Virtus Training

The Virtus workshop that Sister Harriet lead us through during class was very helpful in preparing us to deal with children and potential child abuse situations. It not only pointed out many different warning signs of abuse but also what steps to take if this tragic event is suspected. A big lesson that I learned in this area was the fact that the police are not the first people you should call, but a good action to take would be to call the hotline immediately. As disturbing as I found it that there was people in the video that were previous child abusers, I think it was very helpful for us to be able to see this so that in the future we can know what to look for. These simple things that the video and Sister Harriet taught us seem fairly obvious, but when you think about how much you could help a child by reading the potential warning signs of abuse, they must be taken seriously. Examples of this would be how if someone would looked into the situation at Penn State with Jerry Sandusky, and how much time he must have been spending with children, the whole child sexual abuse scandal may have been able to be avoided. This taught me that it is better to look into something suspicious and be wrong, than to let something go that could end up effecting a child's life forever.