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Supervision, Not Surveillance: Drawing the Right Line in Staff Oversight
When a church in Delaware retained a pastor who had sexually abused two minor girls at prior churches, a jury found the organization liable after he committed a third assault at the new church. The decision illustrates the central question every youth-serving organization faces: what does adequate staff supervision actually require, and where does falling short become…
Resilience and Self-Esteem: Which Comes First?
A pattern that shows up very often in studies of resilience is a high correlation between resilience and self-esteem. It would be very easy to conclude that, if we help children develop self-esteem, we can also increase their resilience. These studies, however, only measure correlation, not causation. Furthermore, other studies of self-esteem indicate that it…
Youth Organizations Need to Prepare for a New Wave of Lawsuits
New York governor Kathy Hochul has signed a bill designed to give adult survivors of abuse the right to file suit, regardless of how long ago the statue of limitations expired. The statute will be in effect for one year, beginning six months from the date that the governor signed the bill. It is patterned…
Relax, Experts are Reviewing Texas Foster Care
The problems in Texas foster care persist, as does the federal court case involving children without places to go. The parties now have agreed to a panel of three experts, who are supposed to learn everything about this complex problem and provide recommendations in less than two months. The State of Texas already has…
Reliability of Children’s Memories
I ran across an outstanding article that describes a common dilemma for lawyers working with child witnesses, which is figuring out much we can rely on the child’s memory. The problem goes beyond our usual formulation of whether or not a witness is lying. The dilemma is that children can form actual, real memories of…
