If you talk about being currently suicidal in the (American) school system your teachers are REQUIRED to report you even if you don't have a plan, even if you don't want help. Many times I have had to censor myself around the staff in my school, speak as if I was not referring to myself but to someone I knew, or claim that I was no longer suicidal despite that being untrue when in normal conversation about my experiences. Most of the time I would still be told that it wasn't school appropriate. There are so many times when I feel that my perspective would have added to the conversation but I was not able to give it because I would be reported. I appreciate the teachers who I have asked whether I can hypothetically talk about something who have warned me that they would have to report it because that has made me feel safer around them. This kind of repression of my experiences and perspective as a suicidal individual has, surprise surprise, made me feel MORE isolated, stressed, fearful, and bad.
This is suicidism. Your perspective is valuable and you deserve to share it without being put into danger.
Three days ago the DOJ and several Washington dioceses pressured the state of Washington into granting Roman Catholic priests exemption from mandatory reporting of sexual abuse. Teachers have to report it, doctors and psychiatrists have to as well -- but not Catholic priests. In the past, such a heinous double standard was only thinkable in a concordat country but now even American clergy are indemnified against their crimes. A lot of sore bottoms will come from this...
You pissed on our laws, Catholics. And for that you will be pissed on in turn. This is just the beginning.
Washington state’s new law forcing clergy to report child abuse becomes a constitutional test, facing challenges from churches and the Trump
Alex Ashley at Rolling Stone:
On the morning of May 2, 2025, supporters of Washington Senate Bill 5375 were ushered through the massive concrete arches and up the grand staircases of the Washington state Capitol — the veins of Alaskan Tokeen marble guiding them past oil portraits and century-old busts — to the governor’s conference room on the second floor.
Inside, amid the dark wood paneling and gleaming seal of the state, Bob Ferguson, Washington’s new governor and former attorney general, addressed the small crowd of advocates, lawmakers, and child-abuse survivors who had gathered behind him.
“I’m a Catholic as some of you know. I’m aware of my upbringing,” he said, before adding plainly: “For me this is very clear legislation and important legislation.”
Ferguson uncapped a blue felt-tip Paper Mate and, with the stroke of the pen, signed into law one of the most consequential child protection measures in recent memory, mandating the state’s clergy — for the first time in 50 years — to report child abuse.
“The room felt like it was buzzing,” recalls Sara Young, an advocate who was there that morning. She grew up one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, surviving years of abuse she says congregation elders ignored. “None of us really knew what to expect, but being there felt like a weight finally lifted.”
For supporters like Young, it closed a loophole that let clergy across denominations keep abuse in the dark. For opponents, it was an attack on religious freedom with no exception for sacred rites like confession.
In that moment, Ferguson closed the door on a battle two decades in the making — and opened another. When the room cleared that morning, no one — not even Ferguson — could have predicted just how quickly the law’s challengers would mobilize.
Within 72 hours, Trump’s Justice Department, led by Attorney General Pam Bondi, had launched a First Amendment probe into what it called an “anti-Catholic” law.
The Archdiocese of Seattle, along with the dioceses of Yakima and Spokane, filed a federal lawsuit — Etienne v. Ferguson — claiming the new law was a punch thrown straight at the Catholic church; that it forces priests to choose between obeying the state or violating a core religious duty.
[...]
Washington Closes the Clergy Loophole
Under Washington’s new child protection law, clergy of all denominations are on the hook, just like physicians, nurses, social workers, teachers, law enforcement officers, childcare providers, and others.
The law does not force priests to testify in court, turn over notes, or violate attorney-client privilege. What it does is narrow but consequential: If clergy learn about child abuse — even during confession — they have to notify authorities within 48 hours.
That single requirement closes a loophole most states still leave wide open.
Across the U.S., child abuse reporting laws are a fragmented patchwork shaped by decades of political compromise and religious lobbying. Over the past two decades, efforts in other states — such as Kentucky, Montana, North Dakota, and Wisconsin — to remove the clergy-penitent exemption have routinely stalled long before any high-profile showdown.
Technically, clergy in all 50 states, D.C., and Guam are mandatory reporters of child abuse. But 33 states carve out exemptions for what is learned in confession or spiritual counseling.
[...]
Thou Shalt Not Tell?
For Catholics, the confessional isn’t just private counseling; it’s a foundational sacrament. Behind the screen, a parishioner quietly confesses what weighs on their soul: “Bless me, Father, for I have sinned.” The priest listens, counsels, prescribes a penance, and offers absolution. Known as reconciliation, the rite is essential for spiritual life: Without it, believers cannot receive the Eucharist, the church’s central act of worship.
In a public statement titled “Clergy: Answerable to God or the State?” Seattle Archbishop Paul D. Etienne — the lead plaintiff in the church’s lawsuit against Washington — invoked canon law, the church’s legal code, which deems the confessional seal “inviolable” and makes breaking it a crime. He warned plainly that any priest who violated it to report child abuse would face expulsion from the church.
Unlike abusing a child, breaking the seal triggers latae sententiae: automatic excommunication.
[...]
But not so for the Trump DOJ, who are advancing a far more sweeping argument that goes for the law’s jugular.
By filing a formal complaint, the Department of Justice is effectively teaming up with Washington’s Catholic bishops to overturn the state’s mandatory reporting law, in one of the most aggressive federal moves to back organized religion in recent memory.
“Laws that explicitly target religious practices such as the sacrament of confession have no place in our society,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon, who heads the Justice Department’s civil rights division, in a June 23 press release.
