Organizations working with teenagers face questions of sexual behavior in several different situations. The most common issues that I see are (1) “sexting,” or sending sexually explicit photos to each other, (2) horseplay that turns sexual, and (3) consensual sex. Whether these require a report to authorities or only an internal response depends on several…

One popular, and many believe essential, component of child protection policies is a prevention program geared toward children.  In these programs, adults explain to children how to recognize abuse and encourage them to disclose it.  The field started decades ago with the well-known “Good Touch, Bad Touch” training, and today is crowded with all sorts…

The sentencing of a former child care worker on federal child pornography charges last week was the occasion for an advocacy group to express concerns about the original investigation. The part that struck me was the claim that the school responded in litigation defense mode rather than full transparency. At this point, it is impossible…

The Rochester Public School Board this week adopted certain controversial slogans as government speech, apparently believing that by adopting some particular statements, it can at the same time prevent opposing speech. The RPS is correct that it has a right to its own speech.  The best I can tell from news reports, however, its proclamation…

Anti-bullying programs get a lot of attention these days, because everyone wants to spare children the trauma of true bullying.  Yet in spite of our best efforts, the problem is not getting better, and some experts worry that we are creating new problems for our kids. One problem is that, contrary to what many parents…

The Secret Service Threat Assessment Center recently issued a report analyzing 67 failed plots by students against their schools. Although there was plenty in the report for the predictable policy groups to tout (restrict access to guns, increase mental health interventions), there are several important points for schools and other youth-serving organizations to consider. Those…

One thing that has become clear during the pandemic is that rates of mental health problems and suicide among our children have skyrocketed. As youth organizations open back up, we are likely to encounter quite a few children whose anxiety and depression reach levels that, in the words of federal nondiscrimination law, “limit one or…

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…

Another very contentious area is whether youth programs must accommodate service animals and emotional service animals. Modern media confuses the two, but the law treats them very differently. A service animal (usually a dog or miniature horse) is trained to do a specific task related to the child’s disability. The task can be as simple…

One area that youth organizations must address is how to accommodate children with disabilities. It can be a complicated question, such as when a child’s disability harms other children or when a disability simply cannot be accommodated without completely changing your program. Even programs with the best intentions must balance and care for the needs…