Excitement at Church

It started off very casual at a meeting for parents of youth group children to be confirmed this year. David was a sweetheart and attended because I had choir practice at 4:30 and we also had to attend a meeting for parents of the youth group children going to NCYC at 4:45. He really had no choice but to attend, but I'm still on cloud nine after a wonderful anniversary celebration so I'll give him all kinds of cudos! Anyway at the end of the first meeting we were informed that since December there has been a man approching young (under 18) female church members and asking them for a date. WOW!

I wish that we as parents of youth group members were informed of this earlier so that we could reinforce stranger danger (it's called Charilie Check First now) stuff to our children and in my case reafirm what my girls learned in Called To Protect and what David and I have taught them. I know, my 3 oldest are over 18 and my youngest is 12, but the 18s are still 12 and the 12 thinks she's 18! Needless to say, David would have actually attended the masses that this man attends so that there would be a cop available to confront him then and there while waiting for uniformed officers to arrive.

What we were told was that this man had approaced 2 girls and asked them for dates. He approaches girls leading them to believe that he is lost. The girls try to help him and that is all he needs. The first incident happened in December and those parents chose not to follow through with the police. The second incident happened not that long ago and these parents are following through with police and I believe they will press charges. However, this man could have been arrested yesterday if certain procedures had been in place by the church. There is a police officer who is a member of St. James and has taken the position that our church is his domain and that no other police officer can do a better job of protecting our church than he can. Well, this officer should have educated our youth group leader volunteers about what they needed to do when this man was on church property so that the police could arrest him.

Well, when this man was seen at the 6:00 mass, 2 of our wonderful 20 something year olds did what they needed to do to protect our youth. The youth group leader wanted to call the "St. James Cop" and Rochelle said no I'll call my Dad he is only about five minutes away. David showed up and they were still trying to get through to crime stop so David made a call and had officers there within about 10 minutes and this situation was taken under control before mass ended and without alarming our parishoners. This man can and will be arrested for tresspassing if he shows up on church property again.

David the police officer is all about protecting the citizens of Phoenix and will do what he needs to do to get the job done. He realizes and understands that part of his job is to educate the citizens on how police are only a tool they can use to help themselves, but that to use this tool effectively certain rules must be followed in a specific order for them to work. Since December and maybe even before then, our parish leaders believed that they had followed all the rules and that this situation was now in the hands of the police. Guess what, there was an extremely important step that was not completed by church leaders so that the police could not follow through on what our parishoners would consider them doing their job. David was able to coach our youth group leader in following all the steps necessary so that the police can do their job if this man shows up on the church property. We have many Phoenix Police Officers who are members of St. James, and if the token officer had done his job as he has led our church leaders to believe he is the only one who knows what he is doing, we most likely would not have this man around out church 3 or more months after he started approaching our children. When egos get in the way, people get hurt.

What kind of adults are we if we do not put the protection of our youth first before our own glory. Teens and even some 20 somethings have not yet developed the emotional and mental maturity to protect themselves against bullys. This is something that needs to be taught to our young people. These skills do not just appear in their memory bank at a certain age.

I've rambled on enough, but to end on a note to booste my ego......During this meeting, we also learned that these 2 girls remembered what they learned in the Called to Protect class and informed their parents who then informed our yourth group leader. Yea and a gold star for ML (youth group teacher) and myself for a class well taught!