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Blue Mountain Eagle
What do you think people
should know about this
type of abuse?
LIGHT
ABUSE
Continued from Page A1
Continued from Page A1
abuse prevention. The task force
includes officials from Families
First, Department of Human Ser-
vices, Grant County Health De-
partment, Prevent Child Abuse
Oregon, Community Counseling
Solutions, Heart of Grant County
and local schools.
Lisa Weigum with Community
Counseling Solutions said the task
force saw a need for the Darkness
to Light training in Grant County.
“We’re seeing these trends
of mental health struggles, sub-
stance abuse, child abuse and ne-
glect,” she said.
The school, city, county court,
parks and recreation and others,
she said, have “all been eager to
do their part in raising awareness.”
Wade Cates of Boise, who is
a 2013 Grant Union graduate,
has been working with members
of the task force to advocate for
others who have experienced this
type of abuse.
“As a survivor of childhood
sex abuse, my goal is to highlight
the ways in which adults can be
better informed in their interac-
tions with youth,” Cates said. “We
do a great job in our community of
stepping up for children, but all of
us can take it a step further by be-
ing informed, learning prevention
strategies, knowing how to iden-
tify the signs of abuse and acting
responsibly when child abuse is
suspected or confirmed.”
Cates said the training is an ex-
cellent opportunity for everyone in
the community to learn how to be
better youth mentors and to show
they are committed to the safety of
children.
“I cannot think of a valid
reason for a child to be abused,
ever,” he said. “It is the respon-
sibility of the adults to take this
issue seriously.”
class attendance, in all of my rela-
tionships with the people around me,
in my self-confidence, in my men-
tal health and even in my physical
health. I had worked so hard to keep
my abuse a secret, ashamed and feel-
ing like I was somehow responsible
for what had happened that I began
accepting less from myself and from
the people around me. I strayed so
far from the future that I had set out
to achieve for myself that I did not
even recognize my own life.
Just before my 21st birthday, I re-
alized that holding in the abuse, as
I had constantly been pressured to
do by my offender, was tearing my
life apart. Finally, for the first time,
I knew that I needed to tell someone.
I chose to tell the person who I was
dating at the time, not even realizing
the abuse was as severe as it was un-
til I began to talk about it. The more I
said, the more we were both shocked
at the breadth of the situation.
During that same year, I told my
parents and my sister. Word of the
abuse quickly spread among my ex-
tended family. I was fortunate that
the people around me all took my
story very seriously and believed ev-
ery word I said. None of them blamed
me for anything that happened to me
in the ways that I had blamed myself.
Eventually, after a great deal
of soul searching and talking with
friends and family close to me, I
knew that I needed to come forward
and pursue legal action in order to
ensure the safety of all children who
were certain to be exposed to inter-
action with my offender.
I made contact with an Oregon
State Police officer who took my
statement about the abuse. In doing
so, I was not even aware of the jour-
ney that I was about to embark on.
Many would refer to it as a battle,
but for me it was one of the first steps
in my continued path toward healing
GUNS
Continued from Page A1
some training and perhaps start
working for the district by late
August, Shelley said.
But there are pros and cons to
hiring an SRO, he said. One of
them is the distance from Hum-
bolt Elementary and Grant Union
Junior-Senior High School to the
school in Seneca.
“One officer can’t be every-
where,” he said.
The school board took input
on the subject at their April 18
meeting in Seneca. Williams said
his goal is to make school safer,
whether it was with an SRO or by
arming teachers or staff. He said
he believes the local community
The Eagle/Angel Carpenter
Pinwheels are the symbol of
children during April’s Child
Abuse Prevention Month.
and in finding my voice again. I re-
ceived and continue to receive coun-
seling and mental health support at
no cost to me, as a survivor of a vio-
lent crime.
The process of prosecution and
the mental health battles have not
been easy, and I will never try
to make it sound easy, but it has
changed my life for the better. The
disentanglement of my emotions in-
cluded revisiting a time in my life
that I was ashamed of, felt guilty
for and wasn’t easy to talk about.
Despite the overwhelming difficulty
of the process, I know that because
I came forward about the abuse and
continue to honor the process, I am
happier and more successful in life
than I have ever been. Whereas I had
spent nights alone, crying, since I
came forward, I am not alone with
the burden anymore.
is comfortable with firearms.
Shelley said he had been poll-
ing teachers and staff and noted
there were “lots of things to look
at.” Who would be armed? Would
they receive extra pay? How
would they be trained?
“I want to start the discus-
sion early,” he said.
Shelley said he sought an
opinion from Rebekah Ja-
cobson, a Salem attorney the
district has consulted with in
the past, and Matt McGowan,
a sales executive with Payne
West Insurance, was on the
speaker phone.
Taking public
input
Monday - Thursday
7am- 6pm
Friday 8am - 5pm
M.T. Anderson, a ranch-
er from Izee whose children
will attend district schools
for eight more years, told the
board he had thought a long
time about the subject, spoken
Mendy Sharpe FNP
Abuse thrives in silence. Child
sexual abuse is naturally difficult for
anyone to discuss, whether someone
has been abused or not. The unfor-
tunate fact is that the solution lies
in every person being informed and
having uncomfortable conversations
about it. If we continue to make the
topic taboo, abused children will feel
how I felt: that it is unacceptable to
talk about what is happening or has
happened to them. In order for some-
one to disclose that they have been
sexually abused, they must feel safe,
that they are supported and that they
will be believed.
