Countywide : Training of Teachers to Report Abuse Urged

The Orange County Grand Jury on Thursday urged school districts to better prepare teachers to recognize and report child abuse cases, which totaled more than 11,500 in Orange County in 1984.

The jurors said that teachers they interviewed for their report indicated they were not sufficiently aware of procedures for identifying suspected cases of abuse or of their responsibilities for reporting them.

The grand jury recommended that school districts adopt standardized procedures for instructing teachers on their legal obligations as well as how to recognize and report suspected child abuse. Teachers also should be required to participate, along with students, in a prevention program, the report said.

The jury noted that in Orange County, a telephone report must be made to the Child Abuse Registry, then followed up with a written report within 36 hours. A teacher who fails to report known or suspected incidents of child abuse can be subject to criminal prosecution and civil court action.

Fred J. Koch, deputy superintendent of the county Education Department, said Thursday that the standardized procedures recommended by the jury could be difficult to achieve.

“One thing the jury doesn’t understand, as far as school districts are concerned, is that they are local entities,” Koch said. “Even if one district wants this kind of program, the district next door might want something else . . . people will feel strongly that this or that should or should not be in it.”

The jury also encouraged school districts to require teachers to sign an affidavit stating that they have knowledge of and will comply with child abuse reporting laws.

The teachers told the jury that the problem of identifying abuse or neglect is compounded when they are dealing with children from families where English is neither spoken nor understood, the report said.

That problem could be alleviated, the jury said, if the county Social Services Agency would employ bilingual staff members to counsel members of ethnic groups about discipline and about family customs that may be contrary to state laws.