Teaching about sexual abuse

http://www.burbankleader.com/articles/2007/02/03/education/blr-touch03.txt 

 

Teaching about sexual abuse

By Rachel Kane

The projector was set to go in Holy Cross Hall at St.Francis Xavier School on Tuesday night as a crowd of 30 or so parentstrickled in.

They had come to watch video, listen and talk aboutone of the most taboo subjects in American life ' and, more recently,in the Catholic Church ' child molestation.

"This is a veryimportant meeting," said Mary Ann Madden, one of the designatedteachers of a new, Archdiocese of Los Angeles-mandated sexual abuseclass.

"Teaching Touching Safety," the program children inkindergarten to 12th grade will undergo, is part of a largerarchdiocese program to educate their teachers, students, parents andanyone else involved with the religious organization about sexual abuse.

Inthe face of multiple, ongoing child-molestation criminal trials andaccusations of abuse against members of the Catholic clergy, theArchdiocese approved programs for "protecting young people," in 2002 ata meeting of U.S. bishops, said Tod Tamberg, director of media relations for the archdiocese.In October, St. Xavier received written notification of instruction forCatholic schools all over L.A. County to introduce the training andprogram, Madden said.

 

"I know at the parish level we have been very concerned since the Amishschool incident and we have been concerned about the protection andsafety of the children," Madden said.

The school must give two classes to their kindergarten through 12th-graders by June of this year, and the program encourages parents to become involved in their children's education about sexual abuse, Madden said."All the lessons are designed to open up dialogue," she said.

 

The lessons in "Teaching Touching Safety" are broken up into four agegroups ' kindergarten to second grade, third to fifth grade, sixth toeighth grade and ninth to 12th grade.

 

The parents on Tuesday were shown three videos that will be shown to three age groups and given pamphlets on the program.

Theschool has had four of its female teachers undergo special trainingfrom the archdiocese on the subject of sexual abuse and those fourwomen will conduct the classes.

"We all have that strong background and know what to do in the event that someone tells us something," Madden said.

Afterviewing the 6-minute films, most of the parents asked basic questionsabout the program like dates and times the lessons would be shown andhow often.

The program is optional and parents must sign a formthat stipulates their child's non-involvement if they wish to opt-out,to be given to the archdiocese as proof of enrollment numbers, Maddensaid.

Karen Rodriguez, of Burbank, was at the meeting. She has a 9-year-old and 5-year-old who both attend St. Xavier.

"I'mencouraged by the fact that I think it's going to generate a lot ofdiscussion," Rodriguez said, but added that she worried about theramifications of children making false claims of abuse.

SeanMannion, of Burbank, has a 9-year-old daughter at St. Xavier andexpressed the same concern, although they were in the minority.

Most of the parents at the meeting were receptive to the program and no one has yet to opt out of the program, Madden said.

St.Xavier and other Catholic schools in Burbank are not alone in theirefforts to educate children and staff about sexual abuse.

TheBurbank Unified School District has been incorporating curriculum andstaff training on the topic for years, school board President Ted Bunchsaid.

"It's just one of the things that you have to deal with,"Bunch said. "It's just there and we work hard to try to keep it fromhappening. Our charge is to protect our students and also to protectour employees from sexual predators."

Madden and the other three teachers will begin "Teaching Touching Safety" on Feb. 13 in the school's Holy Cross Hall.