During the 2003-2004 school year, the Diocese of Cleveland began implementing Protecting God’s Children™, also known as Virtus, a program aimed at the prevention of child sexual abuse. This program seeks to safeguard our children by educating school and parish staff, volunteers, and parents about ways to prevent sexual abuse, methods of properly reporting suspicions of abuse, and the proper way to respond to allegations of abuse.

Thus far, Gesu’s implementation of Protecting God’s Children has consisted of the distribution of the Diocesan booklet, Policy for the Safety of Children in Matters of Sexual Abuse, to school and PSR families, several presentations of the 3-hour Virtus sexual abuse awareness training session and volunteer screening and background checks (fingerprinting).

You are probably aware that teachers undergo fingerprinting and background checks. The new diocesan policy recognizes that, often, volunteers are entrusted with responsibility for the well-being of our children. An obvious first step in assuring the safety of our children is verifying the suitability of those adults who are in contact with the youth of our parish community.

We hope that volunteers involved with the youth of our parish will choose to view these new requirements not as a personal affront, but as a way in which our parish demonstrates its desire to protect our children and honor the trust their parents place in us.

As the school year gets under way, many of you will be volunteering to help in a variety of ways, and we want you to know what the new diocesan policy will involve. Please review the following information for the details. You may contact Kathy Barile, Gesu Parish Business Manager, 932-0617, with any questions or concerns. We appreciate your cooperation and patience as this program is implemented.

Thank you for your generous service to the families of Gesu.

The Gesu Parish Staff

For the purposes of Protecting God’s Children, a volunteer is anyone who interacts with youth more than once a month and/or more than four hours a month.

• Examples include (but are not limited to): Cafeteria Aides, Playground Monitors, those who routinely assist in the Library, Art Room or Technology Lab, Coaches, Team Managers, Scout leaders, Children’s Liturgy volunteers, Bookstore volunteers, Great Books leaders, Club moderators.
• Those who occasionally assist by chaperoning or assisting at special events most likely do not meet the time or frequency criteria and would not be required to submit the documentation described below. However, anyone who frequently assists in various non-routine activities should comply with the following.

Fingerprints are taken and run through the database maintained by the State of Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification & Investigation (BCI&I). The subject’s identity is verified and a report is generated that lists any current warrants and any previous convictions. For volunteers who have been residents of Ohio for less than 5 years, fingerprints will be submitted to the FBI and a national background check will be run.

If you are involved in a school- or parish-sponsored activity in which you are (or reasonably could be) the only adult present with any children other than your own, you will need to submit fingerprints for a background check.

Because the positions listed below can involve unsupervised interaction with youth, these volunteers will be fingerprinted. Other volunteer roles requiring fingerprinting may be identified as time goes on. Contact the Gesu staff person who coordinates your activity if you are unsure about whether or not you need to be fingerprinted.

To make this as easy as possible for our many generous volunteers, we have arranged for several fingerprinting sessions to be held here at Gesu. There will be no charge to the volunteers for fingerprinting done at Gesu. Be sure to bring your driver’s license or photo ID with you to the fingerprinting session and your Social Security number.

All volunteer information will be held in the strictest confidence. Results will be reviewed only by Kathy Barile, Gesu Business Manager. Any information that causes concern will be reviewed only by Fr. Lorn Snow, Gesu Pastor.

Any conviction for a sex offense, a crime involving children, or moral corruption would make a volunteer ineligible to serve in any situation involving minors.

Use the links listed above to find out where upcoming sessions will be held.  You can also register online for this training. 

Thank you again for your cooperation with these requirements.  We hope that it assures you of the fact that we are acting on behalf of each child's safety in these very serious matters.