In November 2011, a 15-year-old Nova Scotia girl was gang-raped. After someone used their cell phone to circulate a photo of the sexual assault, Rehtaeh Parsons endured more than a year of cyberbullying and harassment until she couldn't take it anymore. Rehtaeh was taken off life support on April 7, 2013 – three days after she tried to hang herself.
Rehtaeh's mother wrote on her Facebook tribute page, "Rehtaeh is gone today because of the four boys that thought that raping a 15-year-old girl was OK and to distribute a photo to ruin her spirit and reputation would be fun. All the bullying and messaging and harassment that never let up are also to blame. Lastly, the justice system failed her. Those are the people that took the life of my beautiful girl."
How can we prevent tragedies like these? An anti-bullying program that is gaining national attention centers on babies teaching empathy to young children. Roots of Empathy is a social and emotional learning program for K-8 students which started in Toronto. The mission of the program is to reduce aggressive behavior as a way of decreasing bullying. In 2007, the program was introduced to US schools, and has spread to California, New York, and parts of Washington.
Baby Claire visits a kindergarten class once a month, and a Roots of Empathy instructor also visits the classroom to help the students recognize Claire's development and label her feelings. The students then discuss why Claire is happy or sad, and how they have similar feelings.
A 2011 study of 270,000 students compared those students who participated in social and emotional learning programs like Roots of Empathy, with those who didn't. The study found that the students in these programs not only had increased social and emotional skills, but they also had an 11 percent increase in standardized achievement test scores.
Claire's mother says, "The tone of the room changes when Claire comes in, and I think kids start to think about how it feels to be treated a certain way, because they don't like it when she gets upset."
ShieldTheVulnerable.org offers online courses to help protect students, tweens, teens, vulnerable adults, and the elderly from physical and emotional abuse, bullying, financial exploitation, and neglect.
Showing posts with label sexual assault. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sexual assault. Show all posts
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Principal Sentenced to Teach
In the second "failure to report" case in two decades brought by Santa Clara County prosecutors, O.B. Whaley Elementary School's former principal, Lyn Vijayendran, was convicted of failing to report suspected sexual abuse of a student by one of her teachers.
The judge told Vijayendran "you made a very bad judgment that day," then sentenced her to pay $602 in criminal fines, two years of probation, and 100 hours of community service, which will include helping teach other school officials about their legal duty to report suspected child abuse.
The jury forewoman said Vijayendran "dropped the ball." Another juror said the principal "stuck her head in the sand rather than pull the alarm. I think she didn't want this ugly thing to be true."
The eight-year-old girl's mother told Vijayendran that second-grade teacher Craig Chandler had acted "strangely" with her daughter, and showed the principal a suspicious stain on her daughter's jacket. Vijayendran then interviewed the girl who provided vivid details of her strange encounter with Mr. Chandler.
Vijayendran testified that Mr. Chandler "appeared forthright" when he told her that blindfolding a second-grade girl, telling her to lie on the floor, and putting a salty liquid in her mouth while they were alone in the classroom was part of a lesson plan about Helen Keller.
Vijayendran's decision to conduct her own investigation, instead of reporting the incident to authorities as the law requires of mandatory reporters, resulted in her criminal conviction and allowed Mr. Chandler to molest another student a few months later.
Under California law, school districts are required to train their educators how to recognize and report suspected child abuse. While the law provides an exception — a school district may simply write a letter explaining why training was not provided — jurors said the Evergreen School District shared some responsibility in this case.
"I think there were comments made that over a 20-year period, that people from the teachers all the way up to the principals all the way up to HR that they've received no training on mandatory reporting," said juror Kathy Ericksen. Juror Susan LaGassa agreed, "Educators need to know that this is unacceptable."
"The bigger picture," said prosecutor Alison Filo, "is we want mandated reporters to understand to always err on the side of caution and report, never investigate."
The jury forewoman said Vijayendran "dropped the ball." Another juror said the principal "stuck her head in the sand rather than pull the alarm. I think she didn't want this ugly thing to be true."
The eight-year-old girl's mother told Vijayendran that second-grade teacher Craig Chandler had acted "strangely" with her daughter, and showed the principal a suspicious stain on her daughter's jacket. Vijayendran then interviewed the girl who provided vivid details of her strange encounter with Mr. Chandler.
Vijayendran testified that Mr. Chandler "appeared forthright" when he told her that blindfolding a second-grade girl, telling her to lie on the floor, and putting a salty liquid in her mouth while they were alone in the classroom was part of a lesson plan about Helen Keller.
Vijayendran's decision to conduct her own investigation, instead of reporting the incident to authorities as the law requires of mandatory reporters, resulted in her criminal conviction and allowed Mr. Chandler to molest another student a few months later.
