CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE AT THE SCHOOL

Child sexual abuse is a terrible scourge that affects our society, for many years it has been a taboo to talk about the issue and although now it has become common to talk about it, it is also true that it has become a family secret in those homes where it happens. Why a family secret? Because in most cases sexual abuse is committed by a relative near to the victim who manipulates it until its objective is achieved, the abuse of the child.

However, schools do not escape from this reality, and news are received from teachers who sexually abuse entire class groups. In October of 2017 a teacher in Ecuador was arrested for abusing at least 84 students of both sexes and ages between 12 and 14 years old (extracted from noticiasya), similar processes have been opened in the last 4 years to 340 teachers from that country. In May of 2017, in Venezuela, Zulia State, a teacher raped a 9-year-old student while the other children were at playtime (taken from the Panorama newspaper).

Thus we can list a lot of abuses from the teachers, but there is also the case of abuse by the same classmates. In Venezuela there is I Am a Guardian Foundation whose objective is the prevention of child sexual abuse. As a volunteer of this foundation we go to schools, neighborhoods, parks and shopping centers to teach prevention to children. In schools I have been able to hear stories of children who have been sexually abused by their peers in other grades, much larger than themselves or who are simply submitted by a group. This can happen in a bathroom, on field, in the yard, in a room in the absence of the teacher, that is, anywhere.

Actually when sending our children to school we do not expect something like that to happen to them, but what to do? Teach him to take care of himself. You must educate your children first to know the correct name of their private parts, that no one should touch them, that they should not keep secrets and that they seek help when someone wants to sexually assault them. We need to be intentional in always reminding them of this. I'm sure you have other ideas so that our children can take care of themselves, I hope your comments will be helpful for everyone.