ID tags to a walkie-talkie network. Seven years ago, 650
\nelementary school-aged students signed up for Concordia’s Vacation Bible
\nSchool. VBS enrollment this June broke the 1,300 mark, and she believes
\nthe staff’s diligent security is one of the biggest reasons.
\nIn light of well-publicized sexual abuse scandals at churches,
\nbackground checks aren’t just for paid staff anymore — they’re
\nvirtually standard fare for any children’s ministry worker. Likely,
\nthat’s because child abuse allegations surface at the rate of 70 per
\nweek in America’s churches, according to national surveys conducted from
\n1993-2002 by Christian Ministry Resources, a tax and legal advice
\npublisher.
\nVBS programs pose an acute set of security challenges for churches,
\nespecially since they attract throngs of unfamiliar children and a small
\narmy of volunteers.
\n“One of the problems is we need a lot more (children’s) workers than
\nwe do on Sunday,” said Jerry Wooley, VBS ministry specialist at Lifeway
\nChristian Resources, which provides VBS curriculum to most of the
\nSouthern Baptist Convention’s more than 42,000 churches and many outside
\nthe denomination. “Sometimes we become desperate for workers and take
\nthem even if we don’t know who they are.”
\nLifeway has long used printed “leader guides” to coach teachers on
\nchild safety.
\nThe company added a new item this year — ID wristbands.
\nWooley says it’s just one more way to ensure that at the end of the
\nday, kids end up in the arms of parents, not predators.
\n“Unfortunately, pedophiles hang out in churches,” said Richard Odom,
\npastor of Summerfield First Baptist Church in Summerfield, N.C. With a
\nbackground in law enforcement, Odom is adamant that his church screen
\nall VBS volunteers, from teachers to “the kitchen helpers preparing
\nKool-Aid.”
\n“Pedophiles think twice about a church that takes a step (to perform
\nchecks),” he said.
\nResearch from Christian Ministry Resources suggests that most abuse
\nin churches involves volunteers, not staff. Abusers typically seek to
\nbuild a relationship of trust before preying on their victims, and a
\nweek-long VBS doesn’t provide enough “alone time” for most criminals.
\nStill, a careless church has a lot to lose. Even if an incident does
\nnot occur, a child abuse accusation can be just as destructive.
\n“It can be devastating for the church and the accused,” said
\nattorney Charlotte Cover, a member of the Christian Law Association,
\nwhich offers free legal counsel to churches. Even if they are false, she
\nsaid, accusations can be a tool of manipulation.
\n“Some of the kids are pretty street-wise and know if they get mad at
\na worker, if they allege abuse … (the worker) will get in trouble.”
\nThat’s why the Christian Law Association is encouraging churches not
\njust to be above reproach, but to have documents to prove they’re above
\nreproach. Keeping detailed attendance records comes in handy when an
\naccusation arises. In one case, Cover recalled, an individual claimed a
\nchurch worker committed misconduct on a specific date. Since the church
\nkept detailed attendance records, it proved the accuser wasn’t even at
\nchurch on the alleged date. The charges were dropped, Cover said.
\n“Taking measures does work,” she said. “It’s not 100 percent
\nfoolproof. But courts require due diligence.”
\nThe Christian Law Association encourages workers to avoid any
\nsituation that might suggest compromise. If a male worker is involved
\nwith children, the association advises, the worker should always be in
\nthe company of another adult and avoid hugging a child or letting them
\nsit on their lap.
\nThere are down sides to such policies. Rules like these bar the kind
\nof affection that a fatherless child might need, said Christian Law
\nAssociation attorney Barbara Weller. And the cost of background checks
\n— especially when volunteers are checked annually — can add up.
\nBut, Weller said, “Churches really want to protect children.” And
\nmany “are in the vanguard of enacting and enforcing policies that
\nprotect children from abuse.”
\nPastor Odom is one of them.
\n“Personally as a pastor and a father — I would hate to sit in
\nsomeone’s living room and explain that harm came to one of their
\nchildren,” Odom said, “and that we did not do everything humanly
\npossible to prevent it.”
\n
\nCopyright 2007 Religion News Service<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RNS MICHELLE RINDELS When planning Vacation Bible School activities, Nicole Carmines decided it wasn’t enough to require background checks on volunteers and to inspect photo IDs at child pickup time. So she decided to hire two uniformed police officers to stay on church premises for the entire week. Excessive? Carmines doesn’t think so. “We constantly…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nSafety a Top Priority for Vacation Bible School<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2007\/07\/safety-a-top-priority-for-vaca\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Safety a Top Priority for Vacation Bible School\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"RNS MICHELLE RINDELS When planning Vacation Bible School activities, Nicole Carmines decided it wasn’t enough to require background checks on volunteers and to inspect photo IDs at child pickup time. 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