BY TIMOTHY LAROCHE
[email protected]
CLAREMONT — School district administrators sent home notices to parents this week about upcoming curriculum changes that would teach sexual abuse awareness and violence prevention to elementary and middle school students.
Administrators released further details about the Healthy Relationships Project this week after the Claremont School Board unanimously approved the program on Feb. 22. Turning Points Network, a domestic and sexual violence prevention and advocacy group, will teach and implement the program this spring.
The launch follows signing of Senate Bill 460 by then-Gov. Maggie Hassan in May 2016, requiring school boards to ensure that their districts teach child abuse prevention.
According to Assistant Superintendent Cory LeClair, using a community partner to implement the program frees district staff members from using resources to develop their own curricula. District committees already reviewed the program, giving it a seal of approval.
District administrators released an overview of the pilot program, which uses curricula developed by Prevent Child Abuse Vermont, a non-profit parent education group. Staff can tweak the program as needed for future years.
The program provides training for staffers, parents and children about sexual abuse during four sessions aimed at students in grades two through five. Turning Points Network staff will teach the sessions.
The curricula aimed at second-grade students teaches “protective factors,” such as self-esteem, identifying and expressing emotions, the ability to name body parts using anatomical names, the child’s role in the family and healthy boundaries, Superintendent Middleton McGoodwin said in a letter to parents.
According to material from the Prevent Child Abuse Vermont: “Each unit teaches and reinforces 2 to 4 simple, age-appropriate messages via a circle time, a book, and an activity or craft. The activities are designed to complement the fact that children of this age group learn naturally through play and use schemas to assimilate new information.”
“Children can say ‘no’ to touch and everyone needs to ask permission before touching others,” McGoodwin said as an example of the program.
Programming aimed at students grades three through five are similar, covering such topics as communication, understanding feelings, personal boundaries and recognizing peer boundaries.
According to Turning Points Network staff, the program acknowledges that many children have experienced some form of abuse and aims to educate while avoiding more trauma.
Under the Claremont School Board’s Health Education and Exemption from Instruction Policy, parents or guardians can ask to inspect any health and physical education materials. Parents can also opt their children out of any unit of health or sex education.
Turning Points Network staff members will be available Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. at the Maple Avenue Elementary School to field questions from parents and guardians.
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