Child Safeguarding in Quaker Spaces

Truth and Transparency in Dealing with Abuse

Safeguarding children in Quaker schools and meetings takes community-wide effort, according to those who work and volunteer to protect children in Friends spaces. In decades past, many Quaker entities did not have child safeguarding policies. Friends often assumed that Quakers were wholly good people, not capable of child abuse.

Child sexual abuse scandals, such as those involving the Catholic Church and Penn State University, have raised public awareness about the importance of prevention policies and practices. Legal requirements and insurance company standards have guided the development of safeguarding policies that are aimed at preventing abuse and reporting allegations.

CNN reported that Penn State assistant football coach and defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky was convicted of multiple counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and other charges stemming from his abuse of ten minors. In 2012, Sandusky received a 30- to 60-year prison sentence. 

In 2016, the U.S. Department of Education fined Penn State $2.4 million for violating a law that required it to report Sandusky’s crimes to authorities.

In 2002, The Boston Globe reported in its Spotlight series that Catholic Church officials moved former priest John J. Geoghan from parish to parish despite repeated accusations that he was sexually abusing children in his congregations. The reporting led to widespread accusations against Catholic priests worldwide.

Quakers and others in several English-speaking countries, including the United States, spoke with Friends Journal about developing child protection policies and responding to allegations of abuse. Policies and training help counteract tendencies to hide accusations of abuse.

Members of faith communities might feel reluctant to draw negative public attention to their congregations. They might also disbelieve accusations of sexual abuse because they consider members of their house of worship to be trustworthy people. Feelings of loyalty and seeing someone as a trustworthy Friend are deep-seated and may inhibit meeting members from recognizing and reporting child abuse, according to Mark Mitchell, safeguarding officer for Quakers in Britain, also called Britain Yearly Meeting. Mitchell (who is not a Quaker) previously worked as a detective in charge of child abuse investigations in London.

“Sometimes the reputation of that faith group is more important than the care of a victim,” Mitchell said. “They think if they know someone, they know them 100 percent.”

One Friend pointed out that egalitarianism makes covering up allegations less likely than it would be in denominations led by layers of clergy. The non-hierarchical structure of Quakerism makes hiding abuse more difficult than it would be in a more top-down faith community, according to Sheilagh Reaper-Reynolds, clerk of Ireland Yearly Meeting Education Committee.

“It’s hard for people to make decisions to push things under the carpet,” Reaper-Reynolds said.

Reaper-Reynolds also serves as Ireland Yearly Meeting’s designated liaison person, the individual in charge of ensuring adherence to guidelines and reporting allegations to authorities. In addition, she is the yearly meeting’s vetting officer who handles screening adults who wish to work with children.

Some Quaker schools have had to respond to accusations of sexual abuse of students by adults in the school community. Spanish teacher Fernando Antonio Asturizaga worked at Friends Community School (FCS) in Maryland. In 2012, Asturizaga was convicted of four counts of second-degree rape; two of the counts carried 20-year sentences, and two of the counts called for ten-year sentences, according to court documents. He was also convicted of eight counts of second-degree sex offense with each count punishable by a ten-year sentence. In addition, the jury found the former teacher guilty of four counts of third-degree sex offenses; one count called for a two-year sentence, and three counts carried six-month prison terms. Asturizaga was also convicted of two counts of child abuse, one of which carried a 15-year sentence and the other of which was punishable by a ten-year prison term.

The abuse took place between 1999 and 2001 while Asturizaga was a teacher at FCS and the victim was a student, according to Montgomery County, Maryland authorities.

The person Asturizaga was convicted of raping was a student who was ten years old when the abuse began. An email to attorney John Beins seeking comment for this article from the survivor went unanswered. Beins represented the survivor in a 2018 lawsuit against the school and other defendants. Additional defendants included Adelphi (Md.) Meeting, Baltimore Yearly Meeting (BYM), the estate of Fernando Asturizaga, as well as former FCS heads of school Thomas Goss and Marcia O-Neil-White. An email to attorney Jason Waters seeking comment from the former heads of school received no reply. Waters represented the former heads of school in the 2018 lawsuit. 

