Sex Abuse in Schools

christy'smom · **Sex Abuse in Schools**

I have a 7 month DD and am really panicky and am wondering if I should home school her. There is too much of these of late. Home schooling parents - would like your opinion too...

AP: Sexual misconduct plagues US schools - Yahoo! News

Teacher sex abuse scars family, town - Yahoo! News

Can't trust any one these days...........

penelope · 10-21-2007, 03:01 PM

Well, your concerns are valid. But if you educate your child right, you can more than likely prevent your child from being victimized. My older children are all in public school. I would love to homeschool all of them, but for a different reason. The ability to teach them things I find important, and weed out things I think are wrong. Plus they could learn at their own pace in each subject. For many different reasons, I am not able to homeschool them at this time. I do have a 3 year old. And I do think I will be homeschooling her. It is not set in stone yet. But I do know I won't be sending her to school until at least kindergarden.

Earthgoddess · 10-21-2007, 03:12 PM

We tend to be paranoid about sex abuse because it happened to someone in our family. We homeschool not because of that primarily, but we prefer to have a more rounded, classical education for our children, rather than one taken up with fluff and "social" issues. Add to that, all the bad influence, disease going around (case in point, the recent 7 state Staph outbreak) and school shootings. I think you have plenty of time to think about it, Your child is only 7 months. Think about what is important to you. Gosh, from this post, sound like a member of the Religious Right, but actually I am a Northern European Heathen and straddle issues on both right and left.

Homeschoolers encompass a wide range of beliefs and walks of life.

Earthgoddess · 10-21-2007, 03:17 PM

As an afterthought, I would like to add that educating your children is better than sheltering them. Sex abuse most often takes place by someone in the family (as it did in my husband's family) and as a result, we really take the time to educate our kids that NO ONE should ever touch them down there, even if it is nice Aunt Betty or Uncle Ned or whatever. We really go through the drills, just as we educate them about strangers, fire, danger of electricty. etc. Bad things can happen anywhere. Our kids may be homeschooled, but sheltered they are not!

aliadam · 10-21-2007, 05:37 PM

Sexual abuse certainly does happen in public schools, but the fear of that alone wouldn't make me home school my children. Sexual abuse probably happens just as often with church officials, or coaches, and the MOST as earthgoddess said is from family or family friends. It's MUCH more common for children to be abused by someone they know than a stranger or a teacher. So I think the safest thing is just to make sure your children know what is appropriate or not and to tell an adult.

Claire · 10-21-2007, 05:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aliadam

Sexual abuse certainly does happen in public schools, but the fear of that alone wouldn't make me home school my children. Sexual abuse probably happens just as often with church officials, or coaches, and the MOST as earthgoddess said is from family or family friends. It's MUCH more common for children to be abused by someone they know than a stranger or a teacher. So I think the safest thing is just to make sure your children know what is appropriate or not and to tell an adult.

If you start worrying about this when your dd is 7 months old, you are going to drive yourself crazy! We all would! There is a lot of bad things in the world and we cannot protect our kids from it all. I sure wish we could!!!

christy'smom · 10-21-2007, 05:59 PM

"Earthgoddess : As an afterthought, I would like to add that educating your children is better than sheltering them. """"" Don't all parents educate their kids?

I am really paranoid and don't leave my kids with any male members - family or no family. I just need to pray for safety for not just my little one but all the little ones around the world. I really wonder if I made the right decision to bring in a little human being in this world of chaos for my joy?

crazykelly · 10-21-2007, 08:10 PM

I really wonder if I made the right decision to bring in a little human being in this world of chaos for my joy?[/quote]

Ohhhh I hope you really didn't mean typing that. Our world is NOT full of chaos, it is filled with JOY! It all just depends on how you choose to view it. My suggestion is to turn off or unsubscribe to cable tv and love the life that is around you.

As for the sexual abuse in schools - I think we are hearing about it more because solely of cable tv and we get instant news from every dot on the map. It wasnt like that when i was a kid - we got regional news and thats that. Sexual abuse has been going on for generations - a simple, sobering fact. It's just now we are hearing about it because adults are learning that it's not taboo anymore to talk about it. yes there are bad people in the world. but there was bad people in the 40's 50's, 30's etc....and back then adults ignored children things like abuse.

educate your child to be self reliant and to talk openly with trusted adults. please dont make them frightful of men - dont punish the good men in your childrens lives for the sins that other men are guilty for. they might be missing out on special relationships and i would hate for daughters to carry a fear of being alone with the opposite sex all their lives - it just might really cause bigger issues for when they date and marry someday.

aliadam · 10-21-2007, 11:23 PM

[/QOUTE]Ohhhh I hope you really didn't mean typing that. Our world is NOT full of chaos, it is filled with JOY! It all just depends on how you choose to view it. My suggestion is to turn off or unsubscribe to cable tv and love the life that is around you.

As for the sexual abuse in schools - I think we are hearing about it more because solely of cable tv and we get instant news from every dot on the map. It wasnt like that when i was a kid - we got regional news and thats that. Sexual abuse has been going on for generations - a simple, sobering fact. It's just now we are hearing about it because adults are learning that it's not taboo anymore to talk about it. yes there are bad people in the world. but there was bad people in the 40's 50's, 30's etc....and back then adults ignored children things like abuse.

educate your child to be self reliant and to talk openly with trusted adults. please dont make them frightful of men - dont punish the good men in your childrens lives for the sins that other men are guilty for. they might be missing out on special relationships and i would hate for daughters to carry a fear of being alone with the opposite sex all their lives - it just might really cause bigger issues for when they date and marry someday.[/quote]

Great post crazykelly. I think so many people spend way to much time focusing on the negative instead of the positive. Please don't instill a sense of paranoia and distrust in your children. Instill in them an appreciation for what they have and all the opportunities available to them. Safety of course is necessary to teach also, but it doesn't have to be an overriding part of their everyday life.

christy'smom · 10-22-2007, 08:12 AM

Thanks for your advice - I really need to switch of the computer and the news.

Please don't get me wrong when I said "I really wonder if I made the right decision to bring in a little human being in this world of chaos for my joy?" -----I had so much trouble TTC and have this baby and she is nothing but an answer to our prayers. I always tell my Dh that the 2 blessings in my life are Christina and Dh. I hate bad things when they happen to children. Even when I open a jar of baby food I thank the Lord for blessing us with food when so many children around the world are dying without food. I just don't want any "creep" touching my kid. KWIM?

I read your postings and then went for my morning prayer and I usually quote this verse from the Bible: Children are a blessing from the Lord(Ps.127) to thank for Christy and as I said my prayer I felt a sense of peace that the good Lord who blessed me with this darling little one will surely guard and guide her.

It's true that bad things always happened and will continue to happen. I need to read Matthew 5 again - I used to read it everyday to alleviate my fears.

please dont make them frightful of men - dont punish the good men in your childrens lives for the sins that other men are guilty for. they might be missing out on special relationships and i would hate for daughters to carry a fear of being alone with the opposite sex all their lives - it just might really cause bigger issues for when they date and marry someday.[/quote] ------ As a mom, I try to listen to my intuition a lot and I don't force her to go to men/women she doesn't like --- I also trust her intuition.

I have a wonderful relationship with my family and il's family and I want my Dd to have the same and certainly not fear. I think I need to mature as a "Mom" and I think as she grows and becomes independent I will also "grow".

Thank you all for you for your support and guidance - I came to know of this site only after I became a "mommy" - had I known earlier I would have been spending all my time here and Dh would be eating leftovers.