Volunteers must now report suspected child abuse

Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office Maj. John Gibson says a new law could help law enforcement officials spot people who abuse children.

As part of a sweeping overhaul of the state’s criminal justice system that took effect Sunday, clergy, nurses aides and volunteers who work with children join doctors, social workers, teachers and other professionals who are required by law to report suspected abuse.

“I think most of those people who work with children would report it if they suspected anything was wrong, but this just emphasizes how important it is for them to report it,” Gibson said.

State Sen. Charlie Bethel, R-Dalton, said the General Assembly added those people because of the relationships they have with children.

“It’s recognizing that you have a duty when you are interacting with children in a position of trust, not just as a member of the general public, to report it when you have reason to suspect a child is being injured or hurt,” he said.

Gibson said he could not recall any cases where volunteers who work with children have helped uncover abuse.

“I’m sure it has happened, but no case jumps out immediately,” he said.

David Boyle, dean emeritus of social work at Dalton State College, said the changes are well intentioned, but they could backfire.

“Overall, it’s probably a positive. But this is going to require some training. Social workers and therapists know what constitutes child abuse or neglect. We deal with it a lot. But volunteers could be very confused. They could report things that are not reportable,” Boyle said. “The law could create the sense among volunteers and clergy that everything needs to be reported, and it could create a lot of unnecessary phone calls.”

Gibson said he does expect that volunteers and others newly covered by the law might report some things that aren’t really child abuse.

“I’m sure there’s going to be a learning curve, especially at first. And I do hope the organizations these volunteers work for give them some training on what abuse is and isn’t. But I’d rather us have to work a little bit harder and look through some cases that don’t turn out to be abuse than to possibly miss some abuse,” he said.

Bethel said the members of the General Assembly will be keeping a close eye on how the law works.

“If it turns out that we have a flood of mistaken reports, then we can go back and deal with that. But from my perspective, having law enforcement and social workers be more busy is less of a tragedy than having actual cases of abuse be overlooked,” Bethel said.

Local school officials are already looking at how the law will affect those who volunteer in schools.

Whitfield County Schools Superintendent Danny Hayes said a policy will be ready for the school board to consider within 30 days.

Whitfield County Schools Assistant Superintendent Judy Gilreath said it doesn’t appear schools are required to train those who volunteer on how to comply with the law but schools will likely offer some help.

“They pass this stuff but they don’t give a lot of direction,” she said.

“We do plan on coming up with an information sheet to give people but if they just occasionally chaperone a field trip or something it’s not feasible that you can train them,” Gilreath added.

Whitfield County Board of Education Chairman Louis Fordham worries that imposing new legal requirements on volunteers could keep some people from working with children.

“I think everybody would agree with the principle of this law, but it scares me to death,” he said.

But Whitley Coppock, the Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) volunteer coordinator at Eastside Elementary School, said the law won’t make it harder to get volunteers.

“Usually our volunteers are screened so to make sure that they don’t have any background or anything like that so they can be around the children,” he said. “But also before they become a volunteer we go over with them the rules and regulations they have for volunteers. If they were to see anything they think could be a problem or an issue, to discuss that with the counselor or the teacher.”

Bethel said volunteers won’t be expected to have the same expertise in spotting child abuse as professionals.

“It’s like any other law. Somebody can only be expected to be responsible for what they should know. I coach youth athletics. I’ve read about abuse and gone to events discussing it because I care about kids.” Bethel said. “But I don’t have any specialized or professional training in recognizing youth abuse, and I believe that what I would be expected to recognize and report would be different than a trained, professional social worker.”

While clergy are covered by the law, they are not required to report information they learn in confession or from other circumstances or from other communications their faith considers confidential. But if they learn about something from a third party or independently see signs of abuse they are required to report that, Bethel said.

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Volunteers must now report suspected child abuse

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