MK forum

These documents were received this week by members of NTM USA.


Letter to members of NTM USA
04/21/2014

Dear Members of NTM USA,

As NTM USA nears the release of the results of another field investigation of child abuse allegations, we want to share with you information about how NTM USA is approaching this important issue. Additionally, in recent days the outcome of an individual investigation has caused tension and confusion among some. Both of these investigations have affirmed much of what was known regarding the incidents and some additional facts of which NTM was unaware. I would like to, in this correspondence, review what brought us to this point.

Commitment

Let me first restate, NTM USA is committed to the safety of children. We know that the Lord cares for his children, and we seek to be like Him.

In these investigations, the goals were to remove any abusers who might still be serving with NTM USA, to allow victims to have an avenue to tell their story, to offer a means for counseling for any victims who desired that, and to learn from the process to make our organization as safe as possible for all children. Those goals have not changed.

We believe that it honors God to honestly acknowledge sin by proceeding with investigations, seeking truth, admitting what happened, and dealing with any abusers. NTM USA will assist the authorities in any way possible in the prosecution of abusers.

US Historical Child Protection

In the 20th century, most psychological and law enforcement professionals believed that child abuse was not a common occurrence. As was later discovered, this was not true. Significant child abuse of various types existed in all public and religious organizations. As media attention has demonstrated, no organization is exempt, including NTM USA.

NTM USA started to realize in the 1990s that the problem of child abuse needed to be better understood and more completely addressed. Like other organizations, NTM USA was on a learning curve. As our awareness increased, we developed extensive guidelines and policies. The early efforts were stepping-stones to the development of our policies today.

By 2003, NTM USA had developed a comprehensive training program for members, associates, teachers, and children. In the intervening ten years, we have continued to develop and improve our child protection program.

The combination of training for our members and a general heightened awareness of the subject of abuse has significantly reduced the opportunity for abuse to occur, which always results in fewer incidents. Our goal is to prevent abuse from ever happening within NTM USA. While statistics about child abuse tell us it is not possible to prevent abuse entirely, we continue to strive to keep children safe.

Transitions in Educational Options

Methods of educating our children overseas have changed dramatically in the last decade. We are currently operating three schools overseas. During this school year, 2013-2014, with 547 children of NTM USA missionaries overseas, 16 children, or 3%, are boarding. 60% are being homeschooled. The remainder of the students attend a traditional day school, meaning they live with their parents and attend school during the day.

Guiding Principles for Investigations

Governmental agencies are the only ones that can conduct formal investigations leading to arrests and prosecution. Any definitive statement that a person is “guilty” must come out of a court of law. Thus, independent investigations commissioned by NTM USA are limited by definition, and are “reviews” which can result in employee disciplinary actions by the organization, but carry no legal weight.

However, the independent investigators commissioned by NTM USA are instructed to follow standard investigative protocol that includes searching for facts and evaluating all testimony critically. In order to conduct a thorough and unbiased investigation, the investigators should assume neither guilt nor innocence, weigh everything they hear and in all cases look for corroborating evidence.

NTM USA has the obligation to all parties to depend on an unbiased investigation to seek the truth. This can be difficult for all involved. If someone has been wounded, it can be very painful to undergo an impartial investigation that does not assume the truth of the testimony given. NTM USA has assistance available for MKs.

How an Investigation is Handled

Civil authorities are notified when NTM USA receives an allegation of abuse. We take immediate steps to assure the safety of the child. If the authorities decide to investigate, NTM USA defers its investigation until they are finished. If they do not, NTM USA commissions an investigation whenever there is reasonable suspicion of abuse.

Those accused of abuse are put on administrative leave/restricted assignment in the USA during the investigation. Because of HR policies, NTM USA does not make broad notifications, but the Sending Church is notified of the change. Putting a person on administrative leave is neither a disciplinary action nor an assumption of guilt. Instead, it is intended to protect all parties.

When an investigation is launched, the investigative team reviews files and records for facts and contacts potential victims and witnesses for testimonies and interviews.

The factual findings are evaluated and recommendations are given to NTM USA. The Executive Board is responsible for final decisions regarding the recommendations.

Independent investigators do not give NTM USA the names of the individual survivors without their permission. NTM USA senior leadership stands ready to talk to survivors and hear their experience.

