BishopAccountability.org
	Lesson for Students at Molester's Parish By Amy DeMelia Sun Chronicle [North Attleboro MA] January 21, 2007 http://www.thesunchronicle.com/articles/2007/01/22/news/news3.txt St. Mary-Sacred Heart School is introducing a sex awareness program to safeguard students in the wake of the priest sex abuse scandal, and another to help parents protect their children from predators on the Internet. "Because of the sex abuse challenge in the Catholic Church, each school in the Catholic diocese has been required to offer a prevention program," said the Rev. David Costa, director of the school. "Our diocese has chosen the Child Lures prevention program." The program has special relevance for the school because St. Mary's Church was the first parish of Father James Porter, a notorious child molester convicted of molesting dozens of students in the 1960s. Porter's case in the early 1990s brought the issue of priest sex abuse into the national spotlight. Beginning this month, students will learn about the tricks a predator might use to lure them away and how to react if approached by a stranger. The program is taught at all grade levels each year with the lessons becoming more intensive as the child ages. The Child Lures program has six cornerstone lessons that teach students everything from recognizing and following instincts to fostering self-esteem. Students also learn who to tell, and where to go if they are approached by a stranger. The program also focuses on lures that a predator might use, which are taught on an age-appropriate basis. "We take a non-alarmist approach. We try to be as non-scary and positive as possible," Costa said. "So far, it's been a success." As a result, kindergarten students learn that strangers could attempt to lure them away with a pet or by asking for help. Fifth-grade students learn about drug and alcohol lures, which ties in with the school's Drug Abuse Resistance Education program, and eighth-graders learn about pornography lures. "As designed, we were supposed to do the entire program in every grade, every year," said Denise Peixoto, principal of St. Mary-Sacred Heart School. "We knew some of our families would be uncomfortable talking about some of the lures with young children, so we split it up into age-appropriate groups." The school's work with the program has been recognized by the diocese and shared with other Catholic schools in the area. "We tend to do things here with the needs of our students in mind so when the program was introduced, we made it our own. As a staff we decided what would work for our schools, and now we're being used as a model for other schools," Peixoto said. Internet safety program Child safety has long been a concern at the school, which also is putting on a program on Internet safety for its parents this month. North Attleboro police Detective John Reilly will host a presentation for parents on Tuesday that will talk about the importance of keeping an eye on children when they access the Internet. After the presentation, parents will be able to sign up for workshops hosted by Lorilyn and Rich Hall, both employees of Microsoft, who have offered to use their computer training to help teach parents tips on how to keep an eye on children's Internet use. "Some kids have free rein when they are home because parents don't know how to look at their history or lock out certain sites," Peixoto said. "We didn't want to have a presentation and leave parents with the fear without knowing how to address the issue. "So, one of the families in the St. Mary's parish offered to host a series of computer workshops. We think we're going to have a lot of interest from our parents." Peixoto said the program was organized before two recent incidents in which four men were arrested in two separate cases in North Attleboro and Pawtucket for allegedly sexually assaulting teenagers they met through MySpace.com. Amy DeMelia can be reached at 508-236-0334 or at ademelia@thesunchronicle.com.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.