STATE COLLEGE — In response to the Penn State child sex abuse scandal, administrators from the State College Area School District are recommending a revised and expanded mandatory reporting policy.
Under the proposed changes, volunteers and interns — who are not legally considered mandatory reporters by the state — would be expected to live up to the same reporting responsibilities as certified teachers and other district employees.
“What the situation in the community has done is make us look beyond 8 (a.m.) to 3 (p.m.),” Jeanne Knouse, the district’s director of student services, told the board Monday evening.
The revised policy also outlines the steps volunteers should follow to report abuse and explicitly states that employees have a responsibility to all students — not just ones they have a formal relationship with.
“The child you suspect of being abused need not come directly before you in your professional or official capacity, but must be under the care or supervision of” the State College Area School District, the revised policy reads.
The proposed changes come a little more than two months after the arrest of former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.
On Nov. 5, authorities charged Sandusky with 40 counts of sexual abuse of young boys over a 15-year period. Less than a month later, authorities added 12 additional charges, alleging that two new victims had come forward. Meanwhile, high-ranking Penn State officials were accused of not doing enough to prevent and report abuse.
The state Attorney General Office’s grand jury presentment, released in November, did not say any of the victims came from the nearby State College schools. But the presentment did say that Sandusky used to bring one of his alleged victims to watch football games at the high school, where Sandusky’s adopted son was competing.
Knouse and other administrators started working on revising their child abuse policy shortly after Sandusky’s arrest, and presented the proposal Monday evening.
Board member Jim Pawelczyk raised a concern.
“Sometimes these things can backfire on you — in that you say, if everybody’s responsible, then no one’s responsible,” he said. “I am concerned that when you diffuse mandatory reporting lines of authority — that actually sometimes you create cracks.”
Knouse responded by saying she’s confident the district currently handles the reporting procedures well, but the changes would give guidance to volunteers.
About 180 adults provide tutoring, mentoring and other assistance through the district’s Volunteer in Public Schools program.
“You can create a very solid relationship with this volunteer,” Knouse said, adding that those volunteers could be the person who a child is comfortable confiding in. “A volunteer needs to know that there’s a procedure that’s in place for that information to be shared.”
After the meeting, Pawelczyk said he would support the changes, which the board is scheduled to vote on at its Feb. 13 meeting.
Other Centre County school districts do not have child abuse policies that explicitly mention volunteers or interns.
“I don’t know of other districts having done that,” said Emily Leader, deputy chief counsel for the Pennsylvania School Boards Association. “But in the current climate, it wouldn’t shock me if others start to look at that.”
Ed Mahon can be reached at 231-4619.
