Health Department Hosts Parent Safety Training Program in Edina – VIDEO
A small crowd turned out for the Parent Safety Training at the Knox County Community Center in Edina on Wednesday, October 17, 2018.
The training was facilitated by the Knox County Health Department and led by a team of criminal forensic interviewers from The Child Center, Inc.
Attendees learned about protecting children from sexual abuse and online safety during the two-hour presentation, which was live streamed on the nemonews.net Facebook page.
Attendees were given the opportunity to ask questions, collect handouts and interact with the team privately at the end of the training.
“It’s the first meeting like this we’ve had in Knox County,” said KCHD Administrator Lori Moots-Clair. “I was disappointed in the turnout, but there was a good response to the online offering. This is the first time we’ve had this type of training offered in this community and we will continue to arm our parents with information and education that helps them be more informed. We are working with the same group to offer mandated reporter training, which has yet to be scheduled.”
According to information presented during the training, one in four girls and one in six boys will be sexually abused in some form before their eighteenth birthdays, 90 percent or more of all sexual molestation is committed by someone the child knows or trusts and as many as 40 percent of all children who are sexually abused are abused by older more powerful children.
Presenters encouraged parents to open the lines of communication with their children and have open discussions. Parents were also encouraged to tell their children, “It’s not okay for anyone to touch or look at your private parts.”
Attendees were also equipped with signs to look for if sexual abuse is suspected like regression of developmental milestones, refusal to be around a specific person, a change in behavior, advanced knowledge of sex and complaints about the body.
The video of the full training is available on the nemonews.net Facebook page.
