They Must Be Aware

this letter is taken from the yated. i don't know who wrote it, but it's a great one!

Dear Editor,

I would like to respectfully disagree with the mother who wrote in to criticize the yated for printing the letter from "Happy Girl" in the Readers Write section because her children read i and she did not want to expose her children to these horrors. I think the Yated generally uses very good judgement in what is printed, and this time was no different. The letter, by the way, contained no objectionable content. It did an excellent job of saying things without saying them.

I understand that I am not yet a mother, so I might not be completely qualified to contribute my comments, but I will nonetheless.

It is imperative that children of all ages, both male and female, be aware of this issue. Reading it in the Chinuch Roundtable and reading it in the Readers Write are two different experiences. Here, they are able to "hear" it directly from the victim, one of their peers, and can possibly believe that it exists. Kids don't want to believe that the people they are raised to trust are capable of hurting them. Unfortunately, it is a lesson that must be taught before it is too late.

When my mother tries to tell my teenage brother what to do if someone in yeshiva or camp approaches him in an innapropriate manner, he immediately dismisses her and promises that these things simply don't happen (not just that it won't happen to him). That attitude frightens me, especially from yonger children.

Parents, please allow your children to learn from other people's unfortunate experiences, such as by reading letters in the yated, so that they won't, chas veshalom, suffer themselves.

R. Flatbush, Brooklyn