Abuse of this nature has the po-
tential to impact far more people
than just an abuser and a survivor. In
my situation, the list of people hurt
by what happened to me goes well
beyond myself, and there is only one
guilty person.
Especially in a community as
small as ours, people must consider
that a single person is responsible,
that it doesn’t reflect on anyone else
and that any other line of thought
victimizes a group of people who are
entirely innocent.
How do you think preven-
tion and response to child
sexual abuse can be im-
proved?
There are countless ways that
prevention of sexual abuse and re-
sponse to sexual abuse could be
improved, and every single person
has a responsibility to take part in
working to keep children safe.
When, still today, one in 10 chil-
dren are sexually abused before
they turn 18, something has got to
change.
The first step to improving both
prevention and response is to be in-
formed on the facts. The next step
is to have open, honest conversa-
tions about sex abuse with adults
to parents at Seneca and Grant
Union, looked at statistics and
thought it through carefully.
“As a parent, I would be
comfortable with the idea,”
he said.
He emphasized that arming
teachers should be voluntary
and not limited to teachers
— all school staff should be
eligible, but the school board
must ensure that teachers and
staff receive proper training.
Anderson noted that school
shootings are typically over in
about three minutes, so the
weapons should not be locked
up. He recommended teachers
carry concealed weapons on
their person.
He also warned the board
that if a public forum is held
to discuss the issue, about 80
percent of the people would
support arming teachers or
staff, but the minority could be
very vocal and influence the
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Apppointments
available
Wednesday, April 25, 2018
The John Day
Chapter of
Rocky
Mountain Elk
Foundation
Is there anything you
would tell other victims?
First, there are not words for me
to express how sorry I am that you
are carrying the burden of being
abused and that your heart is filled
with the immeasurable pain that
abuse leaves behind. What we ex-
perienced was not natural and so it
does leave a mark on our hearts.
Second, you are not alone no
matter how alone you may feel right
now. One thing I know for certain is
that there are trustworthy, compas-
sionate people all around us, who we
don’t even realize care.
The things my abuser said to me
had me unwilling to trust the people
around me, always fearing that peo-
ple would not believe me, worrying
about the many impacts my truth
would have on the people around me.
He took my voice away.
No matter what you experienced,
no matter how small you may feel
that it was, it did happen and it was
inhumane of your abuser to strip
your voice away.
The most powerful feeling I have
ever experienced was the moment I
decided to take my voice back and
vowed to help others do the same.
You’re already a warrior to have
survived the abuse. Now, go get your
voice back!
perceived results. He also ex-
pected to hear strong opposi-
tion from people without chil-
dren in district schools — even
people who were not residents.
Grant County Sheriff Glenn
Palmer noted that the board
had discussed the subject in
the past.
“I’m glad you’re talking
about it again,” he said.
Palmer noted that schools
have fire extinguishers and
hold fire drills, so it made
sense to prepare for school
shootings, too. He advised
the board to hire a consultant
for advice and to look at other
schools for ideas.
Palmer suggested the dis-
trict begin with a selection pro-
cess to determine which candi-
dates were most comfortable
handling a gun. He also of-
fered to make available a com-
puterized training program for
active shooter situations.
“It’s kind of fun, actually,”
he said.
Palmer emphasized that
arming teachers or staff would
be a preventive measure — a
shooter might avoid going to a
school that was known to have
armed teachers or staff.
A myriad of issues
“You’re on the right track,”
McGowan told the board
over the phone.
Gathering public input
was an important first step,
he said, but many insurance
policy questions needed to be
answered.
A person carrying a weap-
on, for example, might not be
covered. He also suggested
securing guns in a safe with a
“thumb lock” to allow quick
access.
McGowan noted that an-
other school district in Ore-
gon was leading the way in
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and with children. Abuse thrives in
silence. It would stop dead in its
tracks if everyone were willing to
have these difficult conversations, if
we could talk about this crime as se-
riously as we do others, if perpetra-
tors were living among an informed,
vocal society.
It is important that anyone who
says that they have been abused is
believed and taken seriously, that
every person works to make survi-
vors of sexual abuse feel safe and
supported and that abuse is report-
ed to the proper authorities immedi-
ately so that offenders can be prose-
cuted and be made to register as sex
offenders.
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this approach to school safety
and was considering working
with law enforcement to dep-
utize teachers or staff.
“You’re not the only peo-
ple talking about this,” Mc-
Gowan said.
Cori Anderson noted that
current training calls for
teachers and students to hide
from a shooter, but she would
prefer to have them protected
by someone with a gun.
Shelley agreed, saying it
would be better to fight back
than cower in a corner.
Several board members
asked about other preventive
measures, in particular rec-
ognizing ahead of time when
people with mental health
problems posed a threat.
“It needs to be part of the
discussion,” board member
Amy Stiner said.
Board member Haley
Walker said she’d like to see
some data from previous
shooting incidents to under-
stand what could have been
done to prevent the shooting.
She also noted that teachers
or staff might need special
training so they could handle
the emotional trauma from
taking a human life.
Josh Walker, who has
children at the Seneca
School, said he didn’t want
to make a fear-based deci-
sion, and he believed there
was a “slim chance” of a
shooting happening here,
but he supported the idea of
arming teachers or staff.
“I don’t see a downside to
this,” he said.
Palmer noted that support
for the idea exists among the
public — one person told
him he would be willing to
donate one or two guns to
help the school district ad-
dress costs.
Discussion on the sub-
ject will continue at 7 p.m.
Wednesday, April 25, at the
Grant Union Junior-Senior
High School. The meeting
will be open to the public.
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