Update July 24, 2012. The following article was written before the investigation that showed what a big role Joe Paterno played in the coverup of the abuse that took place at Penn State Football. We no longer believe that the information on which this was based is accurate. Instead, please see these articles: What Penn State […]
Tell kids when their words or actions can be hurtful. Coach them to practice saying something respectful and doing something safer instead.
What if any of us saw a child about to be harmed? We’d want to do something to help that child! Our challenge is to understand what to do and when to do it.
What other child abuse survivors say about why they didn’t tell is sadly similar to what Ralph West says in the interview about his experience. “I was freaked out. You don’t know what to do. Are you going to blow the lid? All you want to do is pretend it didn’t happen. You want to hide and bury it.”It is terribly sad that this happened – and even more sad that, even all these years and stories later, too many kids today STILL don’t know what to do.
Bullying is an ongoing emergency, and emergencies require urgent action. Each week, Kidpower will be featuring an Emergency Action you can take to help protect the young people in your life from bullying.
Our affordable safety comics, teaching books, handbooks, and program manuals prepare readers to bring Kidpower’s “People Safety” knowledge and skills into their daily lives.
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