The Tennessean from Nashville, Tennessee • A18

18A from the cover Bishop Bruce Oughof the United Methodist Church, which once split over slavery. members who promote or pursue a or white supremacy agenda are not in harmony with the teachings of the said the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which once banned black members from its priesthood and sacraments. The quick, clear and unequivocal condemnation of white supremacy last week stood in sharp contrast to President Donald vacillations blaming the violence on and As the theological underpinnings of white supremacy in America have all but been removed, the political ideology of white supremacy seems to grown stronger. White re-emergence comes as the percentage of Americans who identify as white and Christian has declined from 54 percent a decadeago to 45 percent less than a majority today. seeing is the sort of third wave of white reaction and resistance to racial progress and said Robert Jones, CEO of the Public Religion Research Institute and author of End of White Christian The first wave came when Reconstruction gave way to Jim Crow segregation, the second when Brown v.

Board of Education set off the modern civil rights movement. The latest surge comes as the first African-American president was succeeded by a conservative white president who continues to stoke white working-class anxiety and resentment. Each wave is an attempt to reestablish white authority, especially in the South, symbolized by the veneration, defense and preservation of Confederate statues and monuments. The violent clashes in Charlottesville were centered around plans to remove a statute of Confederate Gen. Robert E.

Lee, which was commissioned in 1917. Nearly all Confederate monuments were installedfrom 1900-1920 and from 1954-1968. In Memphis, the Nathan Bedford Forrest statue was installed in 1905, and the Jefferson Davis statue in 1964. The church at large no longer condones racism or its symbols, only beginning to deal with how the legacy of racism and white supremacy has shaped their theology, churches, and world Jones said. That explains why the Southern Baptist Convention apologize for its racist history until the late 1995, and why the SBC hesitatedlast June to condemn white nationalism, white supremacy and the alt-right.

It also explains why 80 percent of African-Americans see Confederate flags and statues as symbols of racism, but 6070 percent of white Christians including President Trump see them as historic expressions of Southern pride. The church at large now condemns racism and white supremacy, but still struggling to understand and acknowledge white privilege. the days of Jim Crow, white supremacists make no attempt to use Christian language to justify their beliefs or said Dr. Joseph Reiff, religion professor at Emory Henry College in Emory, and author of of they are really protesting is the loss of their white privilege, the potential loss of their favored status in America. White supremacy is the belief system and the power system that sustains white Reiff grew up in the United Methodist Church in Mississippi.

Jones grew up in the Southern Baptist church in Mississippi. Both have seen the church work to remove its theological support for white supremacy. Both believe the church still has work to do. Christians need to acknowledge and confess our privileged status and our conscious and unconscious complicity in the ongoing reality of white supremacy in the U.S.,” Reiff said. Christian churches still have a lot of soul-searching left to said Jones.

Churches Continued from Page 1A EVAN VUCCI, AP Mourners and clergy pray outside the memorial service for Heather Heyer, on Wednesday. to proper authorities is widespread. lack of reporting from schools here in Davidson County and probably surrounding counties has become an said Chad Butler, a child sex abuse prosecutor in Davidson County. happening so frequently that I help but think not a Stephen Crump, a Republican prosecutor in East Tennessee, said the problem is a cultural issue in education. School officials often want to investigate the alleged abuse instead of immediately reporting it.

teach the math of my kids in high school. (Schools) trained to do investigations. They will overlook Crump said. know telling their staff not to Brentwood Academy officials deny wrongdoing, saying they reported what they knew to appropriate authorities at the time. Brentwood police said the department is investigating allegations of attacks on the boy in the locker room at the academy.

That investigation does not include school officials for failure to properly report theattacks, as alleged in the lawsuit. Kim Helper, the district attorney for Williamson County, said she think non-reporting was a local issue and she remember any recent prosecutions for non-reporting. In Nashville, however, Metro police investigate any reporting law violations if there is a suspicion school officials notify the proper authorities, confirmed police spokesman Don Aaron. There are active investigations involving Davidson County schools not properly reporting suspected abuse. know telling their staff not to report.

I know for a fact what Butler said. gotten to the point in our office where just going to start prosecuting The Tennessee Department of Services opened a new investigation Wednesday into allegations at Brentwood Academy, a school for elite with annual tuition nearly $25,000. The school has produced at least 10 NFL players. DCS was unaware of possible child abuse reporting concerns involving Nashville public schools until contacted by The Tennessean. the rare instances that we learn that someone who should have called us did not, we share that information with the local district attorney office to see if its staff wants to prosecute.

