The current sex scandal in the Roman Catholic Church, recent arrests of area teachers, coaches and Scout leaders charged with a whole sewer of sexually related abuses against children in their care has raised the issue of trust for many parents who are concerned about their children.

Who can you trust with your children? How do you keep your child safe from abuse? How can we monitor the behavior of those we trust with our children?

The primary responsibility for the safety of children lies with their parents. From the first preschool you choose to the coaches, friends, organizations and yes, even the church groups, you allow your teen to attend––parents need to monitor the people they trust with their child.

Schools and most youth service and sports organizations conduct criminal background checks on their employees and volunteers to eliminate those who have been convicted of abuse from preying on children. Background checks only give information about those who have already been convicted, however, not those who have yet to be caught.

Churches have not been as vigilant about conducting criminal background checks for youth group volunteers, but they also need to subject their own clergy and church members to this level of scrutiny.

In the meantime, parents need to talk with their children at an age-appropriate level about inappropriate touching, and other forms of sexual abuse. It’s not an easy subject for most adults and a wealth of helpful information is available from school counselors, public libraries and church organizations.

A child who feels comfortable saying “no” to an adult about inappropriate behavior is also a child who will talk openly with their parents about “funny feelings” or “weird” behavior that they may experience.

We can do many protective and corrective things to protect our children from abuse, and as parents and a community we need to do all of them.