The lawsuits do not allege that former heads of school, or individuals from Adelphi Meeting or BYM, participated in abuse. The 2018 lawsuit explains that between 1999 and 2001, Adelphi Meeting appointed members of the FCS board. The suit also claims that BYM officers and trustees knew of allegations by the survivor’s mother that Asturizaga had an inappropriate relationship with the survivor but did not report these concerns to the police.

One key piece of advice is to observe the rule of three, which means that there is never an adult alone with a child. The rule of three applies even in virtual meetings; adults should never be alone with children even when meeting online.

The 2018 lawsuit, which was filed in the Circuit Court of Fairfax County, Virginia, was settled in 2019. Another lawsuit was filed in 2023 by a former student identified as Jane Doe who alleged that Asturizaga sexually abused her beginning when she was eight years old and continued until she was 18 years old, spanning the years from 1993 through 2002. Defendants in that lawsuit included FCS; Adelphi Meeting; Baltimore Yearly Meeting; the estate of Fernando Asturizaga; and former FCS heads of school Thomas Goss, Marcia O’Neil-White, and Judith Smith. The estate of Jane Manring, former head of school, was also a defendant. Jason Waters, the attorney representing the former heads of school in the 2023 lawsuit, did not reply to a request for them to comment. The 2023 lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland-Greenbelt Division, was settled in 2025, according to court records.

In 2018, while Asturizaga was incarcerated, authorities identified him as a person of interest in the cold-case investigation into the disappearance and legally declared death of Alison, mother of a survivor of his attacks, according to a press release by Montgomery County, Maryland. [Friends Journal is omitting the mother’s last name.] Asturizaga died by suicide in prison shortly after the announcement that police were investigating him as a person of interest, according to the press release.

Marcy Seitel taught at Friends Community School from fall 1999 to spring 2004. She was a friend of Alison, who she wants to be remembered for her writing talent; strong, loving spirit; and infectious laugh.

Asked about advice to school faculty and staff wishing to ensure child safety, Seitel suggested that each employee should make sure to understand the policies that guide the school. Protection policies are developed by experts on child abuse and grooming. She explained that if something in the policy is unclear, workers should ask their supervisors to clarify it.

Employees should carefully follow policies about reporting any concerning behavior, Seitel noted.

“People should go by that guidance even if they really like the person,” Seitel said.

Recognizing that there is that of God in everyone also involves realizing that there are aspects of people that are not of God, according to Seitel. She noted that when Asturizaga taught at FCS, he was extremely well-liked by many teachers, staff members, and parents.

FCS’s current head of school, Rachel Kane, discussed the school’s current child safeguarding policy and practices in a statement to Friends Journal. It says, in part:

As an organization, Friends Community School has confidentiality obligations that prohibit us from sharing certain information about Fernando Asturizaga, an FCS employee in the 1990s and early 2000s. In subsequent years, members of our community have come forward to share their experiences of abuse by Mr. Asturizaga. As a community that centers children and prioritizes respect and safety for all, the behaviors those community members have described violate our deepest core values.

All employees, staff, and parents/guardians must also review and acknowledge expectations outlined in the employee and family handbooks. These policies address all forms of interaction with students, including physical, verbal, written, and online communication, and they establish both preventive expectations and clear response procedures when concerns arise. We review our policies and practices regularly in light of evolving legal standards and best practices. For example, we recently added language related to AI and non-consensual intimate images.

Faculty, staff, and parent/guardian volunteers must complete criminal background checks, sex offender registry checks, and annual orientation or boundaries training before participating in school activities and/or chaperoning trips.

Friends Community School is committed to maintaining a culture of safety, accountability, transparency, and care for all children. In addition to ensuring that school staff understand and fulfill their obligations as legally mandated reporters, the school’s safeguarding expectations emphasize appropriate adult–student boundaries and explicitly recognize the power imbalance between adults and students. Employees are required to communicate with students and families only through school-approved channels, remain observable when interacting with students, maintain professional boundaries in conversations and physical contact, and respect and support students who disclose abuse or neglect. They are prohibited from private or inappropriately personal communication with students and retaliating against individuals who report misconduct, or engaging in any sexual, exploitative, or otherwise harmful conduct. Additionally, FCS strictly prohibits sexual or romantic relationships or communications both with current students and with former students under age 23.

