LY #127 Required to Report

 As an Oregon community college teacher I am "required to report" any known or suspected abuse of someone under the age of 17. 

My long Tuesday (which ended early at 7:40 pm) started at 8:00 a.m. with a visit from administrator Sharla Andresen to our Fine Arts and Communication Department meeting to talk with us about about this requirement.  She went over her understanding of what we are required to report and what we are not required to report and how if we have any questions about issues on the job we could talk with her or Seth Elliott, our campus safety guy.

I have been wondering about a memory from my past that I included in my Bendnotes letter to Utah on December 5, 1988.   I've sent an email to Sharla asking her if the memory is likely to get me into any kind of trouble, legal or otherwise.  It involves something a student shared with me over two decades ago in her class journal during what was a particularly difficult first quarter of my first "big job."  I've been thinking and thinking about whether the material is publishable even in this almost unread space. 

As I wait to hear from Sharla about that, I'll let you know that I was happy to find out that I don't need to report one of our neighbors letting her kids play on a trampoline unattended.  Seems this is much safer than I thought it was and even if it weren't it's negligence rather than abuse.  Here is what our college policy, Human Resources 3-6 says about the requirement to report:

"Effective January 1, 2013, all community college employees are required by Oregon law to report suspected cases of child abuse to the Oregon Department of Human Services (DHS) or law enforcement officials.  This duty is personal to the individual community college employee and applies twenty-four hours-a-day, seven days-a-week whether or not you are on work time.  You must immediately report to DHS or local law enforcement when you have "reasonable cause to believe" that any child with whom you come in contact with has suffered abuse, or that any person with whom you come in contact has abused a child.

In addition, college employees must report to the Risk Manager at 541-383-7208 or the Campus Public Safety Supervisor at 541-383-7750 instances of inappropriate conduct when they witness, receive a report of, or reasonably believe an instance of child abuse has occured through the course of their employment.  This requirement applies to cases of abuse that allegedly occur on campus, on property owned or leased by the College, or while memebers of the faculty, staff or student body are participating in a College-connected activity off campus.  Reporting to the designated College official does not satisfy the legal duty to report to DHS or local law enforcement.

"ABUSE" means:

• Any assault of a child and any physical injury to a child which has been caused by other than accidental means;
• Any mental injury to a child, which shall include only observable and substantial impairment of the child's mental or psychological ability to function caused by cruelty to the child, with due regard to the culture of the child;
• Rape of a child, which includes but is not limited to rape, sodomy, unlawful sexual penetration and incest;
• Sexual abuse;
• Sexual exploitation, including:

                 1.  Contributing to the sexual delinquency of a minor;
                 2.  Allowing, permitting, encouraging or hiring a child to engage in prostitution or patronize a prostitute;

• Negligent treatment or maltreatment of a child;
• Threatened harm to a child, which means subjecting a child to a substantial risk or harm to the child's health or welfare;
• Buying or selling a person under 18 years of age;
• Permitting a person under 18 years of age to enter or remain in or upon premises where methamphetamines are being manufactured; or
• Unlawful exposure to a controlled substance, as defined in ORS 475.005, that subjects a child to a substantial risk of harm to the child's health or safety.

"Child" means an unmarried person who is under 18 years of age.