⚫ A schoolgirl walking her dog and talking on phone was groped from behind.
⚫ Another schoolgirl was inappropriately touched by the swimming coach during a training session.
A school conducted a session for parents on child sexual abuse and how vulnerable children are, not just from strangers but from people known to them as well.
South City International School conducted the online session on “Child Safety” on Saturday morning.
Close to 300 parents of students of classes V to VIII attended the session.
“Parents do tend to leave their children unaccompanied on fields or for various activities and a predator can... abuse the child,” said counsellor Jyoti Sapru, who conducted the session on child safety.
According to Sapru, parents should be watchful of “over-friendly” or “over-touching” adults.
The parents were encouraged to try and prevent abuse by being more watchful and alert. They were also told not to brush any incident under the carpet.
Parents often ask, because of their schedule or other reasons, their domestic help or drivers to drop their children to school or bring them back home.
“Often sexual offenders are the people who are known to the family or the child. Not only girls, boys are equally vulnerable and can be victimised,” said John Bagul, principal of the school.
Often parents tend to ignore an incident of abuse if the offender is know to them.
Sapru spoke about a tendency among parents to remain silent out of shame or because they find the topic so “overbearing”.
“Parents need to understand that they have to listen to their children and confront the offender, even if they are someone known to them or close to them,” said Sapru.
Parents often complain that their children in preteens or teens do not speak to them and close the doors on their face.
“Parents have to learn to not take it personally. The anger is not directed at them. One needs to understand that the child is coping with some negativity and they have to help them through it,” said Sapru.