There But For The Grace

Every so often something comes up that reminds me how unbelievably lucky we were with one of our little ones.  Today I was watching a program on T.V. about the devastating effects of a man who was molested at age 10.  Of course the effect of being molested at any age is going to be a negative one so that was no surprise.  You cannot harm a child and not have it cause repercussions in their adulthood.

Our little one was about 8-9 years old when he almost became a victim of a pedophile teacher.  This teacher took too much of an interest in this little boy which didn't become a red flag until he brought home gifts that his teacher had given him.  Besides that, the teacher had attempted to get the parents to allow him to take our little boy away overnight.  It makes me sick to think how this monster teacher was grooming a child in order to violate him.  The parents were wise enough to refuse to let the teacher take him overnight and when the gifts began to appear, they were wise enough to notify the principal of the school.  She was horrified and stopped all contact between the teacher and our little boy.

The sad part about this is that the teacher left the school but it's unknown if he simply moved on to another school where parents, students, and staff were not informed as to the danger he represented.  All this happened a few decades ago so I'm assuming that was probably the case.

Most times when we hear of a child being molested by a teacher or even a priest, the main red flag was that the molester determinedly arranged to get the child alone and the parents were lulled into believing their child was safe with a reputable person.

There was a hockey coach in our city who was allowed private overnight access to young boys by their parents for many years.  He molested many of them.  Their parents were led to believe their children were given special attention because of their hockey skills.  I often wonder what difficulties those boys grew up with and how much blame they laid on their parents for the molestation.

Love your children enough to protect them...even if you're a bit over-protective.  If they're in sports, attend overnights with them instead of sending them off alone.  Be on the alert for any adult "grooming" of you or your child in order to get them alone.  

I will be forever grateful that my daughter and her husband saw the red flags and took action.  It almost certainly saved our little one's innocence.