10 Jun, 2024 Know the Difference Between Good Mentoring and Predatory Grooming By Debbie Ausburn All youth organizations need to guard against grooming. The problem is that the characteristics used to describe both good mentors and...
29 Apr, 2024 Grand Jury Finds Multiple Failures in School Where Student Shot His Teacher By Debbie Ausburn More than a year ago, a six-year-old in Virginia took a gun to school and shot his teacher. The teacher survived, and the court system...
05 Feb, 2024 Children Are at More Risk from Peers than from Adults By Debbie Ausburn Britain recently recognized, in a report released by the NPCC (National Police Chiefs’ Council), that 52% of alleged offenders in...
29 Jan, 2024 Lessons from the Uvalde Tragedy By Debbie Ausburn The recent Department of Justice (DOJ) report on the police response to the Uvalde tragedy contains important lessons for youth...
20 Jan, 2024 Reviewing Child Protection Policies By Debbie Ausburn As I said in my last post, we recommend that every youth-serving organization review its policies, including child protection policies,...
17 Jan, 2024 The New Year is a Good Time to Review Your Policies By Debbie Ausburn The start of a new year is a good for youth organizations to take a close look at policies and records. We recommend an annual audit to...
08 Jan, 2024 School’s Mandated Reports Shield It From Liability By Debbie Ausburn A Pennsylvania federal district court opinion has some valuable lessons for youth-serving organizations. A teacher developed what turned...
04 Dec, 2023 Criminal Records Checks Don’t Check Every Criminal Record By Debbie Ausburn A story out of Texas reminds us of the limits of many criminal records checks. A Texas school district discovered that a member of its...
24 Jul, 2023 Pedophiles Are Not the Greatest Risk that Youth Organizations Face By Debbie Ausburn We have seen a tendency for youth-servicing organizations (YSOs) to concentrate all of their efforts on preventing sexual predators from...
19 Jul, 2023 The Most Common Mistake in Child Protection Policies By Debbie Ausburn As we work with youth organizations to draft good child protection policies, we see three very common misconceptions. Youth-serving...
24 Apr, 2023 Three Lessons From a Current Scandal By Debbie Ausburn The police investigation into staff at the Rainbow House in Clayton, County, Georgia, offers three important lessons for youth...
19 Dec, 2022 Criminal Laws Differ from Mandated Reporter Laws By Debbie Ausburn A Colorado appeals court vacated a defendant's conviction for attempting to entice a child into his vehicle for purposes of sexual...