STANDISH – According to state statute, educators, medical and mental health professionals, day-care providers and municipal officials, among others, are mandated to report reasonable suspicions of child abuse to the Maine Department of Health and Human Services.

To Bill Diamond, the longtime Windham politician and child sex abuse prevention activist, it is clear that many of these “mandated reporters” do not have the proper training necessary to identify and report the symptoms of child sex abuse.

That’s why Diamond, who wrote “The Evil & The Innocent,” a 2012 book about child sexual abuse, helped organize a new training symposium at Saint Joseph’s College, “Child Sexual Abuse, Signs, Symptoms and Reporting Methods,” that will begin July 14.

The weeklong graduate course, which runs seven hours a day, will feature speakers including Diamond, Attorney General Janet Mills, State Police Computer Crimes Unit Lt. Glenn Lang, and Dick Durost, the executive director of the Maine Principals’ Association.

The course will cost $1,050 for students who wish to apply the course’s three credits toward a graduate degree. It costs $300 for teachers who use the credits as continuing education units toward a re-certification.

The courses run from 8:30 a.m.-3:30 a.m. Students will hear lectures in the morning and work in small groups developing instructional projects on child sex abuse in order to educate other mandated reporters in their workplaces.

“As mandatory reporters, educators, administrators, school staff, and other professionals interacting with children in Maine are in a unique position to help abused children,” the course brochure reads. “They require training to help identify, report, and assist as necessary when children need immediate care. This five-day symposium promises to help professionals understand child sexual behaviors, the grooming process used by offenders, cultural impact of sexual abuse, responses from children, challenges of the sex offender registry, and child sexual abuse investigating and reporting.”

Diamond worked as a teacher and administrator in Windham public schools for roughly two decades. He says many educators are not well trained when it comes to mandated reporting.

“Having been in education myself for 20 years, I realized that I was never taught, and I know other teachers were not taught, the signs and symptoms given off by children who have been or are being sexually abused,” Diamond said. “Some of these signs are very subtle. And we need to be able to identify those, and then know what to do as mandated reporters. Oftentimes, teachers are reluctant to report because they don’t understand the process or because they’re worried they’re going to get in trouble or they’re going to get someone else in trouble. They want to make sure they’re right and they’ve never been taught really for the most part how to do this.”

Kassy Clements, the chair of Saint Joseph’s College education department, said that the college is excited to be offering the course.

“We are thrilled to be able to offer this type of course with so many respected professionals in their fields contributing both time and expertise,” Clements said. “None of this would have occurred had Bill not written a book worthy of pursuing. His first conversation with me, as a former principal in Windham, was whether public school teachers had adequate training or not, to identify and help children of abuse. We began to brainstorm and thought the symposium would be the most appropriate venue for this type of learning.”

According to Diamond, the course is the first of its kind in Maine. As he researched his book, Diamond said he found out how much more training Maine professionals need in mandated reporting.

“I know this is badly needed,” he said. “Doing the research I had real little faces that I was seeing when I worked with the Computer Crimes Unit. I saw what this was doing to little children and their innocence and how that affected them. It was just heart-wrenching. When you put a face on it, especially when it’s a little innocent face, it just gives me nightmares oftentimes. We’re not doing enough and we need to do more.”

Bill Diamond