It’s a stark divide. The bishops frame this as a limited fight to protect the sacred Catholic rite of confession. The DOJ sees something much bigger: a sweeping threat to religious liberty for everyone. While the church asks for a surgical carveout, the feds want the whole law gone, putting all clergy back in the clear with no duty to report abuse.
[...]
Privilege Across Religions
Etienne v. Ferguson hinges on the argument that Washington’s law imposes special burdens on Catholic clergy that do not apply equally to other religions. “Because the Catholic church is one of the few religious organizations with a doctrine of absolute confidentiality,” the complaint asserts, Washington’s law “uniquely targets and burdens Catholic priests.”
But central to the push for reform as Washington’s new mandatory reporting law moved through the legislature was evidence of how clergy-penitent privilege had been exploited in other faith communities.
Advocates argued that scrapping the clergy reporting exemption wasn’t about picking on any one faith, but leveling the playing field — making sure every religious institution, no matter how powerful, must play by the same rules when it comes to protecting children.
The Catholic Church and our soft-on-child abusers “President” are teaming up to launch a legal fight against Washington State’s child protection law SB5375 that requires clergy to report child abuse.
Mandatory reporting and CPS are a joke, and no one can convince me otherwise. How does a child, from kindergarten to 5th grade, go to school consistently clearly unwell and never once is it reported. I went to school bruised, hungry, scared, and often in ill fitting or weather inappropriate clothing and never once did we get a visit. Day cares, schools, community centers, they all turned a blind eye to violence towards children. And when I'd speak up about the violence my younger brothers and I were subject to I'd get told to stop being an attention seeker. In second grade I told a teacher to her face I wanted to end my own life and she told me to stop kidding. Mandatory reporting needs to be used to be useful, someone else isn't going to say something.
If you work with children and you see something suspicious report it immediately, don't assume someone else already has ...
One 2022 study found that 91 percent of women given fentanyl in their epidurals can later test positive for the drug.
"One 2022 study found that 91 percent of women given fentanyl in their epidurals later tested positive for the drug"
"Another woman was given morphine to ease her pain during childbirth and was reported to child welfare services after her baby's first bowel movement tested positive for opiates—even though the morphine was noted in her medical records and a drug test she took shortly before she went into labor showed no drugs in her system."
I feel for you anon. Mandated reporters often don’t understand that by reporting an issue it can make the situation worse for you. I know that’s why I have such a hard time trusting them now.
It’s unfortunate how often someone attempting to help or at the very least protect themselves will end up create a more difficult situation. We deserve systems that acknowledge that secrecy is a safety measure.
I am fucking livid about 13 Reasons Why and even the production staff’s reaction to Hannah not speaking up during the conversation with Mr. Porter. It was not her fault that he did not push her further in her questions. It was his fault for not asking more questions. Literally it was right fucking there. And the fucking second someone mentions sexual assault you make a report. You keep that student there you let them know you are there to provide them with support. You don’t let that phone bother you. You don’t let your kids and your schedule get in the way. You are there. You are there for your fucking client. You run after them. You make them stop. As a social worker...it was his fucking fault. You call the parents in. You make that BS no to self harm contract. You don’t let them leave your fucking sight. You tell everyone. You do all you can. There better be a second season and he better have some damn good malpractice insurance because it is his fucking fault.
The "clergy loophole" adds to the moral rot of the United States.
So Informed:
In over half of U.S. states, religious clergy are exempt from laws requiring professionals to report suspected child abuse to authorities. These exemptions are made a reality under what's known as the clergy loophole, which protects information shared during confessional settings, and have allowed for an unknown number of predators to continue abusing children despite having confessed to their crimes.
Mandatory Reporting Laws – With One Major Exception
Nearly every state mandates that certain professionals report known or suspected child abuse. These include:
Social workers
Teachers, principals, and school officials
Physicians, nurses, and healthcare providers
Therapists and mental health professionals
Childcare workers
Medical examiners or coroners
Social workers
Law enforcement officers
Some states also require reporting from additional roles like probation officers, domestic violence advocates, camp counselors, and even IT professionals. Yet in 32 states, clergy are not required to report child abuse disclosed during confession.
How the Loophole Persists
Religious institutions, particularly churches, have actively lobbied against closing this loophole, framing mandatory reporting as an infringement on religious freedom. They argue that forcing clergy to disclose confessional information violates sacred traditions and religious protections.
Churches argue that the information is protected under "clergy-penitent privilege" (for those who do not attend church, they're talking about information shared during a confession). So, in 32 states, clergy are exempt from reporting child abuse if they learn about it in a confessional conversation.
To put this into perspective: when you see a therapist or other mental healthcare professional, for example, you work with them under "therapist-patient privilege". This means that what you share with them cannot be shared with others; it creates a standard of trust. However, if you disclose to your therapist that you have harmed or intend to harm another person, or have been the victim of child abuse, your therapist must report this.
A Pattern of Abuse and Concealment
Allowing clergy to withhold reports of child abuse is alarming, especially when considering the long history of abuse within religious institutions.
Religious institutions, most notably the Catholic Church, have a long and documented history of tolerating, covering up, and enabling child sexual abuse. Internal reports and public investigations reveal consistent efforts to shield perpetrators and silence victims.
This pattern is not limited to the Catholic Church. Other denominations, including the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormon Church), have also faced incredibly serious allegations. Yet, in 2023, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that the Church could withhold testimony and documents relating to child abuse disclosed in confession under the state's clergy privilege laws.
These 32 states allow clergy to withhold information about child abuse disclosed during confession:
