Awareness of Child Abuse (Final blog post)

In our last class, we learned some staggering but insightful statistics on the reality of child abuse in our country. One fact that stood out to me was as follows: By 12th grade about one child in 10 has been exposed to sexual misconduct at school, by peers or teachers. This sad truth is actually quite believable, due to how much bullying goes on in schools. And if that wasn't bad enough, to think that teachers play a part in this sexual misconduct at school is horrifying. This made me pause and think about how these individuals with confused, misconstrued world views on humanity are put in positions of power and authority over children. Are they good liars or good actors? Do they start out on a straight path and then start to lose it after a while? I think it is incredibly important for administrators and higher authorities in schools to carefully check not only backgrounds of new teachers but characters. Have we gotten lazy when it comes to safety and integrity within our schools' faculties? I don't think it's as simple as that, at all, but I think we can always be more aware and more careful when it comes to these delicate situations.

Not only is it important to hire teachers of good character and moral viewpoints ( human value and rights being a part of their schema) but it is also important to be that ourselves, as teachers. This can very well often mean holding firm boundaries between you and your students. While it is important to support them and form relationships with them, healthy boundaries will keep those relationships from getting too personal or even misconstrued. We mentioned a number of specific ways to do this, in class, but I think a really important one is never being alone in a room with a student. No matter what gender or age, there really is never a need to be alone in a room (door closed, etc) with the student. This, along with frontal hugs or excessive touchiness, is just asking for confusion and trouble. It's 100% okay to set those boundaries and enforce them, even if denying a child a certain kind of affection. In fact it's highly beneficial for a child to learn that they can't always (or ever really) have control over the people around them, and there are rules put in place for a reason. A teacher might hurt a child's feelings at the present moment, but standing firm in these rules and boundaries will result in long term benefits and wellness for everyone.