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This has definitely caught the attention of our parish (St. Ann - Coppell). Our audit's coming up soon, and there's been quite a bit of activity in trying to get our paperwork up to date.

Within the youth programs, we've been following other policies that are designed to protect all kids. The most effective has been to ensure that there are always two adults in the classroom. Up until the last couple of years, that's been difficult (not enough teachers). This year, every class has had 3 or 4 teachers.

When you consider that each grade has close to 500 kids participating, that's A LOT of teachers. The estimated # of volunteers at our church is close to 600. That's a lot of paperwork, too.

When you consider that each grade has close to 500 kids participating, that's A LOT of teachers. The estimated # of volunteers at our church is close to 600. That's a lot of paperwork, too.

That's a lot of volunteers! How many families in your parish? Who's your pastor?

I'm your neighbor, over at St. Michael's in Bedford. We've got a similar policy; I've been background-checked because I lector at Saturday Mass every three weeks.

WAY before the Rudy Kos mess, WAY before anyone at the chancery office realized it was not proper to shuffle Kos and other perv's off to other parishes EVEN THOUGH THEY KNEW FULL WELL THEY WERE GOOFING WITH THE ALTAR BOYS, and WAY before background checks were even thought of, Fr. Bierschenk fired my son's first grade male teacher within just a few months of his hire. I was upset at the time because this was a truly gifted teacher. I usually don't pay attention to rumors buzzing around but those particular rumors were of a sexual content, even though there had been no abuse of any kind. Surely the teacher must be innocent, I thought. Then, a few months after his firing, this teacher began to call me to ask if he could see my son, take him to the mall, take him fishing.

Father Bierschenk had a real sense as to who might be a predator BEFORE THEY WERE ABLE TO DO ANYTHING TO ANY CHILD and he acted quickly and decisively.

I guess Father should've hired somebody to do his background checking for him like the bishops did.