Struggling with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and seeing a therapist on a regular basis is a result of my painful past.
While I was in 4th and 5th grade I was sexually abused by a distant relative. While the abuse was happening, I was manipulated and made to believe that I would get into trouble if my parents ever found out so I tried to erase it from my memory like it never occurred.
During this dark time in my life, my teachers at school taught my class about puberty and saying “no” to drugs, but we never learned about sex abuse.
If I had learned about this every year starting in pre-k, maybe this nightmare would have never happened to me because I would have known what to do. I was simply unaware and too young to understand the situation.
Obviously I am not alone because millions of children and adults have been or are being sexually abused at this moment. The Centers for Disease Control estimates that one in four girls and one in six boys will be sexually abused by the age of 18. Twenty percent of children are abused before they reach their eighth birthday, reports The Children’s Assessment Center.
Since child abuse affects millions of children, it makes sense to pass a federal law that will hopefully educate and protect children from pedophiles.
That is why Erin Merryn, who is a survivor of sex abuse, is fighting to make “Erin’s Law” pass in all 50 states.
“My crusade now is to save the children of Illinois from the childhood I could not be saved from. It is a silent epidemic because we are not talking about it with children,” Merryn writes on her website at erinmerryn.net.
Erin’s Law would force schools to educate elementary and middle school children about sexual abuse and assault.
Already Merryn has testified in six states in 2012, and next year she plans to testify in 10 more.
Fortunately, four states, including Illinois, have passed versions of Erin’s Law, but it is under review in nine other states, and according to the Chicago Tribune, The Illinois House of Representatives passed the bill 97 to 10 earlier in December. Currently, the bill is pending in the Senate, which lawmakers say will likely vote on it in January.
The bill’s oppenents claim they cannot support it because it is an unfunded mandate.
“You can’t do good things with bad legislation…and an unfunded mandate is bad legislation,” said Rep. Richard Morthland, a tea party conservative.”
It saddens me that someone would vote against Erin’s law because it is about protecting the innocence of children including the congressman’s.
Just like they learn about the first president, these babies need to learn about sex abuse so they can identify it and tell their parents or someone they trust like a teacher or counselor right away.
We need to prioritize and teach children what will save and protect them because I would never want anyone to have to go through what I went through.
