Catholic schools and VIRTUS

[Anonymous]

I went through it a few years ago to be a volunteer faith formation teacher at my parish. I went to the Satuday afternoon program at Holy Trinity in Georgetown and they even did the finger printing there. It never occured to me that you would have to go through it to attend your kids' one-time Catholic school field trip.

[Anonymous]

I had to do it for a number of years when I was a CCD teacher at our parish.

[Anonymous]

The program is a joke. Ibknow several people who made a complaint about a teacher/coach and they were reprimanded and driven out of the school by administration. The complaints werent about sexual misconduct but they were about some very unprofessional behavior that had no place wih children. Maybe the complaints weren't taken seriously because they were t about a child being touched by a teacher? Maybe the role of viritus is misunderstood? Who knows.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing in the VIRTUS training was covered when I got my secret security clearance.

I was talking about the finger printing and background check.

But he was heavily sedated for VIRTUS class sibce he teaches graduate level classes on the subject.

Your husband teaches classes on sexual predators?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing in the VIRTUS training was covered when I got my secret security clearance.

I was talking about the finger printing and background check.

But he was heavily sedated for VIRTUS class sibce he teaches graduate level classes on the subject.

Your husband teaches classes on sexual predators?

Yes

[Anonymous]

Every volunteer has to go through it at our school. Then every year you have to watch a 30 min video to "re up". It is the same video every year and we all know it by heart, but it has also started some good conversations between parents as well as some parents and their own children.
The faculty, staff and parents all take it very seriously.

[Anonymous]

Are the majority of folks just watching the video/taking the class or are they also filling out the background check paperwork? Do they have to do this in public schools?

[Anonymous]

At our parish we had to fill out the background check paperwork and we had to watch the video/take the class. It was funny b/c we have also been fingerprinted a myriad of times for adoption process, so I am on a first-name basis with the dear old retired policeman who does the fingerprinting every Friday afternoon at our local police station.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are the majority of folks just watching the video/taking the class or are they also filling out the background check paperwork? Do they have to do this in public schools?

You have to do the class and the background check/fingerprints.
I don't think they have to do this in public school. I've never set foot in a public school in my life so don't take my word for it but I don't think they do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing in the VIRTUS training was covered when I got my secret security clearance.

I was talking about the finger printing and background check.

But he was heavily sedated for VIRTUS class sibce he teaches graduate level classes on the subject.

Your husband teaches classes on sexual predators?

Yes

more power to him

I'm glad somebody does!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are the majority of folks just watching the video/taking the class or are they also filling out the background check paperwork? Do they have to do this in public schools?

You have to do the class and the background check/fingerprints.
I don't think they have to do this in public school. I've never set foot in a public school in my life so don't take my word for it but I don't think they do.

I am a public school teacher. My daughter attends an elementary Catholic school. I've been fingerprinted through the state and have had an extensive background check done. Even so, I still had to take Virtus training and have fingerprints done again in order to volunteer at my daughter's school. If you have direct contact with kids, you need it (field trips and lunch duty, for example). But if you work behind the scenes (volunteering with other adults to coordinate the Christmas Pageant) you don't need it. Most people, however, volunteer in different roles. So while one activity may require direct contact with kids, another may not. So it's just easier to take the training.

Our principal said that after the sex scandals, the church wanted control over its volunteers. And b/c entities don't speak to each other (my public school system and the Archdiocese, for example), the church - for quality control - had to mandate Virtus for its volunteers.

My friend who has children at her local public elementary did not have to have a background check.

[Anonymous]

My kids have been in Catholic schools since they were of school age, and I'm always surprised to hear parents whose kids are in public schools talk about overnight trips for their kids with teachers - camping trips with the class, overnights to Jamestown or NYC or to the Chesapeake Bay, etc. In our Catholic schools, there hasn't been anything like that in years - and while the Catholic malfeasance is well publicized, Catholic schools aren't the only places where children have been sexually abused. I'm glad the VIRTUS program is in place, and that every adult in our parish and parochial school who have direct contact with kids (lunchroom volunteers, field trip chaperones, CYO coaches, in addition to those regularly in the classrooms) have to take it. It's no guarantee that there won't be a problem, but it's part of a responsible approach to preventing more problems in the future.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Every volunteer has to go through it at our school. Then every year you have to watch a 30 min video to "re up". It is the same video every year and we all know it by heart, but it has also started some good conversations between parents as well as some parents and their own children.
The faculty, staff and parents all take it very seriously.

Same here. I found the program well run and enforced at our school

[Anonymous]

So I applied and got an email saying I was being reviewed for the course. Seems strange you can't just sign up. Anyone know how long the application review takes? I was hoping to go to one in a week or so.

Keely

[Anonymous]

Reviewed just means they are matching you to your application. You file the application at your parish/school first and they add you to their database. Then when you go to the class/do the fingerprinting, the database knows where to match everything up. I wasn't allowed to register for the Virtus course until our principal had my application entered.