Reply to Catholic schools and VIRTUS

Forum Index » Private & Independent Schools

Reply to "Catholic schools and VIRTUS"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]Virtus is child-safety theater. It is run by the consortium of dioceses that self-insure against liability for negligence. The Virtus program gives the consortium an argument that it has done everything possible to prevent child abuse.

The main message I got from the training was that, notwithstanding the sensational news reports about abusive priests, lay people are dangerous, and you have to be especially careful about parents. Unfortunately, the training was all anecdotal (and I have no idea whether the anecdotes were factual or merely illustrative) and there were no statistics about how much liability has been incurred due to molestation by parents, other laity, and clergy, respectively. You aren't really at the training to learn facts like that.

The background check is not very helpful, because [url=http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=search.displayRecord&uid=2008-18509-003]95% of sex offenders are first-time offenders[/url]. If there is no criminal record for 95% of child molesters, the background check can reduce child molestation by only 5% at most.

I can see doing a background check for a new teacher when the school hires her, but it is not cost-effective for volunteers who will only occasionally see students. The cost of the background check, borne in my parish by the volunteer, and the time required for the check and the training, reduce the number of volunteers. A much better safeguard, used by organizations such as Scouts, is to ensure that an adult is never in a room alone with a child.

So why doesn't the consortium of self-insuring dioceses adopt the simple rule against unattended one-on-one? My guess is that it's hard to enforce and document compliance with a rule like that. It's much easier for the bishops to contract for this certification program (yes, the Virtus training company is making a good buck) so they have mountains of evidence of how diligent they are in trying to prevent child molestation. Also, the program is useful for giving every parent-volunteer exposure to the notion that the real problem is from parents and other lay people.

After the training, I had the very depressing feeling that the Virtus program is designed by lawyers for the benefit of lawyers and their diocesan clients. I doubt whether it helps children, and it's certainly a pain for parents.
[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics