Quote of the Week: “Truth, like the sun, submits to be obscured; but, like the sun, only for a time.” Christian N. Bovee

Our finally updated analysis of 219 paid and volunteer teachers, coaches, camp counselors, and other youth leaders charged with sexual abuse of minors between 2013 and March 2024 verified that all the organizations had policies and procedures to prevent these incidents, most had training and screening programs, and 211 of the leaders charged, over 96%, had successfully passed a background check. Their organizations maintained that background checks were completed for the remaining 4% but could not be verified.

Does that mean that background checks are ineffective? Absolutely not. We do not know how many potential candidates dropped out of the recruiting process because of background checks or failed the background check, but everyone who did counts as a success. When designed and managed correctly, background check programs are effective and even prophylactic, from the Greek for Advance Guard. It is an apt term for background checks.

That 96% who passed background checks and were still charged with a crime involving a minor indicates that background checks alone are not enough to protect our children. A federal law helps drive another part of the solution. The Sarbanes–Oxley Act directed the U.S. Sentencing Commission to establish requirements for an Effective Compliance and Ethics Program, including a notification system to prevent and detect criminal conduct. The requirements apply to all incorporated and unincorporated organizations, including nonprofits, of all sizes. Notify is Look 1^st’s notification system, and it is the most likely to prevent and the first to detect all wrongful acts and conditions.

The mandatory reporting requirements for child abuse (and elder abuse) that every U.S. state, territory, and the District of Columbia should also drive the solution. But they haven’t because reporting for most locations is difficult. Here in Pennsylvania, a teacher who pled guilty to sexually abusing a 14 and a 15 girl had been confident that school staff wouldn’t report any suspicions, including because there were so many problems with the mandatory report system. (And they didn’t, even though an inappropriate relationship with one of the girls was common knowledge. One of the girls went to the police when she learned about the other.)

However, on June 1, mandatory reporting everywhere in the U.S. will become part of the solution. Look 1st will begin supporting mandatory child and elder abuse reporting on that day, even for organizations without a Look 1st account. Notify will include resources and a help feature for mandatory child and elder abuse reporting for every state, territory, and the District of Columbia. All a mandatory reporter needs to remember is Look 1st.

Like background checks, effective notification systems are prophylactic. Just like a camera on the cash register prevents employees from stealing, notification systems prevent people from doing what is wrong.

And importantly, Look 1st's Notify never stops protecting people and organizations. It is an “Always Guard.”

What Can Be: Sustained optimum performance is possible in every organization but only with a clear mission, the right objectives and associated metrics, feedback, and effective delivery of important information.