Child protection is topic of meeting

Reporting of suspected crimes is mandatory for some

In the summer of 1995, I worked a three month internship at The Warroad Pioneer, which I'm sorry to say has since ceased operation. This was the first professional newspaper that I worked for in my career, and it turned out to be a wonderful experience. I had only worked at Bemidji State University's newspaper for about a year and half before landing the internship. At The Pioneer I gained experience in sports, feature, beat and government reporting. I designed pages, took and developed photographs and was responsible for community relations. The best part is that I remain friends with the owners nearly 30 years later.

July 4, 1995

By Devlyn Brooks

"Who you are is pretty obvious," Lake of the Woods County Attorney Jack Krouss said to the gathering at the Warroad Community Center. "You are people who care about children and are legally obligated to protect children."

Krouss spoke to about 60 teachers, daycare employees, law enforcement officials and employees of various medical fields Wednesday, June 28, about laws relating to child protection. He also spoke about mandatory reporting and who was required by law to report crimes relating to children to authorities.

Krouss began by giving a brief historical perspective to his topic. He said that all "societies have regarded children as the property of their parents." He said that there is still an unconscious lingering effect because parents still refer to their children as "my" children.

"When I was growing up, children didn't have any rights," Krouss said. "If they were lucky, some had privileges.

"We're only about 125 years into any child protecting measures," he said.

He said that formerly in Minnesota, cases in which child welfare was questioned were referred to as "dependency and neglect." They are now referred to as "protective services."

"Children are people too," Krouss said. So criminal statutes that "prohibit conduct against another person obviously apply to children." He also said that there is certain conduct that is legal between two adults, but isn't legal when a child is involved.

Krouss said that a few examples of when a child may need protective services are: when a child is abandoned or without a parent; when a child has been the victim of physical or sexual abuse; when a child is medically neglected; or when a child has committed a delinquent act before age 10.

Krouss said there was a difference between who had to report and who could report potential crimes against children.

"Any member of society can report," Krouss said. "If a child needs help we ought to see about getting the child help."

However, there are certain people required by law to report crimes against children, Krouss said. Those people are anybody involved in the "healing arts," in social services, hospital administration, psychological or psychiatric treatment, child care, education and law enforcement. He said clergy are required to report unless it comes under their confidentiality privilege. Krouss also said that any babysitter, whether they are getting paid or not must report any crimes against children.

He told the crowd that the right time to report these crimes is immediately. Any local welfare agency, local police department or county sheriff department can be notified about a crime that involves children. He added that an employee reporting something to a superior does not relieve the person from reporting to one of the agencies. That person still has to report it.

Anyone making a report about crimes against a child is "granted immunity from any civil or criminal liability that otherwise might result from your actions, Krouss said. Anyone maliciously making a false report is liable in a civil suit.

However, anyone who "knows or has reason to believe that a child has been neglected, physically or sexually abused, or has been in the past three years, and fails to report it is guilty of a misdemeanor." If the child suffers substantial harm from the neglect and a person fails to report it, they are guilty of a gross misdemeanor. If the child should die, the person is guilty of a felony.

The two-hour seminar was sponsored by the Kids-N-Us program funded by the Minnesota Department of Corrections.

"We have a lot of child protection machinery," Krouss said. "However, we can't apply any of the machinery of child protection if someone who knows something doesn't tell authorities."