It was a regular day in school and
all the children were in class. Some of them had a physical literacy class, one
of the classes was in the free-play room, while some had gone to play in the
play area. All of a sudden, during mid-morning, the parents of a child, who had
not come to school that day, came with an anxious look on their face.
Apparently, they were looking anxious and wanted to meet the Vice-Principal.
The mother was literally in tears. The Vice-Principal took them to her room and
asked them to sit down. When she enquired with the parents about their visit,
the mother was still not in a position to talk. She looked very upset. The
father decided to open up.
He first thanked the school profusely
for conducting a session on “good touch & bad touch.” He then said that his
little daughter was sexually abused by a sixty-year old neighbor, who was their
family friend. But the girl was smart
enough to push the man and run away. She then told her parents about it. But
the child was going through mental trauma after this incident. They wanted time
to send the girl to school. The Vice-Principal assured them the school would
take care of the child and make her feel at ease. It took a while for the child
to overcome the traumatic incident, and come back to school.
The school counsellor said that this
incident will certainly leave a psychological scar in the child’s mind forever,
even if she gives counselling. Then after a few months came one more complaint
from a primary child’s mother, who was a single parent, about how her daughter
was molested by an elderly man in the neighborhood. Both the parents gave FIR in the police
station and the concerned person was immediately arrested and remanded to
police custody. But the child is affected for life. A child in high school told
her classmate that she felt like committing suicide as she was being sexually
abused by her coach in the sports academy. Though the mother knew about it, she
did not want her daughter to reveal this to anyone. She must have thought it
would be shameful if everyone came to know about it.
I understand what the parents must be
going through, but these are times when we cannot trust anyone blindly. Age is
not a matter at all. Perversion knows no age. There are perverted minds among
the elderly too, whom we least suspect. Instead of complaining about today’s
society and degeneration of values amongst people, we need to focus on our area
of influence. We should avoid sending our children anywhere alone when they are
young. Let them go along with you. Avoid sending them for a sleep over to a
friend’s place or relative’s house, or for vacation, to their native place,
unless you are very sure of their safety. It may be convenient for working
mothers to depend on someone to take care of their child in their absence. But
if something untoward happens, the child will be scarred for life. It is not
just girls, even boys are also not spared. And it is not always the opposite
sex, sometimes it is the same sex!
Children should be allowed to express
their emotions. Keep talking to them. We should be our children’s best friend. They
should be educated on “good touch and bad touch” when they are young. Some of
them feel that their parents will scold them if they tell the truth. We should
allay such fears, else they will not open up to us. Such incidents create a lot
of anger in these children. It causes a lot of trauma too. Let us not be
gullible and overlook the safety of our children. Protect them. They are too
precious!
#Thoughtfulthursdays #nsn #nsnschool #mentoring #parenting
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