Baltimore Yearly Meeting has had a youth safety policy for more than 25 years, according to Sarah Gillooly, general secretary of BYM. The success of such policies depends on their daily implementation, Gillooly noted. “We must consistently cultivate a community of practice that understands the risks and warning signs of child abuse and neglect, that takes consistent action to reduce those risks and immediately intervene when any troubling behaviors arise,” Gillooly said in a statement.

“As we have learned from experts, child predators target ‘high trust’ communities, such as religious communities, to gain access to potential victims,” Gillooly said in the statement.

BYM does not oversee or govern any Quaker school, according to Gillooly.

Decision making in response to allegations of abuse can place school and yearly meeting leaders in morally complicated positions. When Mike Hanas was head of school at Carolina Friends School in Durham, North Carolina, he learned that several former students alleged that a previous principal, as well as a former middle school teacher, had sexually abused them. The accusations stemmed from alleged actions when the students attended the school between 1969 and 1975. One of the former pupils stated that an ex-middle school teacher sexually abused them in 1976. Former Friends Journal news editor Erik Hanson reported on the accusations in 2019.

In 2012, when the students made the allegations, Hanas was not sure what the school could do to address accusations of abuse that had allegedly occurred decades prior.

Hanas explained in a recent interview that when he learned of the allegations, he notified child protective services and law enforcement. He also hired two attorneys to conduct a forensic investigation. Hanas met regularly with the survivors over a period of between 18 and 24 months. Hanas asked for the victims’ guidance on how to handle the allegations.

Friends Journal reported that the statute of limitations had expired, so charges could not be brought against the accused.

Some of the survivors told Hanas that they wanted to share their accounts of the abuse. He had to balance the value of transparency with the importance of safeguarding the confidentiality of survivors who did not want their experiences discussed with the school community or the public.

Once the investigation found that the allegations were credible, Hanas decided to name the perpetrators, both in correspondence with the school community and in the media. Hanas invited the perpetrators to be part of the inquiry process. He intended to provide safety for survivors of abuse. The former middle school teacher died by suicide after the allegations were publicized.

“I do not pretend to have no part to play. My commitment to transparency was likely a component,” Hanas said.

Hanas would like to have put in place a source of support and mental healthcare for the perpetrator who took his own life.

Hanas noted that background check procedures that vet potential school employees have become more sophisticated over the decades. School employees have also grown more familiar with the signs of sexual abusers grooming students.

Signs of grooming include teachers or coaches talking or texting with students on private cell phones rather than allowing the school to mediate communication. Hanas explained that meeting with a student individually without being in other adults’ clear line of sight is another red flag, as is extending privileges to a particular student or having meetings before or after school between an adult and an individual student. Identifying grooming was much harder 50 years ago before the phenomenon was publicly discussed and defined, according to Hanas.

If, for example, a student is meeting alone with a teacher, the head of school is obligated to approach the adult to express concern about the meetings, according to Hanas.

The Catholic Church has produced a set of videos as part of a training to help viewers understand what grooming looks like, Seitel noted. Such an understanding can help adults protect young people from harm. Seitel repeatedly reported to the then head of school her concern about Asturizaga meeting with an individual student privately but is not aware of a response to her reports.

”I never knew that children had been sexually touched,” Seitel said of the abuse at FCS.

Abuse can make it difficult for survivors to remember what happened due to the mental manipulation involved in grooming, and can leave children with a permanent sense that they were not properly watched over, according to Seitel. In addition to the devastation to victims, grooming and abuse cause problems in the school community at large as the culture becomes sick, according to Seitel.

Writing and publicizing child protection and response policies can prepare Friends at Quaker schools, yearly meetings, and monthly meetings to reduce the risk of child abuse and respond to any allegations reported. 

Child protection policies have evolved, as have ideas on best practices for responding to allegations of abuse. Hanas noted that the National Association of Independent Schools formed a task force to advise school administrators and other staff how to respond to allegations of abuse. The task force began work in 2016 and produced a publication offering guidance on preventing and responding to sexual misconduct.

Some of the advice regarding risk reduction includes paying attention to physical space and making sure that students who are meeting with one adult are always in a direct line of sight of other adults, Hanas noted.

