Batesburg-Leesville, SC (WLTX) -- Statewide, 17,000 teachers are trained in the Darkness to Light program, in order to help them spot the warning signs of sexual abuse.
It helped one pair of teachers see an important red flag.
"Everybody misses clues, you know. We miss hints that are there," said Batesburg-Leesville Primary Kindergarten teacher Ruth Davis.
Davis has been teaching for 32 years and had never been through a training anything like Darkness to Light before last year. The program shows participants videos of interviews with sexual abuse victims to better prepare them for spotting warning signs.
"It really hit home for me, because I teach five-year-olds and they are so eager to tell everything and express themselves and most of the time they do and most of the time they are dropping hints," she said.
"Some of the things you will hear and see are shocking and disturbing and sad, but if you can make a difference that's your job."
Davis, with her assistant Marilyn Price, learned about the clues through the program.
"A five-year-old can regress like she's one or two by sucking a thumb or bottling up," Price said. "Realize that something may be going on there."
"They could be acting out aggressively or be defiant," Davis said. "All of a sudden, they are not the same child."
Lexington School District Three required all staff to go through Darkness to Light last year. For Davis and Price, it was good timing, because they noticed the signs in a student.
"It was a real situation. We had to go through every, the phone calls, the DSS workers, and the whole nine yards," Price said.
Statewide, 17,000 teachers have been through the same training. J. Dean Foster, who is in marketing for Darkness to Light, tells WLTX that by year's end, we can expect close to 20,000 teachers to have completed the program.
"I felt like we made a difference, I felt like if we put that child in better hands and kept out of harms way then we did our job," Price said.
The State Department of Education says Dorchester Two, Berkeley and Charleston school districts are the most recent districts to commit to training 100 percent of educators. Some districts are also training bus drivers and cafeteria workers.
Some colleges and universities in the area are teaching future teachers similar information. The PACE program puts around 500 participants every year through Darkness to Light.
Learn more about Darkness to Light at www.darkness2light.org
11/9/2009 8:24:45 PM
