If you’re reading this blog, chances are good that either you are a survivor of child sexual assault or you know someone who is.
It is not something that is new to the world — children have been sexually assaulted by family, friends, neighbors, etc., for as long as human life has existed. Children are easy to manipulate and easy to abuse, and those in positions of power (in relation to those children) have been doing it for far too long.
Let’s make 2015 the year where children fight back and stop this horrible, violent attack on the youth of our world.
One young woman who has already made this her lifelong quest is Erin Merryn. Her tireless effort to make “Erin’s Law” the law of the land throughout the United States has already achieved recognition and she is picking up supporters in states where the law currently does not exist, and I have been involved in efforts to make the law happen in my home state of Nebraska.
Quoting from the Erin’s Law website, here is what Erin’s Law is all about:
Erin’s Law is named after childhood sexual assault survivor, author, speaker and activist Erin Merryn, who is the founder and President of Erin’s Law, which is registered with the State of Illinois and the IRS as a 501 (c)(4) non-profit social welfare organization.
After Erin introduced the legislation in her home state of Illinois, the bill was named Erin’s Law after her by legislators and it has caught on nationwide.
“Erin’s Law” requires that all public schools in each state that passes it implement a prevention-oriented child sexual abuse program which teaches:
— Students in grades preK – 5th grade, age-appropriate techniques to recognize child sexual abuse and tell a trusted adult
— School personnel all about child sexual abuse
— Parents & guardians the warning signs of child sexual abuse, plus needed assistance, referral or resource information to support sexually abused children and their families.
More than half of the states in the U.S. have either passed Erin’s Law or have it under consideration in their respective legislatures. Her home state of Illinois was the first to pass the law in February of 2011, and the states of New Mexico, Utah, Tennessee, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Louisiana, South Carolina and Vermont passed the law in 2014.
Here in Nebraska, a modified version of Erin’s Law was introduced by State Sen. Dave Bloomfield. The difference between LB143 and Erin’s Law is that the Department of Education would be required to draw up a template for a child sexual abuse policy that school districts in the state would have the “option” of incorporating into their schools. Obviously, this is not enough, and Bloomfield has told me on numerous occasions that any attempt to change LB143 to make the policy mandatory would be grounds for him to pull the bill, as he feels — erroneously, I might add — that the requirement would be an unfunded mandate, which he is opposed to.
Sen. Bloomfield’s support of his own legislation is, at best, tepid. He had a chance, during the 2014 session of the Nebraska Legislature, to make the bill his priority bill and open the door for school districts to introduce child sexual abuse policies in their school. Instead, he chose a bill that would give motorcycle riders the option of riding without a helmet (motorcycle riders are required to wear helmets in Nebraska). When asked how he could justify this decision, he told me that he had 94,000 motorcyclists in the state who, he felt, should have the freedom to choose whether or not they wanted to risk their lives by riding without a helmet. How this trumps more than 300,000 children under the age of 18 in the state to have the tools to keep themselves safe from sexual abuses, to this day, defies logical thought.
One of my personal goals for 2015 is to overcome this close-minded “representation” within Nebraska’s governing system and get THE version of Erin’s Law passed. With a new governor and a number of new state senators on board, the opportunity to help the children of Nebraska couldn’t be better.
I would encourage you to check out the Erin’s Law website at www.erinslaw.org and get involved in the effort to make Merryn’s law the law of the land in all 50 states. More than 20 are already on board — let’s make a nationwide effort to make every state an “Erin’s Law” state.
Category Archives: Legislation
Erin Merryn’s new book is outstanding
As I was preparing for my first interviews after publication of “Call Me A Survivor,” I ran across the name of a young lady from Illinois – Erin Merryn.
Her name came up in a Google search with a link that talked about “Erin’s Law,” an effort she began to put sexual abuse education and prevention in every public school in America.
To say the young lady is on a crusade would be like saying water is wet – in a short time she has seen her law passed in nine states (including Arkansas, which ran it through in a remarkable three weeks from first day of testimony to the governor’s signature) and has 19 more states looking at it during their respective 2014 legislative sessions (including my home state of Nebraska, which has a modified version of it, LB143, that makes it optional for school districts – I’ll be talking to state senators about upgrading it to the full version).
