Definitions of Abuse

Colorado state law defines child abuse in these terms: 

Abuse involves an injury to a person’s life or health, or permitting them to be unreasonably placed in a situation that poses a threat of injury to their life or health, or engaging in a continued pattern of conduct that results in malnourishment, lack of proper medical care, cruel punishment, mistreatment, or an accumulation of injuries that ultimately results in the death of a that person or causes serious bodily injury. In this section, “child” means a person under the age of sixteen years. The law also says no person, other than the perpetrator, complicitor, coconspirator, or accessory, who reports an instance of abuse to law enforcement officials, shall be subjected to criminal or civil liability for any consequence of making such report unless he knows at the time of making it that it is untrue. Abuse may be physical, neglect, sexual, emotional or parental substance abuse. 

The Colorado Department of Education defines: 

• Physical Abuse – includes injuries of a non-accidental nature, including soft tissue damage, broken bones, burns, head injury, and the like. 

• Negligent Abuse includes activities that threaten the person’s health or welfare, for example, lack of adequate food, clothing, shelter, education, or medical care; allowing inappropriate use of illegal or misprescribed substances; or putting a person at risk of a serious physical injury. 

• Sexual Abuse and Exploitation - includes incest, indecent exposure, fondling, rape, pornography, and sexual exploitation. 

• Emotional or Mental Injury/Abuse can occur when excessive or unrealistic demands are placed on a child. It includes verbal abuse, such as name-calling, yelling, criticism, and/or teasing. 

• Emotional neglect results when a person does not receive personal warmth, attention, or supervision.

• Parental Substance Abuse includes child’s exposure to harm prenatally due to mother’s use of drug/illegal substance and/or manufacturing of controlled substances in child’s presence or on premise with child. 

No Minister, adult leader, parish visitor, child care employee, religious education program volunteer (RE Teacher, Youth Advisor, OWL Leader) nor any other person working in a paid or volunteer capacity for the Foothills Unitarian Church shall engage in sexualized behavior with persons under the age of eighteen. 

Neither shall anyone engage in behavior with children, youth or adults, which constitutes sexual harassment, or verbal, emotional or physical abuse. It is also the policy of Foothills Unitarian Church that no one who has been convicted of any crime involving an infant, child or youth, or vulnerable adult who has had such a conviction expunged, will be permitted to work with children and youth. This would include crimes such as contributing to the delinquency of a minor, or other non-sexual crimes.