MURRAY — Elementary school children in Murray School District are going to learn what to do when that uneasy "uh-oh" feeling swells in their stomachs.
It might come when they forget how to do a math problem. But it also might occur in a personal situation like when a bully gives them a hard time on the playground or an adult touches them inappropriately.
Whatever the case, district administrators are hoping a child self-protection program called Good-Touch/Bad-Touch will help children understand they have the right to ask questions or say no when they're scared or uncomfortable. The district initiated the program at Horizon Elementary Monday with the help of Prevent Child Abuse Utah and Utah football coach Ron McBride and BYU football coach LaVell Edwards, whose wives, Vicky and Pat, respectively, sit on the organization's board.
"In a nutshell, what we're teaching them is rules, body-safety rules," said Pam Church, a former crisis-center director and mother of six who developed the program in Georgia 17 years ago. It focuses on preventing sexual abuse. It also addresses bullying, sexual harassment, neglect and physical and emotional abuse and Internet use.
Murray is the first district in Utah to use the program in all of its elementary schools. Several schools in other districts adopted it, including Pleasant Green Elementary in Magna.
"I think it teaches kids about themselves and the appropriate limits and where they can go for help — things that often go unsaid," said principal Judith Kissell. It helps children know they have good instincts and that they should trust them, she said. "Kids sometimes need to hear that."
As a principal, Al Church, district curriculum director, said he encountered students who were abuse victims or friends of victims who feared being mistreated themselves. Children also see and read about abuse on television news and in newspapers, he said. They know it occurs.
"It's not helpful to be in any state of denial about this," he said. "If kids don't feel safe, they're not going to learn anything."
Prevent Child Abuse Utah and Utah Attorney General Jan Graham, who's striving to establish a child abuse prevention program in schools statewide, reviewed hundreds of programs and videos before settling on Good-Touch/Bad-Touch, which the University of Georgia validated as effective. Schools in 20 states currently use it, Pam Church said.
Trained school counselors will teach the course in three sessions during school. The curriculum is geared to the age of the child, so kindergartners don't get the same details as sixth-graders, though the basic message is the same. Parents in Murray will have the option of having their children forego the instruction. Schools will send permission slips home with students.
Jennifer Saunders, Prevent Child Abuse Utah executive director, said she realizes that not all parents want their children exposed to information about child abuse.
"It's not meant to threaten or intimidate anybody," said Jennifer Saunders. "But it's a resource for anyone who wants to use it."
The goal, she said, is to prevent mistreatment of children in any form.