I downloaded her second book, “Living For Today” on my Kindle and found myself unable to put it down. I found myself looking back on some of my experiences as a survivor of sexual assault and feeling a lot of the pain she expressed in her writing. We have corresponded back and forth a few times on e-mail about getting Erin’s Law passed here in Nebraska, and I am happy to say that I’ve just finished reading her third book, “An Unimaginable Act” that she published earlier this month.
Merryn details not only her experiences as a survivor, but some of the health issues – physical, mental and emotional – that she has dealt with in her life. She also talks extensively about the work she has done to get Erin’s Law passed in her home state, as well as in other states such as Michigan and Arkansas, and her special moment last year when she was named one of Glamour magazine’s Women of the Year for 2012.
Merryn has had to overcome quite a bit. Not only her efforts to battle through the pain as a survivor of sexual assault, but overcoming those who doubted or didn’t believe in her. This is one self-determined young lady who refuses to take no for an answer when it’s something she truly believes in with all her heart. She is not the least bit afraid to talk about her experiences and to ask people in state governments across the country why we require schools to teach our kids about stranger danger and saying no to drugs, but we can’t educate them about safe and unsafe touch, safe and unsafe secrets or how to get away and tell today.
Erin Merryn is on a mission – and if your state doesn’t already have Erin’s Law in place, you need to call your state representatives and get them on board with it.
And, while you’re at it, get this book as well. “An Unimaginable Act” is an outstanding piece of work by an outstanding young lady. It’s a must read for anybody who is a survivor of sexual assault – or has one in their lives.
Erin’s Law needs to become THE law
In my last blog entry, I talked about how we, as survivors of sexual assault, are not alone.
What concerns me, as I have begun to speak publicly about my experience and what it’s like to go through life living what I have lived as a survivor, is that there are so many young people in this country who are living through the same hell that I’ve gone through — and so little is being done about it.
The Centers for Disease Control has determined that 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys will be sexually assaulted before their 18th birthday. If you do the math, that’s about 20 percent of our population of young people who will have been subjected to this horrible crime – and who knows how many more are hiding what has happened to them?
Something must be done, and there is a young lady in Illinois who is making it her life’s work to do something about it.
Erin Merryn was twice a victim of sexual assault – first at the hands of the uncle of a childhood friend on her first-ever sleepover, and later at the hands of a cousin who assaulted her for two years before she decided to take action.
Merryn has helped craft “Erin’s Law” and is working to get it passed in all 50 states. At this writing, eight states have signed the legislation into law (including Arkansas, where a legislative committee was so moved by her testimony that they basically whipped the legislation through to the full Arkansas Legislature and got it passed in days, where most legislation takes months to approve). Another 18 states have it, or legislation similar to it, under consideration during the 2014 legislative year.
“Erin’s Law” requires schools in that state to provide age-appropriate curriculum for kids on sexual abuse, starting in preschool. Kids are educated on safe/unsafe touch, safe/unsafe secrets and “how to get away and tell today.” Her home state of Illinois first passed the law in 2011, with Missouri following later that year. Since then, it has become law in Indiana, Maine, Michigan, Arkansas, Mississippi and is soon to become law in Nevada.
Here in Nebraska, I’ve talked with my state senator, Dave Bloomfield of Hoskins, and he has sponsored LB143, which got out of committee during the 2013 session of the Nebraska Unicameral but did not get to the floor for consideration. I like to refer to LB143 as “Erin’s Law Lite,” as it does not require school districts to provide this curriculum. Instead, the bill requires the state’s Department of Education to craft a template that schools would have the option to use for developing this curriculum.
It’s not enough, however, to give school districts the “option” to determine whether or not their children need to be instructed on a topic that is of vital importance to their young lives. When 20 percent of the kids in this country are facing a life of hell as a survivor of sexual abuse, they need to be made aware of what is right or wrong and how to, as Merryn states, get away and tell today.
