When
a child demonstrates an unexplainable fear of being alone with a person, it can
be a warning sign of sexual abuse. This fear can be of a specific person, or an
entire group of similar people[1];
like all staff.
One
hundred-seventy-nine times, isolation with staff caused sudden, acute changes
in children’s behavior or increased distress which often devolved into the use
of restraints by staff.[2]
Children often tried to talk, yell, bluster, or runaway, before they used
protective aggression.
Gwendoline[3]
was alone with a male staff member. She asked to open a curtain into
another room where other children were present. The male staff member
refused. Gwendoline began to bluster and threaten to runaway. She became
increasingly more distressed. She put on her shoes and tried to escape through
a broken window. When that failed, she went into the living room, grabbed a
garbage can and tried to throw it through the window. The male staff member put Gwendoline in a restraint and dragged her to her bedroom.
A supervisor arrived to the bedroom. Gwendoline told the supervisor that
she was afraid of male staff member.
Gwendoline
sought a non-violent way to escape being alone with the male staff member by opening
the curtain. She took action to run away. She was not misbehaving, she was
expressing terror at being alone with a staff member.
This
is not to say this staff member sexually abused Gwendoline but Gwendoline is
experiencing fear of being alone with staff and that is a warning sign of
sexual abuse.
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