Children Abusing Children
The U.S. Supreme Court's ruled last week that a student who has been sexually harassed can sue the school and individual administrators under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. There has been plenty of legal analysis of the decision, so I decided to blog about the underlying problem of child-on-child abuse.
That particular case started when a kindergarten child told her parents that other children were coercing her into exposing herself on the school bus. The parents were not satisfied with the school's response, and eventually sued. This case is rare only in that it made it all the way to the Supreme Court. Child-on-child abuse in youth organizations actually is more common than abuse by adults. The problem for supervisors is knowing how to respond.
In the Supreme Court case, the allegations, if true, clearly set out abuse. But what about less intrusive behavior, such as a child touching himself or dropping his pants? Is that normal behavior, or should the school start watching the child more closely?
Dr. Bill Friedrich did the earliest and best research about distinguishing between normal and problematic sexual behavior. His studies set the foundation for most of what we know about the area, and are the best place to start, if you have the patience to read scientific literature.
The NYU Child Study Center has a much more accessible article that has a helpful list of what sort of behaviors are normal and which ones are red flags for abuse. If you see any of the children or teenagers in your program exhibiting any problematic behaviors, then you need to address it. You may not need to do more than talk to the child and his or her parents about your concerns. More severe cases may warrant a report to the authorities of suspected child abuse.
Above all, protect the other children in your program. That goal may require only close supervision of a given child, or it may require you to expel him or her. Never assume that "a good talking-to" has solved the problem. Be just as vigilant about protecting your clients from each other as you are about protecting them from adults.
