The male child care teacher reminded me of this. I used to work in admin for a child care agency. While we didn't have an offical policy we tried to keep the male staff from the girls over 10 years old whenever possible. Not because the males did anything but we had multiple problems with girls getting crushes on the male staff and when the male staff ignored it, like they should, the girls would cry abuse or cause problems for the staff. Despite best efforts to keep them apart we did want a male at each site and so our middle school site had a male staff. One day I got the following call about that site:
P: Parent
C: Me!
C: Thank you for calling [agency], how many I help you?
P: I am calling licensing!
C: *thinking: darn it!* I am sorry to hear that. If you let me know what the problem is maybe we can fix it and you won't need to call licensing? *sometimes parents won't call if it is something little and we fix it quickly*
P: My daughter was molested! I want to know how you are going to fix that!
C: *too dumbfounded to speak*
P: She is going to need years of counseling and therapy! I hope you are ready to pay for it!
C: Ma'am if you can please let me know the site and staff involved so I can suspend them until an investigation is done.
P: You'll find out when licensing comes to shut you down!
C: But ma'am I really need to know to prevent anymore situations from occuring. For the safety of the other children please tell me.
P: Fine.... it was [middle school site] and [staff name]
C:
P: Whats so funny?!?! My daughter was abused!
C: Ma'am [staff] is gay. He and his husband have been living together quite happily since they got married (not legal, just formal ceremony in a church) last year. I doubt he would touch your daughter with a ten foot stick let alone abuse her.
P: Well she was! You will be hearing from my lawyer and licensing! *CLICK*
I know I shouldn't ahve laughed but I couldn't help it. We did call the site and send the staff home until an investigation was done (with pay). Turns out he wasn't even working that day the girl claimed she was abused. Not only that but he was with a different work group in a different part of the school for a week before the girl claimed. Licensing and the police did investigate and agreed it was unfounded and he got moved to a different site to prevent future problems.
P: Parent
C: Me!
C: Thank you for calling [agency], how many I help you?
P: I am calling licensing!
C: *thinking: darn it!* I am sorry to hear that. If you let me know what the problem is maybe we can fix it and you won't need to call licensing? *sometimes parents won't call if it is something little and we fix it quickly*
P: My daughter was molested! I want to know how you are going to fix that!
C: *too dumbfounded to speak*
P: She is going to need years of counseling and therapy! I hope you are ready to pay for it!
C: Ma'am if you can please let me know the site and staff involved so I can suspend them until an investigation is done.
P: You'll find out when licensing comes to shut you down!
C: But ma'am I really need to know to prevent anymore situations from occuring. For the safety of the other children please tell me.
P: Fine.... it was [middle school site] and [staff name]
C:
P: Whats so funny?!?! My daughter was abused!
C: Ma'am [staff] is gay. He and his husband have been living together quite happily since they got married (not legal, just formal ceremony in a church) last year. I doubt he would touch your daughter with a ten foot stick let alone abuse her.
P: Well she was! You will be hearing from my lawyer and licensing! *CLICK*
I know I shouldn't ahve laughed but I couldn't help it. We did call the site and send the staff home until an investigation was done (with pay). Turns out he wasn't even working that day the girl claimed she was abused. Not only that but he was with a different work group in a different part of the school for a week before the girl claimed. Licensing and the police did investigate and agreed it was unfounded and he got moved to a different site to prevent future problems.
Comment