There’s been a lot of focus in the media in recent weeks on both sexual harassment and sexual abuse, particularly surrounding the tragedy at Penn State. Both involve the interplay of sex and power, vulnerability and intimidation. Both are issues requiring courage. Both require more discussion than any blog post can provide, but I was to share my thoughts anyway.
ON SEXUAL ABUSE:
It goes without saying that it’s reprehensible for any human being to abuse another; much less an adult sexually abuse an innocent child. While we must enforce harsh laws to deter predators, the front line of attack on sexual abuse ultimately rests on the shoulders of parents. We have to help our children to understand three core things:
- That no person is ever so powerful or important that they can’t tell us if they have acted inappropriately toward them
- That we will always believe them, and
- That there is nothing that they can ever do that they should feel ashamed about or that would ever make us ashamed of them. Period.