High School Puppeteers Delivery Child Abuse Message
Posted on Friday, May 17th, 2019
Puppets Teach Child Abuse Prevention: Kimberly Miller (back right),
director of children’s programs, and Patricia Lee (not pictured) guided
the annual Child Abuse Prevention Month puppet show at Love County
elementary schools in April and May. Among the student performers
from Marietta High School were Remington Ducharme, Gracelynn
Rodriguez, Emily Briggs, Susannah Lemons, and Monica Flores. Their
teacher was Alicia Harris.
For the 26th year, the Love County Community Coalition presented a puppet show to elementary students during Child Abuse Prevention Month.
In the performances, the puppets and animated characters in a Youtube video tell about abuse and what they did about it. The purpose is to make it clear to young children that when personal safety or discomfort is involved, the child can say “NO” and tell a trusted adult what is happening to them.
The live puppeteers are speech and drama students from the classes of Alicia Harris at Marietta High School. The animated characters are drawn from the video vignettes of the Barbara Sinatra Children’s Center Foundation.
Another element of the show is a large poster of cartoon children in swim suits that the narrator uses to illustrate clothing that covers “private parts” of boys and girls. The narrator and lead agency this year was Lighthouse Behavioral Wellness Centers, under Patricia Lee, family support provider, and Kimberly Miller, children’s programs director.
The high school performers were seniors Jacob Carpenter, Sam Olguin, Gabby Kisselburg, Abby Reed, and Britten Cummins; junior Rebecca Vinson; sophomores Brianna Stewart, Kylie Slawson, Cole Foster, Sophie Love, Hailey DaSilva, Monica Flores, Yazmin Guerrero, and Elizabeth Maldonado; and eighth graders Gracelynn Rodriguez, Emily Briggs, Savannah Lemons, and Remington Ducharme.
Mercy Health/Love County Hospital, Clinic and EMS furnished a take-home bookmark in English/Spanish entitled, “10 Tips for Positive Discipline.”
The Love County Multidisciplinary Team of law enforcement, child welfare, and medical/mental health workers that investigates child abuse and neglect gave “Good Touch/Bad Touch” coloring books in English/Spanish to pre-school through grade 3 students.
The child abuse prevention presentation started in 1994 as a project of the Love County Community Coalition. The program covers sexual abuse, physical abuse, family violence, and making smart choices when going online on the internet
Officials point out that children rely on adults to notice and report child abuse and neglect.
If they have reason to believe a child has been or may be harmed, callers should contact the Child Abuse Hotline, 1-800-522-3511, or local law enforcement.
Reports can be made anonymously. It is helpful if the caller can provide the child’s name, age, sex, address, phone number, directions to the home, parents’ places of employment, description of suspected abuse, current condition of the child, and gender of other family members.