More Mandated Reporters Charged

Police have charged five school officials in Florida with failing to report suspected abuse. In this case, a student gave a teacher a note expressing concerns about a friend’s being sexually harassed by other students and engaging self-harming activities. School administrators talked to the victim about her suicidal ideation, but did not discuss the alleged sexual assaults.

Several months later, the administrators decided on disciplinary action for one of the accused students. At that point, someone apparently realized the need to make a report, and the school notified authorities. The principal alleged said that he didn‘t report it earlier because he didn’t believe the victim.

The police found evidence to support the allegations, but the victim’s parents did not want to pursue criminal charges. The police closed the case without prosecuting the accused students. Nevertheless, the police charged five administrators with failure to report the allegations to authorities.

There are several lessons in this story. First, if your organization receives a direct report of abuse, do not do your own investigation and do not second guess the claims. Simply report them to the appropriate authority. Second, you absolutely do report hearsay no matter how strongly you believe that the incident didn’t happen. Finally, even if the authorities do not prosecute the actual perpetrators, they are always more than happy to go after the low-hanging fruit of technical violations by mandated reporters. Know the law in your jurisdiction and be prepared to follow it to the letter.