This was such an important comment made by a reader, that we felt the need to repost it here:

The school district where I was an Elementary Counselor was proactive on their approach to the prevention of Child Abuse and Child Sexual Abuse. The district hired a Community Mental Health Specialist to present a program on Personal Safety.

She had her partner dress as a bear and together they acted out several scenarios depicting “good touch” vs. “bad touch”. This program was designed using a very age-appropriate curriculum and was presented to all the children from kindergarten through fifth grade in all thirteen elementary schools. The presenter emphasized how important it was to tell an adult they could trust if they’ve ever been touched in a “bad” way…

The three third grade classrooms at one of my schools saw the program sitting together on the media center carpeting. Within ten minutes of the ending of the Personal Safety presentation I had two third grade students from two different classrooms in my small counseling office in tears. They both were girls on this particular day but sexual abuse has happened to many young boys I’ve worked with too. One of the girls was being fondled regularly by an older brother and hadn’t told anyone “their secret”. The other child shared with me that several times a year her relatives came from out of state and her older male cousin had touched her privates on the last two visits. She was afraid that her whole family wouldn’t believe her and it would start a big family fight.

This program wasn’t able to prevent the abuse in these two cases but it was extremely helpful in putting a stop to it. The school nurse and I called in the parents and made the necessary reports and referrals to community and social services.

It’s very difficult, if not impossible to determine the number of children being sexually abused because it occurs much more than is ever reported. It’s believed that about one out of four adult females were molested when they were children and the numbers for boys is just as alarming. If your elementary school doesn’t currently have a Personal Safety program set up, you could be saving a child’s life by making it happen.