That would be the call, not DCS spokesman Rob Johnson said in an email. are reaching out to the Davidson County District Attorney office to see what their specific concerns are about those who do not report child think gotten explicit Metro Nashville Public Schools instructs principals to review abuse reporting policies at the start of every school year, said Tony Majors, executive officer of student services. you have reason to suspect, whether that be visual, behaviors that you ob- servedor a direct statement received, then you should notify DCS. responsibility to Majors said in a Friday interview. Majors and an MNPS spokeswoman declined to comment on statements.

But Majors acknowledged some principals in recent years the policy, telling educators to inform administrators first before notifying DCS or law enforcement of suspected abuse. That confusion could stem from the wording in policy. Principals are listed before DCS on a list of authorities educators should contact if they suspect abuse. When informed of the list order by The Tennessean, Majors said it was not intended to be chronological but that brought that to my attention go back and change the Majors said the training includes tell- ing teachers child abuse hotline number. Even though the training is required, Majors said the administration ensuring such training occurs in every school.

Nashville teachers who spoke with The Tennessean said they were told to first contact school counselors, not police or child services, when they suspect abuse. think gotten explicit instructions on how to file with said an MNPS teacher, who requested anonymity to speak candidly about the policy. you believe there is any abuse, you are legally obligated to report it. But that is within the This teacher, been employed by the district since 2010, said teachers have seen mixed results in reporting abuse to a counselor. Instead, teachers will look for an adult at the school who is close to the student and try to learn more about the circumstances, the teacher said.

Once the student feels comfortable, then the teacher said together they will approach acounselor or principal. While this approach may be well intentioned, Crump said it could not only compromise a criminal investigation but create the potential for a child to be hurt again. have one shot to get a good There are several reasons an educator might not report an abuse suspicion directly to police or child services, said Kristen Houser, spokeswoman for the National Sexual Violence Resource Center. people err on the wrong side; they think they want more information to feel more sure that real before they report it. Frankly, really dan- Houser said.

Crump, who serves as prosecutor for Bradley, McMinn, Monroe and Polk counties, said school officials could divulge information to the possible perpetrator, posing a safety risk to an abused child. School officials are not trained as forensic investigators, so trying to interview a student about possible abuse can have other drastic consequences. have one shot to get a good statement from a Crump said. The student may not tell a school official everything that happened, Crump said. That could create conflicting statements in the future, or push the school to decide there is no problem when in fact abuse occurred.

Crump knows of one case in which a counselor decided no abuse occurred, but police and office filed charges after conducting their own investigation. go with more of a carrot than Scott Berkowitz, executive director of the Rape, Abuse Incest National Network, said schools nationwide must tell teachers to report directly to authorities if they even suspect abuse. More training for all educators may work better than prosecuting those who do not report, he said. go with more of a carrot than a stick on Berkowitz said. Crump said spoken in schools, telling teachers to go directly to school resource officers once they suspect abuse.

But these officers are typically not in private schools like Brentwood Academy. While Brentwood Academy officials have said all of their staff is trained on mandatory reporting, the student handbook lays out a conflict resolution process that does not specifically mention what to do if sex abuse is suspected. There can be broader, cultural issues when it comes to abuse and reporting in private schools, said Houser, the spokeswoman for the National Sexual Violence Resource Center. you end up with an environment that really prides itself on being elite, it can sow some seeds, because you have other priorities that are (seen) as most Houser said. are vulnerabilities an offender can then exploit to perpetuate abuse and protect Reporters Jason Gonzales and Elaina Sauber contributed to this report.

Reach Dave Boucher at 615-259-8892, and on Twitter Abuse Continued from Page 1A Who is reporting child abuse? While some statesrequire only professionals, such as teachers or doctors, to report child abuse, Tennessee requires any person who suspects any form of child abuse to report it to child services or the police. In 63 percent of cases across the country, professionals report the abuse, according to the 2015 Child Maltreatment reportfrom the U.S. Department of Health Human Services. a breakdown of who submits reports for cases that received an investigation or some form of response. personnel: 18.4 percent law enforcement personnel: 18.2 percent services personnel: 10.9 percent 6.8 percent 6.8 percent sources: 7.4 percent.