Child Abuse Prevention Group Spreads Message in Schools

By T.S. Mills-Faraudo, STAFF WRITER

All children are vulnerable to being sexually abused — even in places where they are supposed to be safe, such as schools.

This has become more apparent in the wake of the arrests of two local school staff members this month on suspicion of child molestation.

On Jan. 3, former Central Middle School physical education teacher Neal Sato, 34, was arrested for allegedly secretly videotaping female students undressing in his office, police said. And, on

Jan. 11, former Woodside High School girls basketball coach Guy Hayman, 43, was arrested on suspicion of child molestation.

San Mateo child psychologist John Bradshaw said it’s not at all unusual for children to be vulnerable to molestation in schools.

“Children are never told to distrust teachers,” he said. “We have to somehow make the school environment safer, and we have to tell our kids that not all authority figures are safe.”

Students must learn to protect themselves, said Lynda Gayden, executive director of the Child Abuse Prevention Center, an agency that goes to schools in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties totrain kids how to avoid being molested or abused in any way.

Elementary, middle and high schools throughout San Mateo County have programs addressing such issues as sexual and physical abuse, sexual harassment, abduction, assault and bullying. These programs typically teach children and teens how they can avoid these situations or what to do if they happen.

When the Child Abuse Prevention Center trains young children about molestation, Gayden said they usually do role-playing, putting students in different situations.

“We try to create real-life situations because most of the time, (the abuser is) someone they know,” she said.

Instead of using words such as molestation, though, they talk about familiar forms of unwanted touching, such as tickling, poking and cheek-pinching, so children don’t get scared.

“We train children without using scare tactics,” Gayden said. “We teach them what they should do and how they should do it.”

Often this will include learning how to sit, stand and move so they appear to be very aware of their surroundings and confident, which may help them avoid abuse or assault. Training sessions also include everything from learning how to create space between yourself and the person threatening you to making safe choices about talking to strangers.

Different approaches

In the San Mateo-Foster City School District, each school principal chooses from a list of local agencies to talk to children about things such as sexual abuse and harassment, said Joan Rosas, assistant superintendent of student services. Furthermore, the district has a curriculum that teaches students about social responsibility and treating others with respect, she said.

School administrators also go around to all the classes and talk to students about sexual harassment and bullying.

“In order for kids to be academically successful, they must be emotionally stable,” Rosas said.

In the San Mateo Union High School District, health classes cover such issues as unwanted touching and people violating your space, said Dona Loustalot, health education coordinator for the school district.

“In a number of our classes, we talk about what you do when someone is violating your space, and we teach them skills on how to say no,” said Linda Duerson, health-education teacher at Hillsdale High School in San Mateo.

Furthermore, all of the counselors, school safety advocates, health aides and administrators are trained to talk to students who have been molested, Loustalot said.

At Woodside High School, a team of staff members studies students’ behavior at the school, Woodside Instructional Vice Principal Margaret Williams said. So if a student is acting strangely, as they may do if they have been abused, a staff member can turn his or her name into the administration so the problem can be addressed, she said.

Issues such as sexual abuse are not just talked about in health classes, Williams said. Some teachers, she said, may address this issue in English or social studies classes. For example, if they are reading a story about someone who has been abused, Williams said, a teacher may use this as an opportunity to open a class discussion on the issue.

“We do many different things to encourage our students to report anything that’s inappropriate,” she said.

In the teacher-credential program at Notre Dame de Namur University, students essentially take a vow to act ethically when they become teachers, said Joanne Rossi, interim dean of the school of education at the university.

So when a teacher molests a student or starts a relationship with a student, it goes against a code of conduct they agreed to follow, she said.

“We just can’t predict human behavior,” Rossi said.

Legal responsibility

By law, anyone who works with children, including teachers, is required to learn how to identify when a child has been abused and how to report it to the proper authorities.

According to a presentation from the Peninsula Training Collaborative, a local agency that provides this training, some indicators a teacher may look for in a sexually abused child include: overly sexualized behavior, compulsive masturbation and excessive curiosity about sexual matters.

Staff writer T.S. Mills-Faraudo covers education. She can be reached at (650) 348-4338 or tmills@sanmateocountytimes.com.