At Protect My Ministry we work with over 5,000 churches in all 50 states to provide background checks as well as child protection policies and procedures. And while background checks are a vital piece of your child protection policy, it cannot be the only safeguard the church has in place. More and more churches are upgrading their policies to include additional safeguards:
- Written policies with signed agreements from all volunteers
- Camera systems/video monitoring
- Sophisticated check-in systems
- Two-person rule for all classroom settings
- Child Safety Training
The value of these and especially the Child Safety training cannot be overstated. In fact, 90% of those that commit crimes in the church do not have a criminal history so the background checks are limited in preventing predators from making it through the front door. Take the following case as an example:
Upon investigating the home of Joseph Emil Klug in September of 2009, FBI agents found the equivalent of a truckload of child pornography. Klug volunteered for the Royal Rangers program, a church ministry for boys, and frequently had access to camping trips and other overnight activites. During those activities Klug would secretly film boys in his group showering and going to the bathroom. Klug had no prior criminal records that would have indicated he was a sexual predator.
A final report concluded that Klug had collected about 59,000 images and 12,000 videos of minors engaging in sex. Some of those images contained sexual assaults involving infants and prepubescent children, bondage, and bestiality. Klug had also falsely portrayed himself as a father of a boy in online chat rooms and provided advice on how to groom and assault children while avoiding getting caught.
And that is the key. There is a method and a process that predators follow in order to gain access to vulnerable persons and build a relationship with those they intend to abuse. Protect My Ministry offers a child safety training program to help churches put safeguards in place and teach other volunteers how to spot signs of grooming and other red flags. This can help stop an abuser before they ever gain the trust of other parents and volunteers and help make your church a safe place.
For more information about Protect My Ministry’s child safety training click here.
Go to www.protectmyministry.com for more information about volunteer background checks.