Could a Penn State-style child sex scandal happen in Washington County?
"It's not going to happen if people do their jobs and report," said Don Pelton, a county child protection supervisor who's been busy informing coaches, teachers, bus drivers, nurses, day care workers and others about how to comply with Minnesota law.
"If you don't report, you're putting other people at risk," Pelton said last week. "This guy at Penn State, he had more than one victim."
In Minnesota, anyone working with children must report maltreatment to police or a social service agency. Such people are designated as "mandated reporters" under state law. Reporting abuse to a school principal or any other supervisor does not excuse the person witnessing abuse from notifying investigative agencies.
That differs from Pennsylvania, where allegations of child sex abuse against former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky led to an investigation of national importance.
In Pennsylvania, said law professor Wesley Oliver, employees witnessing child abuse are supposed to notify their superiors in their institutions or departments. That's where state law breaks down, said Oliver, of Widener University in Pennsylvania.
"Ultimately, the superior must report," he said. "There is a thorny question in Pennsylvania of who that superior is and who has a duty to report. For a major institution, this becomes a complicated question. Does that mean the chair of a department, or the dean of a division of the university, or even the president?"
Pennsylvania law also requires that anyone who learns about child abuse "in the course of his employment" must report it, he said. "Does that mean the employee of a university that educates adults? If so, does this statute mean, for instance, that a garbage man on his route who sees something suspicious must report it?"
