Ontario going back to old sex ed curriculum this fall
The Canadian Press 
Ontario Premier Doug Ford's government plans to revert to an older way of teaching sex ed, his education minister announced Wednesday. (Tijana Martin/The Canadian Press)
Ontario's education minister says the sex-ed curriculum taught to children in the coming school year will be an older version, not the controversial updated program brought in by the previous government.
Lisa Thompson said Wednesday ministry staff are working to inform school boards of the decision to revert to the curriculum that was in place before 2015.
Thompson said the ministry will be moving quickly to consult parents on how to update the curriculum, and details on that process will be coming soon.
Premier Doug Ford promised to repeal and replace the controversial sex-ed curriculum when he ran for the Progressive Conservative leadership and repeated the pledge during the spring election.
The new sex-ed curriculum sparked controversy, particularly among social conservatives, when the Liberal government introduced it.
It was the first time the curriculum had been updated since 1998 and included warnings about online bullying and sexting, but protesters zeroed in on discussions of same-sex marriage, gender identity and masturbation.
The curriculum introduced by the far-left Ontario Liberals and written in-part by a paedophile who was convicted of child pornography and sentenced to prison. The extreme curriculum included gender fluidity from a very young age and a number of topics that had no place in elementary schools.
I'm not clear if there was any guidance on safe-touch / unsafe-touch, or other awareness of paedophiles in the curriculum. That should be the main focus of any new program as well as awareness of all children with cell phones of the many predators and dangers they are likely to encounter online, sexting being one of them.
I agree that bullying has to be addressed in the context of sexual preferences, gender identification and bullying in general. The first two issues are important but, in terms of sheer numbers, are a very small fraction of the numbers of children being sexually abused. The severity of the damage done to sexually abused kids is no less than that done to gay or transgender kids who are bullied.
Transgender kids and adults suffer horrendous mental stresses. Their attempted suicide rate is well over 40%. The gay lobby would have you believe that the fault is entirely that of straight people rejecting and bullying trans people. I'm sure some of it is; I'm also sure that some, and perhaps most of their problems stem from whatever environmental factors in their youth contributed to their gender dysphoria, and from the dysphoria itself.
Government already under fire over school repair funding
Thompson also said the ministry is looking into how to replace a $100-million fund earmarked for school repairs that was cut earlier this month.
The money was to be paid out from revenues of the cap-and-trade system, which Ford began dismantling almost immediately after taking office, as he had promised to do.
Thompson said the government will try to find internal sources to replace the funding, which was announced in April and cut earlier this month, surprising school boards that had just begun to spend the money.
Police launch intervention campaign on child sex abuse
in district in India
Ramanathapuramin district in India
Close on the heels of introducing ‘Anti-Romeo’ squads to check eve-teasing cases, the district police have launched a special intervention campaign to create awareness among school students of sexual abuse and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
Women Inspectors of Police attached to the all women police stations and other stations were involved in the campaign to educate the students, especially the girls, on the types and symptoms of child sex abuse and the provisions of POSCO Act to deal with the offenders.
After the campaign was launched on Friday, the women Inspectors of Police have covered 1,500 students and an equal number of students on Saturday, Superintendent of Police Omprakash Meena said.
“We have initiated the campaign after noticing a rise in child sex abuse cases in the State and the awareness among the children is low,” the SP said.
The district has 18 women Inspectors of Police and they would address the students on daily basis after tying-up with the schools, without disrupting the study hours, he said. Each Inspector of Police would cover one school a day and the district police proposed to cover all government and private schools in the district, the SP said.
Apart from sensitising the girl students to good and bad touches, the police officers presented case studies to explain the types of abuses that take place and the punishment given to the offenders through court of law.
“The campaign received good response as women police officers interacted with the girl students freely,” the SP said.
The girls studying in classes X to XII were educated about the prohibition of child marriage act and explained that marriages of girls, below the age of 18 years were offence even if the marriages were conducted with the consent of the girls and their parents.
