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Negligent Supervision of Church Workers—Sexual Misconduct Cases Involving Minor Victims  §10.09

Many of the cases in which churches have been sued for negligent supervision involve incidents of child molestation. A child is molested on church premises, or during an offsite church activity, and the child's parents sue the church. While the parents may allege that the church was negligent in selecting or retaining the offender, they also may assert that the church was negligent in supervising the offender and its premises and activities. One court defined negligent supervision of children as follows:

The measure of duty of a person undertaking control and supervision of a child to exercise reasonable care for the safety of the child is to be gauged by the standard of the average responsible parent; such person is not an insurer of the safety of the child and has no duty to foresee and guard against every possible hazard. The measure of precaution which must be taken by one having a child in his care, who stands in no relation to the child except that he has undertaken to care for it is that care which a prudent person would exercise under like circumstances. As a general rule, a person who undertakes the control and supervision of a child, even without compensation, has the duty to use reasonable care to protect the child from injury. Such person is not an insurer of the safety of the child. He is required only to use reasonable care commensurate with the reasonably foreseeable risk of harm.[109] Wallace v. Boys Club of Albany, Georgia, Inc., 439 S.E.2d 746 (Ga. App. 1993).
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