Adults are often too scared to work with young people for fear of being branded a paedophile, according to a new report.
A survey by Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People revealed that the fear of being accused of harming young people was the main deterrent.
Kathleen Marshall’s study found a shortage of adults prepared to take work roles and volunteering posts.
More than 1,100 people took part in the detailed survey.
Some 48% of adults surveyed said fear of being falsely accused of causing harm was a barrier to contact with children and young people.
This same fear also made adults much less likely to help when they saw a young person in danger or distress.
Strange. This came up in a discussion at work today. Shortly after I’d seen the article here.
My boss says that there is one libary who due to budget cuts is staffing their branch library totally with volunteers. They had to cut back on community service workers due to liabilities over background checks re: the Jessica Lumford Act (child preditor information), as the Background checks were too expensive for the county to pay. They do have B-C’s on the volunteers, however.
I mentioned that when I was a Children’s Librarian, I was terrified every time a little girl came up to hug me after story time. I appreciated that they liked my stories and songs, but in the back of my mind was the thought “What if the mom decides she didn’t like me and makes a false report?”, so when they would run up, I’d pick up a book or something, and stand stiffly and say, “Thanks for the hug, I think your mom wants you!”
It’s in the back of the mind of everyone in child library services that I talk to in workshops. It’s dad blamed scary how much these people like working with kids, find it very rewarding, but have to worry about things like this.
When I was a substitute teacher I had a student file a false charge against me because he didn’t like it that he couldn’t get away with his hi-jinx in my classes. So I know what it’s like. (Fortunately, I was able to clear my name without any problems, he said I put a ‘tack’ in his chair in band class — I never subbed in band, and had the calendar to prove it.)