Investigative Progress

Allegations of historical child abuse present special problems for investigations. Law enforcement typically will not deal with historical allegations. In cases more than a few years old, they have difficulty gathering sufficient evidence for a successful prosecution. This is very disappointing for victims to hear.

In 2008, the NTM USA child protection team began to consider a comprehensive mission-wide review of historical child abuse. About the same time, a group of MKs came forward to tell their experiences, which reconfirmed our decision to move forward with a mission-wide review.

We initiated the investigation of our school in Senegal. This led to more MKs telling their experiences and a greater awareness in the organization. NTM USA leadership recognized that the depth of injury to victims was significant, and this further strengthened our commitment to the investigative process. Throughout the organization, we have a deep sadness about the past and a desire to see every possible measure taken to ensure that the present and future is different.

NTM USA is continuing the independent investigations through an independent historical abuse review process. This process has been utilized by Pat Hendrix who is leading the IHART team. The investigators in that process are all trained and experienced, and come from a variety of professional backgrounds in law enforcement, security, and education.

Release of Information

When abuse has been confirmed, some question why the reports are not released more broadly and publicly. Many believe that full details should be released either within NTM USA or outside, or both.

An investigation commissioned by NTM USA is not a law enforcement investigation. A confirmed finding of child abuse gives NTM USA the right only to impose disciplinary proceedings, such as dismissing the offender. Under religious law principles, NTM USA may share more than a secular employer would be permitted to share, such as giving an overview of the disciplinary action within the field or to entities with spiritual accountability, such as a Sending Church.

NTM USA does not have the right to make the story public on the internet, or to give great detail even within the organization. The different evidentiary standards for a non-governmental investigation do not permit us to make public our conclusions about an accused.

Application of Disciplinary Policies

Some of you have had questions about how we have applied our policies to recent investigative cases and the terms we use in our policies. Your questions were valid and deserve an answer and prompted us to conduct a much needed review.

Upcoming Report

It is important for us to say that portions from the upcoming results from the East Brazil investigation will not reflect the alignment of policies and clarification of terms that were recently completed. The terms and the policies upon which the East Brazil Master Report were processed weeks ago, reflect the differences that existed in our policies at the time. NTM USA’s commitment to not interfere in the writing of the Master Report means that the clarifications we now have will not be reflected in some of the documents being released. However, we are confident that the final administrative outcomes are in line with our goals and direction.

Conclusion

NTM USA is deeply saddened by the wounds that some MKs have experienced, and is committed to continuing to address child protection. NTM USA seeks to carry out its goals of removing offenders, protecting children, and offering assistance to victims.

When this entire process started we acknowledged the likelihood that decisions might later need to be changed. Despite setbacks, we will continue to push ahead. Thank you for your prayers as we endeavor to follow the path we believe the Lord is showing us, neither denying the past nor abandoning the future. We seek to follow the Lord, one step at a time.

Brian Shortmeier
General Secretary / CAO
NTM USA Executive Board

Application of Disciplinary Policies
04/21/2014

Some of you have had questions about how we have applied our policies to recent investigative cases and the terms we use in our policies. Your questions prompted us to conduct a much needed review. We discovered that there is an inconsistency between some of the policies and we found others that needed updating. We believe that the inconsistencies came about as a result of the many changes in personnel due to retirement, moving, and ministry reassignment which are typical in mission type work. With the changes came a failure of job duties to be completely passed on from one person to the next and thus a failure to keep our policies coordinated between departments. What we have learned helps us to improve our system and strive to keep our policies in alignment.

There was an inconsistency in the use of terms including resignation, dismissal, and termination. The issue of whether or not someone would ever be eligible for reinstatement was unclear.

For example, regarding sexual abuse, in the NTM USA Policy Manual there are references to members being asked to resign, be dismissed, and be terminated but in the Child Protection Manual it only refers to members being dismissed.

Regarding physical abuse, the same differences in terminology appear. However, the NTM USA Policy Manual makes it clear that the member could never rejoin NTM USA while the Child Protection Manual indicates that reinstatement to NTM USA would be acceptable if the member met all the requirements as stated in his/her Action Plan.

