Amish, Mennonite, and other strict religious schools are staffed with unlicensed teachers who are not required to take mandated reporter training.
As a young Amish woman, Misty Griffin witnessed abuse first hand.
“I knew parents, teachers, and church leadership who knew about the abuse and did nothing. The strongest punishment anyone ever received was 6 weeks of shunning for raping, molesting, and severely physically abusing entire families of children. The children in my community had no one, literally no one.”
You may have read Misty’s story, Tears of the Silenced. Now, she is circulating a petition to require all teachers to have training in mandatory reporting, and for all schools to provide training for children to prevent sexual assault.
“Religions like the Amish are not sovereign nations,” Misty Griffin says. “They must be subject to and held accountable to the laws of the United States. At a minimum, the children in these communities deserve basic humane treatment and a government that ensures they receive it.”
Please join us in signing and sharing this petition to make sure that all children, even those in Amish and Mennonite schools, can be protected.