The police officers advised the adolescent students – both boys and girls to focus on their studies for their better future and career. After the launch of the Anti-Romeo squad there has been considerable reduction of eve teasing cases in the district, the SP said. No single case reported in the last one week, he said.
Eve teasing is a euphemism used throughout South Asia, for public sexual harassment or sexual assault of women by men.
I am happy to see this program initiated. I am also happy to see that the Anti-Romeo program seems to be working. I pray great success for both programs and that they might be seen as a model to be imitated throughout India, and South Asia.
I would hope that part of the program is sensitizing boys to the damage sex abuse does to a girl, and to the entire country, as well as making them aware of the possible consequences to them and their families if they are caught abusing a girl.
US runner on cross-country journey to raise awareness of child sexual abuse
One Survivor's Story - Overcoming
Katie England Daily Herald
Christian Griffith runs ultramarathons and survival races all over the world, but nothing quite compares to his latest adventure that brought him through Spanish Fork on Thursday: running more than 3,000 miles across the United States to raise awareness for child sexual abuse.
He’s already run more than 2,300 miles through 10 states since he started running from New York in March, and after Utah, he’ll run through Nevada and California, finishing the run Aug. 22 in San Francisco.
Though Griffith has been a sponsored skateboarder, a contestant on “American Ninja Warrior” and completed more than 100 ultramarathons, this particular journey is extremely personal for him.
Griffith partnered with Help for Children, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the prevention and treatment of child abuse, and hopes to raise both awareness about the issue and $1 million.
Sexually abused by his mother and multiple men as a child, Griffith hid his experience for years, finding unhealthy coping mechanisms to deal with the trauma.
It wasn’t until a few years ago that his current girlfriend told him he needed to seek help or the relationship wouldn’t work out.
“She said I needed to change my behaviors and the ways that I was treating women, or she was going to leave me,” Griffith said.
Though he dragged his feet at the idea of going to therapy, ultimately, it helped him find healing for hurts he had kept bottled up for his whole life.
“(Therapy) went really, really well. I’m still in therapy, and I feel like I’ll always be in therapy,” Griffith said. “You can’t unravel 30, 35, years worth of behaviors in two.”
Ultimately, Griffith said he hopes people who hear about his run are inspired to take the first step and start talking about the abuse they have experienced. “What you tend to see happen is, especially if it’s a family member, people don’t want to bring it up because they don’t want to be ‘that’ person in their family,” Griffith said.
People might also have fear that people won’t believe them, or be afraid that they will be hated or create divisiveness within their families, Griffith said. But talking about it is the first step to finding healing and treatment, Griffith said, and staying silent is harmful for everyone involved.
“It’s harmful for the person that it happened to, and it’s harmful for any potential future victims,” Griffith said. “So my goal is to help people start talking, and once they start talking, it will eventually lead to treatment.”
With about a month left in his journey, Griffith is averaging about 34 miles a day, but said he’s starting to miss his girlfriend and daughter and may ramp his mileage up to 40 miles a day.
He first entered Utah on July 6 near Vernal, and ran through Springville, Spanish Fork, Payson, Salem and Santaquin in the past week. Running through Utah’s July heat has been rough at times, Griffith said, and he plans to start running at night once he hits more arid areas.
He takes occasional rest days, “only” running a half marathon, or 13 miles, he said, but does not plan to take a day off running before reaching San Francisco unless he gets injured.
Griffith said the miles of trail he ran from Strawberry Reservoir to the Diamond Fork Hot Springs are some of the prettiest scenery he’s ever run through — and it’s not for lack of scenery to compare it to, having run in the Alps, Nicaragua and Australia.
The GoFundMe account associated with Griffith’s run can be found at run2heal.hfc.org/donate, and so far has raised $51,000 for Help for Children.
India Govt plans to increase punishment for
sexual assault on male children
The Women and Child Development (WCD) Ministry is set to move a proposal before the Cabinet this week for enhanced punishment in cases of sexual assault of male children, a senior official said.
