Hallway at Green Bay West High School March 8, 2023. PC: Fox 11 Online
MADISON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — A newly proposed piece of legislation would require child sexual abuse prevention be taught in schools across the state.
If passed, Wisconsin would join 38 other states with similar laws already in place.
Every state in the U.S. has either passed “Erin’s Law,” or is currently considering it.
“Basically it requires that there is instruction in K-12 school districts to basically inform children, students about childhood sexual abuse, and the warning signs,” said State Sen. André Jacque, R-De Pere.
Jacque is one of two state lawmakers who introduced the bill.
Erin’s Law is named after Erin Merryn, an Illinois woman who survived childhood sexual abuse.
“It’s something that has been extremely successful both as a preventative measure as well as leading to the reporting of instance of abuse that has already occurred and this is something that we can do to really protect our children,” said Jacque.
The Wisconsin Department of Children and Families reports per 1,000 children, 3.4 were victims of maltreatment in 2021.
The most common form was neglect. The second most common was sexual abuse.
“I think we need actually more education on these types of topics,” said Dr. Chad Wetterneck, Clinical Director of Trauma Recovery Services at Rogers Behavior Health.
Wetterneck works with adults, but says most of his patients experienced sexual and physical abuse when they were children.
“Once that happens early on and doesn’t get addressed, it really puts a whole series of events in place that make the person’s life really hard,” said Wetterneck.
Wetterneck believes having Erin’s Law in Wisconsin schools will have more people informed on what’s considered sexual abuse.
“I think a lot of people think that it’s someone forcing themselves onto someone else,” said Wetterneck. “But a lot of things that happen to children involve things that we might refer to as grooming behaviors where it could be a peer or an older person or adult is trying to gain their trust, trying to tell them that these things are okay.”
According to the CDC, 91% of children sexual assault survivors know their abuser.
“Some sexual assaults do occur within families unfortunately, and therefore you can’t count on a child reporting that to their own family expecting anything to change,” said Wetterneck.
Which is why Wetterneck says it’s important for more than just families to know the signs of sexual abuse.
“What you’ll see is behavioral changes across multiple settings, and so to have a setting like school where the kids might be there for seven to nine hours, it’s really important that teachers are able to recognize these signs,” said Wetterneck.
Erin’s Law has already passed in most of Wisconsin’s neighboring states — including Illinois, Michigan and Minnesota.
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