Illinois Elders as mandatory reporters must undergo training

by Diogenesister 8 Replies latest watchtower child-abuse

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  Diogenesister

  Illinois now requires all elders as mandatory reporters to undergo state approved training every three years to ensure they fully understand their roles as mandated reporters. This will include a pre training assessment, 60 - 90 mins of self paced, interactive training with a final assessment to ensure reporters understand their responsibilities. Following the course, mandated reporters must make a declaration that they understand their status as a reporter and will fully comply with mandatory requirements. They will be issued with a certificate they must keep until the next training date.

  Rick Fearon, below, explains how Watchtower is throwing elders under the bus as being on their own and told to state they are 'volunteers' not connected with the organisation. When asked whether they have an employer OR supervisory authority they are to reply NO!

  https://youtu.be/JBsYNMRCdDI
  
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  TonusOH

  There's a great opportunity for this to eventually hurt the WTS. At some point, an elder may report CSA to the proper authorities. And if the organization tries to punish him for it, they may be facing more than a potential civil suit from the former elder. It could possibly become a federal case. And that would be way more serious than any civil suit. I'd love to see WatchTower lawyers try some of their legal tricks against a DOJ investigation or court case.
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  Anony Mous

  Wouldn’t that be “all” JWs since the WTBTS considers them all to be ordained ministers.
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  sheol-do

  Wouldn’t that be “all” JWs since the WTBTS considers them all to be ordained ministers.

  Only ordained ministers in time of war.

  Apart from that you are nothing to do with us and on your own...
  
  
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  smiddy3

  AM , yes and that includes 10 year olds and even younger .At least that was the case when I was still "in"
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  carla

  I don't understand why they focus on IL and not all states. I have a therapist friend who says all states have a mandatory reporting obligation.

  Here is a link and you can go to your state to see what or who is required to report. I typed in a few states and they all had the following- https://mandatedreporter.com/blog/how-many-states-have-mandated-reporting-laws/

  • Members of the clergy or religious order, including brothers, ministers, monks, nuns, priests, rabbis, or sisters
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  Anony Mous

  @carla: Illinois has mandatory training and certification now for all members and employees as well as volunteers of a religious organization that have contact with children (ordained ministers, people in the church day care etc).

  This is so far the only state with this requirement. Yes, the other states have similar laws but don’t require state certification.

  The reason the state is doing this, is that in case of a child abuse case, the religious organization is either on the line for not making their “employees” and volunteers take the training or make people personally liable for failure to report (you can’t get away with excuses such as “they are volunteers and we didn’t vet them” or “we didn’t know about the law”). The law also crosses corporate boundaries and instead goes after the ecclesiastical hierarchy.

  This law was specifically written with the WTBTS legal construction of congregations in mind, as they are the only organization that tries to claim they aren’t responsible for appointing their own clergy or that the local Kingdom Hall is a separate corporate entity.

  This makes it liable on the Octopope to tell all their “volunteers” regardless of corporate structure or whomever they appoint or not, to complete the training or else the law says they should be barred from continuing a “volunteer” so they can’t get from under this one anymore.
  
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  carla

  Thank you for explaining!
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  TonusOH

  The WTS prides itself on the many laws and rights that its legal cases were responsible for in the past. I wonder how they feel about a local government having to create a type of RICO statute for religious entities, thanks to their miserable handling of CSA cases.