Child Sexual Abuse Prevention/Education

As we head into Spring, March has come in like a lion with tornadoes in late February in our region.  This was a perfect opportunity to share with our younger students why we are practicing body safety – just like they practice tornado safety to know what to do in the event of a tornado, so do we practice body safety so that they know what to do if they experience “stormy” behaviors or unwanted/inappropriate behaviors.  

The Prevention & Education advocates were back in session and ready to roll, even though we had a holiday break in December, our team was extremely busy December thru February.  We taught body safety prevention education to 9,610 students between December and February!

In the month of December, the P&E department provided prevention education services to four elementary schools, one middle school, one high school, and one community teen group for a combined total of 2,880 students.  This was a shortened presentation period since we did not present in the two weeks before the Christmas holiday or the week of New Year’s while schools were out for Winter Holiday break. 

We resumed in the New Year and kicked-off January with a new round of presentations.  We provided prevention education services at 10 schools, presenting to seven elementary schools, two middle schools and one high school for a combined total of 3,602 students. 

Love was in the air and so was our mission to bring awareness to Teen Dating Violence as we continued into February and provided prevention education services to 3,128 students encompassing multiple-day presentations at seven elementary schools, two middle schools, one high school, and one college/university.  Our coordinator attended a keynote address by Erin Merryn, founder of Erin’s Law, at Indiana State University.  It was an honor to meet Erin and know that the work we are doing is in part because of her desire to push through this important prevention education legislation.

Our team is looking forward to a busy March.  We have multiple-day in-person presentations scheduled for six elementary schools, two middle schools, and one high school.  We will be wrapping up the academic year in April and will be planning our summer and fall programming in May.  It looks to be a busy end of the year.

We love when our younger students sing along with the Boundaries song, want to give us hugs but ask first, and draw us pictures.  It’s also heart-warming to know that you have reached a middle- or high schooler when they stop to talk with you after a presentation, or that you have empowered them to speak with a safe adult and report an experience that happened to them.  Knowing that we have saved at least one student encourages us to keep doing what we’re doing.

The next couple of months will see us winding down for the academic year and ramping up for the summer and fall. We’ll provide you with an update this summer on all the exciting plans we have in store for summer and fall!

Photos:

1) Healthy Behaviors sign video to recognize teen dating violence awareness

2) Erin Merryn (Erin's Law) and Jennifer Potter (P&E Coord.)

3) Word Cloud used during Teen Safety Matters presention to high school students

4) Drawings by elementarty school students

5) Students watching the elementary presentation "Consent" video

6) Teen Safety Matters high school presentation discussing Human Trafficking with P&E Coord.