It's interesting. Right before my trip to Jacksonville, when I organized the press conference that became the lead story on WTLV-12 on February 10, 2008, I wrote that one idea to combat sex predators might be to teach young kids the difference between inappropriate and appropriate touching. Have a brief talk about this, in school, at the kindergarten/elementary level.
Make such a program REQUIRED in all schools, public and private.
One idea that I championed, that has never been implemented, would be to have a poster in kindergarten, or elementary schools, along the lines of the sex harassment posters required in some workplaces.
It would basically say that no one is above the law, and if anyone ever touches you like that, to contact a teacher, principal, or number on the poster.
That hasn't happened yet, but kids are doing some amazing things these days. Like calling 9-1-1 to report burglaries in progress! It's just a matter of time.
While Christian parents argue over specifics like, "Is it scriptural to call the law on 'God's Anointed'?", it obviously remains up to the children to defend themselves.
Strange that Christian conservatives aren't questioning John McCain's distortion of a policy that Obama never sponsored in the first place, yet he did vote for. Namely, a program that told kids the difference between appropriate versus inappropriate touching.
Here is an article from The New York Times that quotes Obama's exact words regarding why he voted for this program:
“I have a 6-year-old daughter and a 3-year-old daughter, and one of the things my wife and I talked to our daughter about is the possibility of somebody touching them inappropriately, and what that might mean,” Mr. Obama said in 2004. “And that was included specifically in the law, so that kindergarteners are able to exercise some possible protection against abuse, because I have family members as well as friends who suffered abuse at that age.”
Sounds reasonable to me!
The article also spells out the other McCain distortions, such as the idea of a 'comprehensive' sex program for, of all people, children under five! Get out of town!
From the article:
It is a misstatement of the bill’s purpose, therefore, to maintain, as the McCain campaign advertisement does, that Mr. Obama favored conventional sex education as a policy for 5-year-olds. Under the Illinois proposal, “medically accurate” education about more complicated topics, including intercourse, contraception and homosexuality, would have been reserved for older students in higher grades.
The advertisement, then, also misrepresents what the bill meant by “comprehensive.” The instruction the bill required was comprehensive in that it called for a curriculum that went from kindergarten and through high school, not in the sense that kindergarteners would have been fully exposed to the entire gamut of sex-related issues.
I respect those who demand that various denominations create a database for sex offenders, but I personally feel that most denominations are incapable of policing their own.
The idea of reaching potential victims, before they become victims, makes far more sense to me.
Honestly, can you imagine some brave teacher at Trinity Christian Academy, circa 1970's era, teaching their class the difference between inappropriate and appropriate touching?
I can just see a child's hand going up and asking about strange behavior he, or she, encountered in an administrative office.
Why would Christian conservatives be against this?
Click here to read full article.
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