By Michael Foster-Sanders/ reporter
Photos by Sendy Serrano/The Collegian
Learning the signs of abuse could be the key in saving a child’s life, and Jenna’s Law requires Texas schools to raise awareness of the signs of sexual abuse, an abuse survivor said March 29 on TR Campus.
Preventing Child Abuse: The Creation of Jenna’s Law informed students how abuse affects the victim’s and the perpetrator’s lives and how to spot the signs of abuse.
Jenna Quinn, the namesake of Jenna’s Law, described her situation of being a survivor of abuse, receiving help and now fighting for mandatory training to help children get out of abusive situations if signs are detected.
“Why do children that are abused never tell?” she asked. “Because 90 percent of the time, the abuser is someone the child knows, and also, they trust. They use that trust they have with the child to take advantage because it’s easier to tell on a stranger than to tell on somebody you love or trust.”
Quinn used her own story to show the effect of abuse.
“Your self-esteem starts to go down from the shame,” she said. “You might start to blame yourself for the reason the abuse is taking place, especially sexual abuse. I went from being an outgoing, fun-loving person into being withdrawn. I started to self-mutilate, which occurs in almost 99 percent of female sexual assault victims because you want to feel in control of your own pain.”
Quinn explained how Jenna’s Law was conceived and how she became an advocate for preventing and stopping child abuse.
“While I was in a therapy session, my mother picked up a pamphlet that had a checklist of symptoms of child abuse,” she said. “She checked off 80 percent of that list of the symptoms and signs of child and sexual abuse.”
Quinn said her mother, as an educator, became angry because she wondered how many children in her classes had the same symptoms her daughter had.
“Why isn’t there any education to stop or prevent this from happening?” Quinn’s mother had asked.
Thus, the idea for Jenna’s Law, the first such bill named after a survivor to pass in the U.S., was born.