These contradictions led to different outcomes for the same offense. What further complicated the situation was that the common understanding of these terms has changed over the years.

Our team has spent the last weeks aligning the policies, applying terms consistently and dropping the use of those terms less understood.

We hope to have more details in a future document, but the general direction has been to align our polices so that NTM USA will always dismiss any member when the member has been confirmed to have engaged in behavior that meets the NTM USA definitions of sexual or physical abuse of a child. In addition to that, members dismissed for such behavior will not be accepted into NTM USA training and will never be eligible for reinstatement.

Clarification of Terms

Besides the differences within our own policies and terms, it can be confusing when using a term that has both a common meaning and a specific meaning. For example, the term “abuse” can be used both in a generic way as well as in the context of a specific definition of a type of behavior.

In order to help people understand when a level of behavior is being called Abuse according to our policies, it is necessary to understand that there are levels of inappropriate behavior and, for NTM USA, Abuse is the most severe. We are adapting our policies to include terms and their definitions such as inappropriate behavior, harsh treatment and Abuse. As a result, there will be various administrative outcomes such as restricted ministry, counseling, voluntary resignation with or without the possibility of reinstatement, required resignation, and dismissal without possibility of reinstatement reflecting the different levels of behavior.

Upcoming Report

We would like to state again that portions from the upcoming results from the East Brazil investigation will not reflect the alignment of policies and clarification of terms that were recently completed. The terms and the policies upon which the East Brazil Master Report were processed weeks ago, reflect the differences that existed in our policies at the time. NTM USA’s commitment to not interfere in the writing of the Master Report means that the clarifications we now have will not be reflected in some of the documents being released. However, we are confident that the final administrative outcomes are in line with our goals and direction.

Welcome to the Fanda Eagles Forums, Whynot! Thank you for posting these documents.

Wow.

I need some time to digest and process them.

Wow. Just wow.

Wonder what Crossview's policy is regarding Child Abuse. Seeing as they are denying their past links with NTM and have lied about the whereabouts of their jailed offender, I'm not holding out much hope that they even have a policy.
So what will happen if a Crossview member is found to have committed child abuse on an NTM base (which is where they are serving, but that fact has been obscured), or vice versa?

Welcome WhyNot. Thank You for your courage in posting the above. I appreciate your stand for justice.

I'm going to be generous and say that at last someone in Sanford is saying something and trying to make some sense of the confusion that NTM has got itself into with the Gary Earl scandal.
And like Bemused says, it is a lot better than Crossview is doing, which is absolutely nothing!!!!!!!!!!

I think NTM is beyond saving myself, to much damage and the repairs are to little to late, but at least someone is trying to make some sense and not offering the same old tired denials and excuses.

Whynot, you're officially cool in my book.

Okay. Still thinking. My head is swimming, actually, trying to process all this.

Thank you again, Whynot, for posting these documents from Sanford.

Okay. My first question has to do with the intended recipients of these documents.

"Letter to members of NTM USA".

I am not a member of NTM USA. Neither are most other regular posters here on Fanda Eagles. And yet, this letter and the second document contain some extremely pertinent and critical information that is important for us to know.

Specifically for all those involved in the Vianopolis investigation, be they abuse survivors, family members, classmates, friends, or the general public who know of and care about people who spent time at Vianopolis and might have been hurt there. There is information in these documents that applies directly to the Via investigation results, recommendations and reports.

So was this information sent to the Via survivors? Or only to NTM members, most of whom don't even know the adult MKs who were abused years ago at that school?

Or is "Whynot" the intended disseminator of this information, whose job it was to get this information posted on Fanda Eagles so we could see it?

If this is Sanford's way of getting this information circulated outside the mission, I would just say that this is a way of getting it seen by some people, but definitely not all of them. Some MKs have passed through these forums and are long gone. Some have never logged on to the site even once. A few of us are here every day, but we are a miniscule minority.

So right now, one of the things I'm shaking my head about is the intended recipients. Was this long, detailed letter really meant only for NTM members? If so, then there were hundreds/thousands of others who need to know this information, who did not receive it directly. Or if there was an actual intention of getting it out to a wider audience, then perhaps it needs to be disseminated in a more effective way, such as by sending the letter (or some form of this information) out to all NTM supporters.

And that was just my first question.