Nebraska isn’t the only state that’s dragging their feet on this issue. The state of New York has several influential individuals within their state legislature and the department of education who, for reasons logical thought can’t seem to grasp, are trying to put up a brick wall to keep Erin’s Law from becoming the law in New York. Although it passed the state’s Senate in April of 2012, it is still waiting to get through the House and to the governor’s desk for final passage.
Other states that has Erin’s Law under consideration include Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee and Utah. On the erinslaw.org website, it states that Erin “intends to lobby legislators in all 50 states until they all pass Erin’s Law.”
If your state isn’t on the list of states who have passed or are considering Erin’s Law, I invite you to check out erinslaw.org, which tells the story about the law, what is being done and provides a lot of useful information. Erin is out speaking about the topic on a national level, and will come to your state to lobby for the legislation.
One of my goals for 2014 is to make sure Erin Merryn comes to Nebraska to get the Legislature moving toward passage of LB143, as well as making an effort to upgrade that law and make it mandatory, not optional, for schools to educate their children about safe/unsafe touch, safe/unsafe secrets and how to “get away and tell today.” Our children shouldn’t have to live with the hell that we, as survivors, have been through. When 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys are being sexually abused in this country, something has to be done, starting with the education of our kids. Erin’s Law needs to become THE law in all 50 states. Eight are on board . . . and I’m not going to sit back and let Nebraska wait to be among the next to join that list.
A very busy summer – and a time for change
It has been two months since I last posted here – a busy two months.
It was an unusually busy summer in my job as managing editor of my local newspaper, between summer sports, county fairs and local community celebrations – not to mention family visits and a much-needed vacation – and it was a good opportunity for me to reflect on what I want to do here and in the future as a public speaker and advocate for those who are fellow survivors of sexual assault.
At some point in everybody’s life, they feel a need to make some kind of major change in their lives. For some, it’s a family-related situation like marriage or divorce. Others have grown tired of being overweight and make the effort to change their eating and activity behaviors to drop the extra weight.
For me, it is beginning the transition from a 30-year career as a small-town journalist to that of a full-time public speaker. My goal is – sometime between my 50th birthday (less than three years from now) and my 52nd, I will be speaking out on a full-time basis while giving myself the freedom to continue on a much smaller scale as a freelance writer and photographer.
I feel like I’m being called by a higher power to make this change in my life, because my personal struggle with life as a survivor of sexual assault is one that must be shared with the world. The message that there is life beyond the attack must get out, and while my situation certainly is not unique, it is one that can be used to help inspire others who are living through the same hell I found myself in.
Already (if you’ve checked out the calendar of events on the home page), I’ve lined up some public speaking events near my home town, and am in negotiations to do several more engagements in my home state of Nebraska in the weeks and months ahead. I don’t want to limit myself to one little corner of the world, though – I look forward to crossing the state’s borders and going across the country to spread the message for fellow survivors who are looking for hope, to let them know that there IS hope for them to go on and live life as a SURVIVOR of sexual assault.
I have been inspired by the work of people like Erin Merryn, a young woman in Illinois who not only has told her story, but used it to help influence legislation that is spreading nationwide. I want to bring Erin’s Law to my home state of Nebraska, and I want to do more to make sure those who sexually assault our children are put away in prison for a much longer period than they are now. I also want to work to get the message to judges who fail to dispense the proper judgement due to those who assault our children that their ignorance of this crime can no longer stand.
There is much work to do, and as things move forward I will continue updating you here. I will also post more news that I see on the web regarding stories relating to child sexual assault, and hope that you will spread the word about the Tell (Some, Any, Every) One website and the battle against child sexual assault.
I promise – it won’t be two months until the next time you hear from me here. In the meantime, e-mail me at mike@mikeycproductions.com if you’d like to have me speak to your school, library or community. I can pass information along about my story and what it will take to get me to your community, and I look forward to the opportunity to help others in this ongoing battle.
Until next time…as my dad always says – straight ahead.
Mike
P.S. – If you have not yet read my book, “Call Me A Survivor,” you can order it here at Amazon.com.