As a retired educator,

[49jim]

(school principal....teacher) we are mandated reporters for child abuse.If we knew about a situation and didn't report it, we could lose our job and teaching license. Wouldn't that apply to congressmen?

[Monkeyman]

1. It should

www.john06.com

[moc]

2. Not sure. My husband and I have been having this discussion.

He's a mandated reporter too (a social worker). He'd lose his license.

Teachers, health care professionals, law enforcement officials - all mandanted reporters. Not sure about congressmen.

[ourbluenation]

3. I asked the same question here yesterday....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=2267419&mesg_id=2267419

Mr. Ourblue is a teacher and I work with battered women and their children - we are both mandated reporters and we both would lose our jobs if we didn't report something.

[Jackpine Radical]

4. When you say "mandated reporter," you are saying that a specific

statute in your state law mandates people of your profession to report suspected child abuse, and specifies how such reports are to be made. Each state has its own list of mandated reporters. Teachers, nurses, MD's, psychologists, social workers, etc. are typically on the list. Unless there is a Federal law mandating congresscritters, they are not mandated reporters.

[NNN0LHI]

7. But don't they take some kind of oath to uphold all laws or something?

I am pretty sure they do.

Don

[moc]

8. This is where it gets fuzzy.

My husband is a social worker, so he is clearly a mandated reporter.

I am a researcher, and my research involves collecting data in homes with families and young children. When my interviewers go through the consent procedures, our consent forms are required to have a disclaimer re: confidentiality. That is, that we keep their answers confidential except in the case of suspected child abuse/neglect because the law requires we report it.

My interviewers are not in the same category of mandated reporter as my husband, or course. You can see how it gets confusing.

Also, way back when I was in college, I worked on a suicide hotline. We were trained to stop the caller and "give the warning" if the caller started sharing information regarding possible child abuse/neglect, because we would have to report it. Maybe hotline workers fall under the same category as mental health worker, I don't know.

[Booster]

5. As far as I'm concerned, ANY Congressman or woman who

even had heard about this, and you know they all did, should have called authorities and not just ignored it. This includes Dems as well as Repugs. As I've stated before, it's time for Congress to give up it's little Skull & Bones clubhouse and live under the same ethics, rules, laws, whatever, as the rest of us do, or try to do. These people are about to get on my very last nerve with all their little dirty secrets.

[skids]

6. I'm unsure...

Some folks researching yesterday seemed to come up with the answer that legislators were not mandated reporters.

However, even if you figure it out, feign ignorance and ask anyway. A lot of people. If so, it has teeth, if not the very fact that legislators held themselves above such a law is condemning enough.

[madfloridian]

9. Ah, yes, it is required.

Whether we liked it or not. I once had to report a mother who worked closely with me in my classroom. I was harassed, I was threatened.

BUT..I was right.

One day a month later the parents who attacked me so viciously met me outside my classroom and gave me a hug. They thanked me for getting involved.

[yardwork]

10. Health care professionals are also mandated reporters

But the larger truth is that any adult who knows that children are being molested has a moral obligation to do something courageous. Hiding behind weasel-words like "I thought he was just being friendly" is not ok.

The Republicans claim to be the "moral" party. Their morality is pretty scary, imo.

[BlooInBloo]

11. Key difference: teachers don't write the laws.

[sweetheart]

12. you mean teachers are NOT allowed to ...

..have sex with students over the age of 12?

The new republican argument is that computers have changed the nature of work,
and that young persons are no longer summarily exempted from employment,
and that all kids over the age of 14 learn to spit or swallow.

[BeHereNow]

13. Yes, but you see there are TWO sets of law these days...

Those to be obeyed by the serf class and
those to be ignored by the ruling elite.

As educators, you and I belong to the
serf class.

As members of the ruling class,
complict congress critters ignore the laws
we are required to obey.

"No child left behind" has a very different
meaning for each class discussed above.

The law applies differently to the children we teach
and the children entrusted to the care of our congress.

BHN