[Note: The following is excerpted from The Kitchen Table Activist / Capitol Resource Institute. https://www.thekitchentableactivist.com/ ]
It's happening to children in American schools.
But what is grooming, anyway?
For the answer we looked to Kenneth Lanning, who spent over 40 years as an FBI agent, focused on stopping the sexual victimization of children for over 40 years. His definition of grooming is considered the gold standard.
Lanning says grooming is a set of techniques used by some child molesters to gain access to their victims, and to ultimately control them. He also calls it “seduction.”
Imagine giving a child special treatment in order to gain their trust. It’s easy to do with extra attention, affection, special privileges, gifts, and keeping secrets together. That’s grooming. Eventually the grooming escalates to dirty jokes, showing the child pornography, and having conversations about sex acts.
What’s happening in our schools is without question, grooming.
What happens after children are groomed?
When a child is groomed they become confused about what’s appropriate. They suddenly look at themselves as sexual objects, and look at each other as sexual objects. They even look at adults as sexual objects. Children’s minds and bodies aren’t equipped for sexual conversations and contact, but they’re being indoctrinated to think those things are normal.
Desensitization.
When any person is subjected to something bad day in and day out, they become desensitized to it. Their negative reaction slowly diminishes to the point where they become indifferent, or think it’s normal.
The same thing happens to children who are regularly exposed to sexual content. They begin to think it’s normal for people to have sexual experiences at any age, with anybody, at any time.
If children are taught that being sexual is normal for them, their natural instincts are damaged, and they’re not able to spot - or fight against - a predator.
How can children have any chance of knowing right from wrong if we distort reality for 8 hours a day in school?
Insurmountable damage.
Decades of research paint a clear picture of the horrible aftermath of grooming and sexual abuse.
The CDC says childhood sex abuse victims are more likely to have heart disease, obesity and cancer as adults. Depression and PTSD are par for the course. Survivors are more likely to abuse drugs, more likely to have risky sexual behaviors and catch STDs, and are also more likely to perpetrate sexual violence on others.
Survivors of sexual abuse are three times more likely to attempt suicide, according to psychologists at the University of Manchester and University of South Wales, who analyzed 68 separate studies on childhood sexual abuse.
What can be done?
For a list of ideas, go to https://www.cleanbooks4kids.com/what-can-be-done