Erin's Law

Wow. 

This is from Erin Merryn's website http://www.erinmerryn.net/erins-law.html 

When I was raped weeks before my 7th birthday and was molested from 11-13 by my older teenage cousin I DID NOT know what to do because I was never educated in school on sexual abuse so I stayed silent under their control and power. I was warned never to go look for the lost puppy when the stranger approached, I was warned never to take candy from a stranger, but it was not strangers that stole my innocence and took my childhood from me. These were monsters I knew. Monsters no one warned me about and 93% of the time when a child is sexually abused it is by someone they know and trust. Only 7% of the time the abuser is a stranger. So why I ask do we focus so much on stranger danger and not the bigger issue of sexual abuse as a whole?

My crusade now is to save the children of Illinois from the childhood I could not be saved from. It is a silent epidemic because we are not talking about it with children. 

We cannot leave it up to the parents. Many parents are the ones who are the abusers, avoid this conversation or are in the mind frame of only warning their kids about stranger danger. It needs to be in the schools.

It is impossible to end this evil of child molesters. So if we cannot stop these monsters from hurting kids what can we do to prevent sexual abuse or get children to speak up instead of being locked in silence and carry it for years or even into adulthood alone? That is why we need Erin's Law passed in Illinois. 

What would Erin's Law do?
1. The purpose of this law is to inform and protect students from sexual abuse. To mandate school districts implement and educate students on sexual abuse. School boards will adopt age appropriate curriculum on sexual abuse education to students grades pre-k through 5th grade. Education in schools is an effective method for preventing children from falling prey to sexual abuse or stay silent if it does occur.