School safety presentation helps stop child abuse that ‘would’ve continued for years’

By: Samantha Hoffman (KUTV News)

ST. GEORGE, Utah (KUTV) — The Washington County School District said that in the past year, two students have come forward with information on being abused following their annual presentation on child safety.

The latest of those resulted in the arrest of a St. George man for child rape. He is now in custody, according to St. George police.

“We have found that as we give these presentations, that it gives students actually a vocabulary to use or that they recognize that this has been happening to them and that they have someone safe that they can talk to,” said WCSD counseling coordinator Warren Hall. “We’ve been really pleased that children are trusting our counselors after these lessons and are coming forward with this information.”

Steven Dunham, communications with WCSD, added, “You can see when we’re able to help a victim of a horrible, horrible situation like this. It makes such an impact on those children.”

Just this week, St. George police say a 10-year-old girl brought forward information that left Kenneth Barry charged with 20 first-degree felony counts, including child rape, sodomy, aggravated sexual abuse, and object rape. A letter from the police department reveals the abuse lasted for over a year and a half, as confessed by Barry.

In the letter, Detective Cody Layton reveals he believes the abuse “would have continued for years” without the culture the school district created.

“They feel comfortable, they feel safe around her, so that they could open up and come and talk to her and say, ‘Hey. I’m experiencing this,’ and then our counselor was smart enough right away to contact police, get them involved,” Dunham said. “We’ve taken a child out of a horrific situation.”

The presentation is given to K–5th grade students and is mandated by the state. It lasts between 30-40 minutes and teaches students to recognize abusive vocabulary and areas of autonomy that should not be touched.

“They’ll learn more, ‘What is abuse?’ and how to recognize it, and who they should tell if they are experiencing that or if they hear about someone that is,” Hall said.

The curriculum comes from Prevent Child Abuse Utah. They come to schools and train counselors how to give the presentations and provide a script.

“I feel like it’s very important to help our students giving them the vocabulary, security and confidence, because the students that are facing this abuse are oftentimes unsure of what to do, who to tell, or they may not even know it’s abuse until they’ve sat through this lesson and they can say, ‘Wait, that’s happening to me, and I should tell someone,’” Hall said.

Counselors are trained in how to listen to a student and pull them out of the classroom if they notice signs of discomfort. After the presentation, they invite any students with questions or concerns to talk to a counselor. Counselors are trained to report any signs of someone being hurt.

“They’re able to meet privately and talk through, but the minute that we start to recognize this is a level of a crime, we reach out to the Division of Child and Family Services, we get them involved,” Hall said. “They work with the police officers, and then we work as a team to support the student and the family.”

In the Washington County School District, there’s one counselor per elementary school, whose duties span far beyond the presentation.

“They can help meet social and emotional needs,” Hall said. “They can meet academic needs. They can meet with a student in a crisis, providing access to resources outside of our schools.”

While the state mandates the presentation, it does not allocate funding for counselors on the elementary level. Because of this, Hall said not all districts are providing elementary school counselors.

“It’s really a challenge for the school district,” Dunham said. “We’re cobbling together money from three different sources. The district pitches in some, we’re applying for grants, which aren’t always guaranteed, and then the schools are coming up with whatever money they can so they can have a counselor in their school.”

“We would love to see more school counselors in the classrooms,” Hall said. “We would love to see the state provide more funding to school counseling.”

Dunham says while there are two cases they know of in the past year where students came forward, there could be additional impacts on children at home.

“There may be instances where the students have these lessons, and they go home and talk to a parent or somebody they can trust, and those may happen outside of the school atmosphere,” Dunham said. “But again, that’s why it’s so critical that we have employees that create that atmosphere, that trust, that space where the students can feel safe. If they feel safe, they feel like they can come and talk to that trusted adult.”

Hall thanked the district’s counselors for all they do in handling the sensitive topics.

“I’m really impressed with our counselors that when these topics come up, and how delicate and how able they are to work with these kids in these situations,” Hall said. “It’s emotional for them. I went to check in on this counselor and just to see how she’s doing, and it’s heavy when you have this come to you, and you’re supporting. So, just recognizing the great work they’re doing, I want to make sure they know we love our school counselors, and they do such amazing things.”

Dunham added, “We are so grateful that we have such amazing teachers and staff members, in this case, a counselor that created an environment where students feel safe.”

Hall said that after elementary, secondary school counselors are funded differently and dive into separate curricula in a health class, including suicide prevention and self-harm.