Other best practices include training all employees in mandated reporting, according to Andrew Wright, youth and children’s ministries coordinator for Durham (N.C.) Meeting. Mandated reporting is a legal requirement for adults to report to authorities any suspicions that children are being abused. Wright noted that in North Carolina, every adult is a mandated reporter.

One key piece of advice is to observe the rule of three, which means that there is never an adult alone with a child, according to Kristin Simmons, youth engagement coordinator for Philadelphia Yearly Meeting.

The rule of three applies even in virtual meetings; adults should never be alone with children even when meeting online. The chat function should be disabled for the children and youth, according to Simmons. In virtual meetings, screen share should be disabled; a waiting room should be used; and the host should join meetings first.

Responding to an accusation of abuse would involve first ensuring that the child making the allegation was safe from continued harm, according to Wright. Additional steps include but are not limited to contacting social services, forming an ad hoc committee to guide the response, and consulting an attorney to make sure the meeting is doing everything required to protect the alleged victim.

Across locations, child protection policies have some similar components, including requirements about checking volunteers’ and employees’ criminal records as well as advice about ensuring that a child is not alone with an individual adult. Most people working with children in Australia Yearly Meeting are volunteers who must have official cards showing they have passed a police record check and are allowed to work with vulnerable people, according to Lorraine Thomson, a member of Quakers Australia Child Safety Committee. The cards are issued after a police check.

Thomson explained that Quakers in Australia also have an additional “approved child carer” process that people must go through who are seeking to work with children. As part of the approved carer process, those who work with children answer questions about relevant experience and their motivations for applying for the position. Each prospective worker must provide references, who are then interviewed. At Quaker events involving children, there must be at least one person who has undergone the additional child carer process.

One purpose of Ireland Yearly Meeting’s child safeguarding policy is to comply with the law in both jurisdictions: Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, according to Sheilagh Reaper-Reynolds, clerk of Ireland Yearly Meeting Education Committee.

The policy was drafted in consultation with the four quarterly meetings in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Some people on the committee that drafted the policy were parents, but the convenors did not go out of their way to invite parents to serve on the committee.

Expressing the Quaker belief that there is that of God in everyone, including children, was an important part of the policy, Reaper-Reynolds noted.

All leaders working with children—for instance, in First-day school or summer camp—have to be vetted by the police, Reaper-Reynolds explained. They must also submit two references: one Quaker and one non-Quaker. Even people who are not alone with young people, such as cooks who work at children’s camps, must go through the vetting process.

One-time speakers who give presentations to young Friends are not required to be vetted by the police, but they are never left alone with the children, Reaper-Reynolds noted.

Ireland has had several child abuse scandals involving churches and schools that have raised public awareness of the need for child abuse prevention policies. Friends did not express resistance to adopting the policy, according to Reaper-Reynolds.

Ackworth School’s child safeguarding policy allows the school to meet its statutory responsibility as well as live up to its ethics and values, according to Martyn Beer, head of school. Ackworth is a Quaker day and boarding school in West Yorkshire, United Kingdom.

The 67-page policy includes annual updates that reflect new government mandates, Beer explained. The school has to undergo an inspection each year to evaluate whether their policy complies with the law. Visitors to the school must also undergo screening, according to Beer. There is a core safeguarder as well as 15 designated safeguarding leads, members of staff who undergo in-depth training about child abuse and share their knowledge with the rest of the school employees.

School leaders have a resource to check potential criminal histories of anyone applying for employment, according to Beer. The nationwide Disclosure and Barring Service keeps records of convictions, including those that have been expunged, according to its website.

Given that Quakerism is a faith in which yearly meetings, quarterly meetings, and monthly meetings are all responsible for some decision making, sometimes it is unclear who should be in charge of developing a child safeguarding policy, according to Simmons, of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. Writing and publicizing child protection and response policies can prepare Friends at Quaker schools, yearly meetings, and monthly meetings to reduce the risk of child abuse and respond to any allegations reported. Friends should view child protection as a community-wide responsibility, Simmons explained.

“We want to set people up to be safe and successful,” Simmons said.

If you or someone you know are having suicidal feelings or are in crisis, you can call or text the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988 in the United States to be connected to a trained counselor. Services are available in English and Spanish.