Under California law, school districts are required to train their educators how to recognize and report suspected child abuse. While the law provides an exception — a school district may simply write a letter explaining why training was not provided — jurors said the Evergreen School District shared some responsibility in this case.
"I think there were comments made that over a 20-year period, that people from the teachers all the way up to the principals all the way up to HR that they've received no training on mandatory reporting," said juror Kathy Ericksen. Juror Susan LaGassa agreed, "Educators need to know that this is unacceptable."
"The bigger picture," said prosecutor Alison Filo, "is we want mandated reporters to understand to always err on the side of caution and report, never investigate."
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Suspicious Minds
What do the Catholic Church, the Boy Scouts, and Penn State University have in common with the Horace Mann School in New York City and Miramonte Elementary School in Los Angeles? They all had trusted members of their organizations who were involved in child sex abuse scandals.
Now, "The BBC's reputation is on the line," says Chris Patten, the chairman of the BBC Trust. Police are describing disc jockey and BBC television host Jimmy Savile (who died last year at age 84) as "one of the worst sex offenders in recent history." Given recent history, that's a pretty big claim.
This latest BBC scandal began when a television documentary aired in October in which several women claimed that they were sexually abused by Savile when they were in their early teens. Hundreds of potential victims have since come forward with similar claims.
In connection with the Savile investigation, police arrested musician and convicted sex offender Gary Glitter (known for his shiny jumpsuits and whose real name is Paul Gadd). Glitter served a U.K. prison term in 1999 for possession of child pornography. After moving to Vietnam, he was convicted of child abuse in 2006 and deported back to Britain in 2008. Glitter is best known for the crowd-pleasing hit "Rock & Roll (Part 2)" which, in 2006, the National Football League advised teams not to use at games.
Questions are now being raised about whether the BBC was involved in a cover-up, and whether Savile was at the center of a broader pedophile ring. All of this leaves some of us wondering, who can you trust?
"As a society, we've just got to somehow get over this notion that some men, some women, some institutions, are 100 percent pristine and trustworthy," said David Clohessy, director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. "We've got to look at actual behavior, not reputation."
This latest BBC scandal began when a television documentary aired in October in which several women claimed that they were sexually abused by Savile when they were in their early teens. Hundreds of potential victims have since come forward with similar claims.
In connection with the Savile investigation, police arrested musician and convicted sex offender Gary Glitter (known for his shiny jumpsuits and whose real name is Paul Gadd). Glitter served a U.K. prison term in 1999 for possession of child pornography. After moving to Vietnam, he was convicted of child abuse in 2006 and deported back to Britain in 2008. Glitter is best known for the crowd-pleasing hit "Rock & Roll (Part 2)" which, in 2006, the National Football League advised teams not to use at games.
Questions are now being raised about whether the BBC was involved in a cover-up, and whether Savile was at the center of a broader pedophile ring. All of this leaves some of us wondering, who can you trust?
"As a society, we've just got to somehow get over this notion that some men, some women, some institutions, are 100 percent pristine and trustworthy," said David Clohessy, director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. "We've got to look at actual behavior, not reputation."
Friday, June 15, 2012
Flirting With Disaster
Its growth also attracted $22 million in financing from one of Silicon Valley's leading venture capital firms which cited Skout's safety and security protocols as a major reason for the investment. For example, the GPS location feature is an opt-in and approximates a user's location within half a mile. Skout also monitors the app for illicit and violent behavior, nude photos, inappropriate sexual messages, profanity, spamming, and copyright infringement.
After learning that children were using its adult app, the company started a separate service with parental controls for 13- to 17-year-olds.
However, the minors’ app and "creepinator" technology were not enough to keep out child predators who have been accused of sex crimes against children they met using Skout: a 15-year-old Ohio girl, a 12-year-old California girl, and a 13-year-old Wisconsin boy were sexually assaulted by adult men posing as teenagers on Skout.
Skout's founder calls these cases "a five-alarm fire" and says, "The entire company is re-evaluating everything it's doing."
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Assault In Words
On February 2, 2012, the Judiciary Committee will consider Senate Bill 1925, reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act of 1994, to continue (at a reduced level of funding) safety and support services for victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking. These services include education for child protective service workers, legal assistance, supervised visitation programs, housing protections, and court responses to these violent crimes.
A critical addition to this bill addresses campus sexual violence, including provisions for prevention education for all incoming students and training for campus law enforcement. Between 20 and 25 percent of women are sexually assaulted on college campuses.
Voted one of 30 "Must-See Tumblr Blogs" by Time Magazine, "project unbreakable" was created by Grace Brown who uses photography to help victims of sexual abuse heal. Ms. Brown posts her photographs of victims holding posters on which they write quotes from their attackers. Time calls it "a shocking and sad look at sexual assault and how it affects their victims."
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