Representatives from multiple organizations — including the Army Substance Abuse Program; the Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention Program; Army Community Service’s Family Advocacy Program; and the Criminal Investigation Division — joined forces to present topics pertinent to parents of school-aged children Aug. 27, 2024, at Patton Junior High School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
Topics included digital citizenship/cyber safety, drugs/alcohol/vaping, Title IX/sexual harassment and appropriate/inappropriate behaviors and were presented in a round-robin format so participants could rotate to each of the four presentations every 20 minutes.
Digital citizenship/cyber safety
CID Special Agent Susan Overstreet, from Fort Riley, Kansas, shared information about sexting, sextortion, cyberbullying and other risks and what can be done to prevent issues, how to help children take action when confronted with online threats or decisions, and how to provide help to those children when something does occur.
“The main point of this is how to be a trusted adult, and that is to listen without judgement and shame but also keep in mind to remain calm and be kind, because as frustrating as this may be to hear from your child, or a child, that, (for example), they just posted their nudes online or sent it to someone, you want to react because that is very upsetting, but remind yourself to stay calm, be kind and give them a little respect because they are coming to you with something that would be extremely embarrassing and very difficult for them to talk about.”
Drugs/alcohol/vaping
Fort Leavenworth CID Special Agent Bryden Solonar joined Bill Smith, ASAP prevention coordinator, and other CID representatives to provide parents with up-to-date information on alcohol, marijuana, prescription drugs, vaping, and links between social media and drugs, and shared tips for preventing substance use by children.
“We see a lot of involvement with drugs being purchased online and through social media, and with kids being so much more familiar with that stuff than their parents, it’s just hard for them to know without being equipped with the tools for the things to look for,” Solonar said.
Solonar said parents are usually familiar with the misuse of alcohol, fentanyl, marijuana and the like because of the frequency they are seen in the news, but parents might not know how children obtain those substances. His hope was to help parents be better equipped to help their children. He said parents knowing things like what apps their children use, recognizing how dealers might use those apps to advertise themselves and what emoji are used to represent different substances can help clue them in.
“Parents might see it and know nothing about it – like a random tree … might mean nothing, but to a kid that could be ‘that’s the guy I contact for this or that.’”
Solonar said those emoji indicators change, but parents can consult DEA.gov for an up-to-date decoded emoji guide.
Title IX/sexual harassment
Lt. Col. Craig Arnold, interim supervisory Combined Arms Center and Fort Leavenworth sexual assault response coordinator, briefed on what parents should know about Title IX policy.
“Title IX requires the educational community to handle any type of sexual discrimination within the education space,” Arnold said. “It goes all the way from elementary school, middle school, high school, all the way through college. It lays out a number of different things schools must do. One, they must address any type of sexual harassment, they have to address it for the victim or the client, they have to create a safe space for that client, and then it needs to be proactive, it can’t be just a reactive type of program, they have to take active steps to prevent those kinds of activities going on.”
Arnold stressed the importance of having open conversation between parents and children so that parents can help facilitate children’s understanding of sexual harassment so they know how to navigate if something should happen to them, as well as understand what not to do and what is inappropriate for their own behavior.
“No one should be experiencing anything negative when it comes to the sexual realm within the education space.”
Appropriate/inappropriate behaviors
Both Arnold and Marvin Lockett, SHARP Academy instructor, stressed reestablishing children’s body autonomy and boundaries in their presentations.
“The simple things we do as parents, like ‘hey, go give Grandma a kiss,’ and we force a child to do it — if a child didn’t want to do it, we shouldn’t force them, because now we’re showing them that ‘someone else owns my actions, someone else can make me go do something that I don’t want to do,’” Arnold said in the example he provided on body autonomy. “There’s a difference in being a good grandchild and showing your love for your grandparent, but there’s got to be a way without forcing them to do something they don’t want to do with their own body.”
Lockett discussed ways to talk to children about body autonomy and how to comfort them if something that made them uncomfortable were to occur.
“I want every child to know that their body is actually theirs, and if someone was to touch them, and they felt uncomfortable about said touch, they should be able to come to mom and dad and say ‘I have a problem, a situation. How can I talk to you about this in a safe place?’” Lockett said. “The last thing we want is someone to be uncomfortable here at school. Learning and playing, that’s what kids should worry about."
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