For those who don't know (probably just my brother who reads my blog from time to time--the rest can skip this paragraph), an Evil Person entered our church building last Wednesday night during our activities, and tried to entice young girls to leave with him. He was successful with the fourth, who was found a couple miles away wandering around. Even the police were shocked that he would enter a church and do this. It has shocked and scared everyone in my ward, and in the way of such things brought us a little closer together as we increase our vigilance for all the children.
Nearly everyone has mentioned this to some degree on their blogs, so I thought maybe I should throw this out there to the great beyond. Or maybe I'm just being a troll?? I've been feeling a little disassociated from the matter (calling it an 'incident' seems to belittle it somehow, and I certainly don't mean to do that). I don't know who was involved, and I'm deliberately stopping myself from trying to figure it out, against my more 'natural' instincts. I don't have any children of my own, so I guess it's not as personal for me, although I am certainly in 'over-protective Aunt' mode.
I watch a lot of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and it has long bothered me how the kids would run around like crazy people at church with their parents barely knowing where they were or what they were doing. A few years ago one small child wandered outside the building and couldn't get back in. It bothered everyone in the Ward Council, of which I'm a part, but we couldn't seem to get the parents to understand that just because we're at church doesn't mean we're safe. Just because there are other adults around, doesn't mean they're looking out for your children. Whenever I see small children running around outside I tell them to go find their parents, but as soon as I was out of sight I'm almost certain they would turn around and start playing again. How do you encourage childhood and yet still keep them safe?
Well, my ward is taking measures to increase the safety of all who are at the building. From now on when someone unfamiliar enters the building they will be greeted by one of the bretheren who will--in a nice way--find out who they are and why they're there. This may have been enough to deter the Evil Person last week, but we'll never know for sure. He probably would have just gone somewhere else and tried to vicitmize someone else's child. Here's hoping and praying that the police catch him quickly.
4 comments:
You're right, just because we're in the church building does not mean we're safe, as sad as that is. It's hard to keep track of the kids, though, when they want to play with their friends after the block and you are outnumbered and you've got a bunch of church business to take care of as well. Having someone always introduce themselves to unknown visitors is a great policy -- we should be greeting everyone anyway, so it kills two birds with one stone. I think it would be nice perhaps to have someone at Mutual night whose only job is to keep an eye on things. Speaking from experience, if your kids are there and you're also trying to do Mutual or Scouts or Achievement Days, it is nigh impossible to know where the children are all the time. In moments like these, it really does "take a village" to keep our kids safe.
Joni--I hope you--and anyone else that reads my comments--doesn't think I'm being overly critical. There are solutions to just letting the kids run wild, but before this happened, many parents didn't seem to think they were necessary. The Ward Council would always get resistance to any measures we tried to implement. As for me, I always encouraged Jeff to bring Leah to our SA Committee meetings, and I tell Brian the same thing--I would much rather have them disturb our meeting (and to me it's not that big of a disturbance) than have them running around unsupervised where they could get hurt, lost, or worse. Maybe this will also get the adults who are only there to bring their older kids to be more aware of the younger kids that are there, and not allow them to run crazy. Even if they aren't the parents of that particular kid. Most of the parents I know have no problem with other adults telling their kids to behave.
No, I don't think you're being critical -- as hard as it can be to keep track of the kidlets, it's more important to remember that things can happen. I know that I've been complacent, because up till now, nothing HAS happened. I still like my idea of having someone in the building whose only "job" on Mutual night is to be aware of who is in the building:)
Joni--I think your idea of having a person dedicated to watching the children on Mutual nights is a good one. We had similar ideas in our Ward Council as well. We have so many people coming on Wednesday nights, many of them adults that don't want to drive all the way home just to turn around and come back to pick up their kids. It frustrates me that they don't do more than just sit and chat. They could keep an eye on the kids but they don't. Although, if specifically asked, they would. I need to remember that not everyone feels about children the way I do, almost as if they were all mine. Or at least, they are all my nieces and nephews.
I feel so powerless sometimes, because even if I do speak up I tend to get ignored. What could I possibly know about it, I have no kids, right? I sometimes tell my thoughts and ideas to someone I know will get listened to--in C2, it was Becky Schone. They listened to her, even though she's younger than me and has less experience in a lot of things than I do, because she's married and has kids. How fair is that???
If you like, when the bishop sends out his security plan, I can send you a copy.
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