Finally, what we’ve all been waiting for – the “SAM” audit has started. SAM is an acronym for Sexual Abuse & Molestation. At its meeting on November 14th, the TSD Board of Directors unanimously approved a contract with Diane Cranley Consulting, a specialist in protecting the sexual innocence of children in youth-serving organizations, to conduct an audit of TSD practices to prevent and to handle sexual abuse and molestation incidents within the District, following extensive, in-depth research conducted by TSD’s Human Resources team to find the best consultant for the District’s needs. Here’s what this involves.
The first step to analyze what is already in place and identify gaps to address happened in November. Bi-weekly meetings with the consultant and District start this month. Going forward, there are 4 goals: (1) eliminate incidents of SAM in our schools & community, (2) support students, families & staff, (3) rebuild trust, and (4) ensure that every student, parent, staff and community member feels informed and empowered. These TSD Board-directed goals and the work to achieve them are unaffected by the recent change of District superintendents.
Diane Cranley Consulting was chosen because this provides a unique and substantial ongoing training component that is overseen by the consultant. The District will have the benefit of this expert guidance for as long as TSD needs it on an annual contract basis. Additionally, the audit will include reviewing the entirety of the Neyers situation (2016 – 2020), identify errors and omissions and plan how to move forward from those, examine what the District has done since then to create prevention in its system, review of current processes and procedures, identify remaining gaps and needed improvements, and identify how to bring the District up to current and future best practices. A SAM survivor herself, Diane Cranley has worked with school districts, colleges, and other organizations in California to successfully do the same SAM prevention work that will be done with Tahoma School District.
Additionally, the audit will include a review and suggested updates to boundary policies concerning interactions between staff and students and student-to-student interactions. A communication plan for publicly sharing the results of the audit will be developed and a definitive mechanism for reporting and increasing visibility of boundary violations will be created. This includes creating a central repository to keep track of all SAM incidents across the District in one place.
The biggest and most important aspect of the audit is the training plan that will educate everyone in the District about preventive policies and practices and incident procedures that are developed in the audit. The audit will identify age-specific student education recommendations about what type of boundary invasion and reporting education should be happening, and at what grade levels and for whom. A student safety plan will be developed that protects students from time of report of an incident through the investigation process to resolution, using the most robust practices available.
This review and multi-year training will also provide District and community resource awareness for child advocacy groups, support groups, counselors, and community, going beyond the District to create a community awareness that Tahoma School District has the best available roadblocks to sexual abuse and molestation.
Jennifer C. Rydberg is a retired attorney, grandmother, and mother of two sons who attended Tahoma schools. She served a term on the Tahoma School District Board of Directors 1991-1995 including 1 year as its President. Active in ScoutingBSA, her husband was a local scoutmaster for 25 years; both received Silver Beaver Awards.
