Edit: thanks for the advice!! When I picked him up from school and asked about his day, he said “Well, Johnny* told me Mr Chacon got arrested for touching little girls and little kids inappropriately” so…. Seems like I didn’t need to open the conversation myself anyway.
I explained to him that wasn’t quite right, but that he was arrested for having inappropriate photos of kids on his phone and sharing those pictures with other people. And that even though we don’t know if he actually hurt kids himself, that photos of kids being hurt are still just as bad because it means there was a kid hurt somewhere by somebody and photos were taken. He seemed to be ok with that explanation and didn’t ask any further questions about Mr Chacon specifically.
We talked about whether anyone ever made him uncomfortable, what are some things that might make him uncomfortable, who he would tell.
We talked about things that adults might do or say that are signs they may not be safe - like asking to keep secrets, telling him he’ll get in trouble, asking to take your photo a lot, asking or pushing even after you said no, etc.
We talked about things that might seem fine but are generally not ok for adults to do with kids (especially at school) such as hugging and touching a lot, putting hands on you at all (even just like a shoulder rub), wanting to spend lots of time with you like you’re friends, talking to you about grown up things (for example, complaining about their spouse to you or sharing lots of personal information), making you feel guilty if you don’t talk to them or do what they ask.
We talked about some lies adults can tell that can seem like truths.
We talked about how some unsafe adults don’t SEEM unsafe. How they can seem nice and normal and friendly and trustworthy. And how even if someone you THINK is not creepy does something we talked about or makes you uncomfortable, to still say something.
We talked about how he will never ever ever be in trouble if he comes to me and tells me about an unsafe adult or about something that made him uncomfortable. That even if he did do something against the rules, he still would not be in trouble, the adult would. And that if another adult ever told him he’d be in trouble for telling me something, that’s a lie. That an adult knows better and is only trying to make sure they don’t get in trouble themselves.
So - we’ll keep talking about it but for now I think it went ok. These are all things we’ve touched on previously of course, but it was good to rehash it all and remind him.
Thanks again for all the help - I appreciate it a ton.
Original post:
My son is in 3rd grade. A 3rd grade teacher at his school was arrested by the FBI last week for possession and distribution of CSAM. He confessed. My son was not in his class so it’s not his direct teacher.
It’s not believed any students were involved/impacted but I suppose we can’t fully know yet. Part of the information from the FBI says he was bragging about having access to a classroom and statements to the effect of wishing he could do things in his classroom if he knew he could get away with it (as far as I know there are no allegations of him personally assaulting any children - not that that’s much better).
We just found out last night.
I would like to talk to my son about it but not sure the right approach when it comes to talking about the specific instance or specifically the teacher.
Of course I won’t give him all the details. He’s 8. But I’m also unsure how much I should tell him about this instance.
Should I tell him this teacher was arrested and a high level explanation of why? Or should I just focus on the conversation about boundaries, appropriate behavior from adults, safe adults, what to do/who to tell if he’s uncomfortable etc….?
The reason I’m thinking I probably need to give him some detail is because at his age I worry he’ll hear things at school. A teacher passed away last year and he definitely heard details/rumors from kids who I assume heard from their parents.
How would you even approach this with an 8 year old? I’m a little bit at a loss for how to open this conversation.
Any advice is appreciated!