Over the past few months I've been dealing with a weird, stressful situation, that (as my grandmother would put it) troubles my sensibilities.
Backstory. I've volunteered at a shelter for the past 5 years, working with homeless children. It's been the same small group of volunteers for that time, so we've grown to be friends and trust each other completely (which is so necessary in that situation).
A few months ago, I got a call from the program director of the foundation that places volunteers at specific shelters. She was concerned about some behavior that the shelter director had witnessed the previous evening. Apparently the shelter director had seen another (male) volunteer being "physical with one of the toddlers". For privacy reasons, she refused to deviate from that phrasing. I didn't see anything, and neither did any of the other volunteers.
In my mind, there are 3 interpretations. One, is that he was roughhousing with them. Two, that he was touching them appropriately. Three, that he was touching them inappropriately. Knowing the volunteer, my assumption is that "physical" mean that he either tickled the kid, or did a wheelbarrow with him, etc.. Knowing the shelter director (whose philosophy is that homeless children are different than regular children, and that as soon as they are old enough to walk you shouldn't touch them in any way, even to pick them up if they're crying), it wouldn't surprise me that she had blown things out of proportion. She's kind of like Professor Umbridge - don't threaten her philosophy.
The immediate outcome of all this, is that he was fired as a volunteer from the shelter.
The secondary outcome, was that as a result of the vague wording, the foundation will not allow him to volunteer anywhere else (just in case).
The tertiary outcome was that the program was cancelled completely for 3 months. No goodbyes (which is particularly cruel to the kids there, for whom closure is more important than most), no real information. I reached out to both directors on numerous occasions, and got radio silence.
We've reached the point now where we're getting ready to restart. Going through trainings, I have such a bitter taste in my mouth about the program. I've gone through it a thousand times. The point I keep returning to, is that I don't know who or what to trust anymore. I trusted the other volunteer. I worked side by side with him for hundreds of hours. And I just can't believe that he would ever do anything to harm a child. If he was holding a kid upside down, or had them sat in his lap with a book (both of which the director would hold issue with), I can continue to hate her, and get past it. But, if I somehow missed for 5 years that he's a pedophile.. I don't know how to live with that.
So. Without understanding what happened, and no potential for new information, I'm torn. Do I switch shelters? Do I suck it up (because frankly, it's not about me - it's about the kids)?