The Law Ministry has cleared the proposal to amend the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012, for enhancing punishment in cases of sexual assault against young boys, officials said.
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| Maneka Ghandi |
"Amendments to the POCSO Act for enhanced punishment for sexual assaults of young boys have been approved by the Law Ministry. It will be sent to the Cabinet in two-three days, the WCD Ministry official said, without elaborating on the details of the proposal.
Sources said that the ministry was working on the proposal to amend the Act to make rape committed against any child below 12 punishable with the death penalty. The move is being seen to bring in a gender-neutral law while dealing with cases of sexual assaults.
Earlier, WCD Minister Maneka Gandhi supported a petition on Change.org by film-maker-activist Insia Dariwala, who said, "male child sexual abuse is an ignored reality in India".
That's true, but female child sex abuse is not much better off. Hopefully, this amendment of POCSO will help a little.
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| Insia Dariwala |
The Union Cabinet last week decided to introduce a bill that provides stringent punishment, including death penalty, for those convicted of raping girls below the age of 12 years.
In 2007, the ministry had sampled 12,447 children in families, schools, at work and living on the street. It had found that more than half had faced sexual abuse, and 53 percent of victims were boys.
This is, of course, an underestimate of reality since many respondents were still children and some may not yet have been abused but were before they turned 18. Also, many children would not have been forthcoming either from stigma, fear, shame, not actually knowing they are being abused (thinking it's normal), or having buried the abuse and are not yet willing to admit it.
The consequence of all this is that I suspect the real numbers are much closer to the range of 75-80% of both boys and girls in India being sexually abused.
California Governor Signs Bill to Preserve Victims' of Childhood Sexual Abuse Ability to File for Civil Damages
SACRAMENTO – Senator Jim Beall’s legislation, SB 1053, to resolve any confusion about how long a victim of childhood sexual abuse has to file a claim against a public entity and seek justice through the civil courts, was ratified Friday by Governor Brown.
Victims struggling with the trauma of childhood sexual abuse often don’t report the abuse quickly or fail to report it at all because of threats, being ashamed, or repressing painful memories. It may take years for victims to come forward to bring civil or seek criminal actions against both direct perpetrators of child sexual abuse and third parties, such as schools.
Recognizing these unique aspects of childhood sexual abuse cases, the Legislature passed SB 640 (Simitian) in 2008. The bill exempted molestation claims from the Government Tort Claims Act against public entities, which requires the victims to provide written notice within six months. Despite SB 640 and a subsequent Legislative Counsel opinion sought by Senator Beall that supported the bill’s intent, some school districts continue to enforce a six-month claims filing procedure.
SB 1053 clarifies and codifies the Legislature’s intent in 2008 to exempt child sexual abuse victims from that six-month claims process for public entities.
This bill was co-authored by Senators Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens; Connie Leyva, D-Chino; and Bob Wieckowski, D-Fremont; and Assemblymembers Ash Kalara, D-San Jose; Freddie Rodriguez, D-Pomona: and Randy Voepel, R-Santee.
SB 1053 is sponsored by the Consumer Attorneys of California. Among the organizations supporting SB 1053 are the California Catholic Conference, the Peace Officers Research Association of California, the California Nurses Association, the California State PTA, John Burton Advocates for Youth, and the National Center for Youth Law.
I'm guessing the California Catholic Conference is supporting the bill because it doesn't affect them???! I suspect that if they were affected by it that they would act like their New York counterparts and do whatever it takes to stop this from happening.
“This legislation is an important step forward in asserting the dignity of sexual assault survivors, and creating a more just California for all,’’ said Sandra Henriquez, Chief Executive Officer of the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault, which also supported the bill. “SB 1053 ensures that our laws recognize the unique and traumatic impact of childhood sexual abuse, and we thank Senator Jim Beall for his leadership and ongoing efforts to stand with survivors everywhere.’’
During his career, Senator Beall has introduced bills to extend the statute of limitations for victims of sexual abuse to file for civil damages against their abusers and other responsible parties, and ban confidential lawsuit settlements involving allegations of child sexual abuse.
He is also the author of Audrie’s Law, which reformed juvenile sex assault statute to provide justice for victims. Senate Bill 858 was approved in 2014 by the Legislature and the governor.
Victor Walk led by Theo Fleury raises awareness about child sexual abuse
VANESSA HRVATIN
Nearly 50 people participated in Calgary's Victor Walk, recognizing survivors of child sex abuse which started at the Peace Bridge in Calgary on Saturday July 21, 2018. DARREN MAKOWICHUK/POSTMEDIA
“They’re such difficult subjects to talk about and not a lot of people want to talk about it,” said the member of the Flames’ Stanley Cup winning team in 1989. “And people don’t realize the enormity of sexual abuse, not only in Canada but worldwide.”
Fleury said he was abused 150 times by his hockey coach Graham James, which he details in his autobiography Playing with Fire. This led to years of addiction and it wasn’t until he started telling his story that he was able to get his life back on track.
The Victor Walk started in 2013, with the first walk taking place from Toronto to Ottawa over the course of 10 days. It was this walk that spawned the Breaking Free Foundation, whose mission is to, “provide survivors of traumatic life events with the treatment and support needed to reclaim their lives.”
Fleury said despite being a great experience, the 400-kilometre walk was emotionally and physically draining, so the walks are now much shorter.
The Calgary Victor Walk started at the Peace Bridge and finished on St. Patrick’s Island, about a 40-minute trek. This was the conclusion of the Alberta tour, with the Breaking Free Foundation having led walks earlier in the week in Fort McMurray, Lac La Biche, Cold Lake, Drumheller and Medicine Hat.
Fleury said the word “victor” was chosen because the word victim keeps shame in place. “The opposite of victim is victor so that’s why we call it the Victor Walk,” he said.
Nearly 50 people participated, many sporting orange — which Fleury said is the colour of courage — and many having experienced some kind of trauma in their lives.
Amanda Wilhelm was 16 when she was abused by her then-boyfriend. She said finding support through the Breaking Free Foundation and telling her story has been a huge help in addressing her trauma.
“I’m here today to show support and let everybody know we’re all here,” she said. “This is a community and we want other people to join us. If they feel like they can’t talk about (there trauma) then they don’t have to. We’re all just banded together in helping each other.”
Sheri Gray said she’s a victor of childhood sexual abuse. Her husband, children and grandchildren walked alongside her as she held up a sign that read “Awareness of child sexual abuse” painted in orange.
She said her goal is to support other victors and bring attention to the issue, with the hope of removing stigma. “(Abuse) is something that happened to you, it’s not who you are,” she said.
Falz Speaks Out Against Sexual Assault In His New Video 'Child of the World'
In his latest music video, the Nigerian rapper tackles rape, HIV/AIDS and suicide
Following his viral hit "This is Nigeria," in which he addressed a number of social and political issues facing Nigeria, Falz is back with another socially-charged song and video.
In "Child of the World," Falz addresses the pervasiveness of sexual abuse against women and the harmful effects it can have on a victim's life.
In the music video, which stars Nigerian actors Toyin Abraham and BamBam—who play mother and daughter respectively—Falz tells the story of a young woman who was on a promising career path, which gets rocked when she is suddenly raped by an authoritative male figure. She eventually contracts HIV/AIDS, and she considers suicide as a result. Thankfully, the young woman is able to put herself back on the road to recovery, and she goes on to help educate others about HIV/AIDS and suicide prevention.
It's clear that many Nigerians appreciate Falz for his willingness to constantly tackle the hard issues.
While the video has garnered a mostly positive reception, some have expressed that some aspects of the video play into tired narratives around policing women's bodies and behavior—an issue that continue's to negatively shape attitudes towards women in Nigerian society.
Caution: This extraordinary video could possibly trigger a PTSD episode
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