There is a desperate need in Canada for Erins Law to teach children good touch/bad touch, who to tell, how to tell, etc. But Canada is too busy trying to make one or two gender dysphoric kids in each school feel normal that it pays no attention to the 20% of kids being sexually abused inside or outside of school. This is a spectacular tragedy that is destroying children's lives.
Child-on-child sexual abuse has very recently taken over top spot in the child abuse spectrum, thanks to violent pornography being easily available to teenagers and preteens.
Parents Say Schools Are Mismanaging Child-on-Child Sexual Assault
One family’s story reveals a mismatch between how authorities investigate and how kids process violent trauma.
By the time the two-week spring break ended on the northern Sunshine Coast in qathet School District 47 in late March 2022, Claire’s youngest child, Bailey, seemed to have turned the corner on their opinion of kindergarten.
The five-year-old had not particularly loved their first year of school, but by the end of break they were keen to go back to class, their mom told The Tyee. (The Tyee has agreed to use pseudonyms and not share the child’s gender and has opted not to name the school to protect the family’s privacy.)
But shortly after classes resumed, Claire, who uses both she/her and they/them pronouns, noticed a big change in their youngest child.
“They were exhibiting extreme anxiety around going to school. They were crying, waking up at night. It was like they were completely shut down,” Claire said. “I contacted their teacher.”
Despite being potty trained for three years, Bailey began soiling their bed at night and their clothes during the day. Suddenly this once adventurous kid with a “goofy” sense of humour was so afraid to be alone they insisted on following their mom everywhere, including to the bathroom.
It would take three months, a doctor’s visit and some gentle questioning before Bailey let Claire know what had happened: during outdoor recess at school, the kindergartener had been lured off the playground by two older boys, who, once they were out of teachers’ sight, proceeded to restrain and sexually and physically assault the younger child.
“It’s just so heartbreaking,” Claire told The Tyee.
By the time the truth had come to light, it was summer break. Claire immediately contacted the RCMP and the school’s outgoing and incoming principals to report the assault.
The Ministry of Children and Family Development was alerted and opened its own investigation into the assault.
The way the school district, the RCMP and the MCFD responded to the assault allegations horrified Claire and her husband. The ministry, for example, insisted Bailey be questioned without their parents present — something Claire and their husband were unwilling to do because Bailey was already struggling with anxiety and being away from their parents, especially Claire.
When Bailey initially disclosed the assault to Claire, they said they wanted to keep it private. Claire and her husband were concerned that placing Bailey into an interview alone with the MCFD to recount the assault would exacerbate the child’s trauma. The parents wanted to be there to provide emotional support to their child if they needed it.
“The initial trauma was the sexual assault by these two very predatory boys. But the ministry, the RCMP and the school district are continuing, through what I have termed ‘bureaucratic malice,’ to perpetuate the trauma,” Claire said.
Unsure if their children would ever be safe in the local school system, and knowing they would likely encounter Bailey’s abusers in the community again, the family made the difficult decision to sell their home and move to a different city.
But Claire remains worried about the safety of the other children in the school. They are also concerned about the two boys who allegedly committed the assault, who were 10 and 11 at the time.
“These are clearly children that need an enormous amount of help and intervention,” Claire said, adding they are concerned the boys may have been abused themselves.
In an interview with The Tyee, School District 47 superintendent Jay Yule said the district did its own investigation into the assault. But without anyone interviewing Bailey, there is only so much the district can do, he said.
“How do you carry on looking into things if you don’t talk to the person involved?” Yule said.
The effects on this child will make her education almost impossible. In the column to the right is a link to The Emma Fretton Story, about a girl who was abused in her first years of school. It utterly devastated her education and caused so much more damage that 40 years later she is still trying to recover.
Canadian education systems seem completely oblivious to the destruction of innocence and the ability to learn.
This is an in-depth piece with several more pages.
Please resume reading at: A pattern in BC
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