Many years ago, before we knew any better, I would spend days in middle schools giving the 20 minute talk about saying no and telling an adult to groups of 5th and 6th graders. (We now know that the one time, 20 minute talk doesn't help build any skills and actually may lead child victims to believe they should try to physically defend themselves against adults and thus risk be injured more.)
Anyway - there was one particular day I wasn't the staff person scheduled to do a day of these talks - but the staffer called in sick. I barely remember the day because all the talks were such a blur.
A few weeks later, we were called to attend to a victim in the ER. She was a middle school aged girl. When I walked into the exam room, the child twisted her head around to see who walked in . . . and smiled big and said "I hoped they'd send you."
She had been in one of those classes I'd spoken to several weeks before. She heard me say that adults who prey on kids often assume that the kids don't understand what's going on - and they take advantage of that. They also don't want the kids to tell anyone because they know they could go to jail for their actions.
After my talk, this child's mother's boyfriend approached her one day afterschool. He said several things to her -- and she realized that he wanted to sexually abuse her. Remembering my talk, she confronted him by telling him that they'd talked about this in school and that he wasn't suppose to do things like this. And, she told him that she was going to tell her mother as soon as she got home from work.
In this case it worked. The boyfriend got scared and ran off. The moment the mom came home, the kid told her what happened. The mother called the police, the police suggested the ER just as a precaution, and the child was great because she knew she'd stood up for herself. The guy was caught, and plead guilty to indecent liberties and attempted sexual assault.
And, it was one of the best moments for me - to know that my words made that kind of impact on one kid.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment