HJNO Jan/Feb 2025

HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF NEW ORLEANS I  JAN / FEB 2025 25 last resort, and this is what happened in the last resort. Editor How important do you think school nurses are in helping identify children who are sexually abused? Sen. Barrow They are extremely important. I've always supported them, have always helped to try to make sure that we had funding in the programs, especially those schools that already have them to make sure that they are maintained. We need to do that across the board, but again, we still are not doing enough in those areas. They are extremely important because they can catch what the regular physician may not catch. They see the child every day, or somebody else sees the child and may share with them, "Hey, something is just not right with XYZ. Can you bring her in? Can you bring him in and see what's going on?" Unfortunately, and I would say this again, it happens way too often to males. When I did this bill, there were several men who contacted me in various ways to thank me because they had never shared their story. Editor What has been the reaction from the public and from victims' advocacy groups to the passing of this bill? Sen. Barrow Those who are not in favor have not said anything directly to me. There was a comment made by an indi- vidual that I know … something about cut- ting stuff off or whatever. But most people have embraced it and have toldme, "Thank you." Again, there have been people that you would never suspect who have been victims of abuse who were saying, "This happened to me. I'm glad you did it. I wish this was in place when this happened to me. We're just making sure that we are sharing this with every young person that we know so that they know how to con- tact and know what steps to take to report someone to ensure that whoever violates them does not have an opportunity to vio- late anybody else. Editor Tell us about how children are edu- cated in the Louisiana public school sys- tems about sexual abuse that might happen to them. Sen. Barrow There are entities who don't believe that the government should be teaching various things to children. That has been an obstacle for us for many years, and I don't think we've made much prog- ress in that area. When we were in school, we had some basic things about the anato- my of the body in home ed. or sex ed. That is prohibited. Editor It is? Sen. Barrow Sex ed., yeah. Editor I didn't realize that was prohibited. Sen. Barrow Yeah. we can't teach sex ed. They may try to call it something else. But in terms of just going through the whole details of your menstrual cycle and all that stuff that I remember. Editor I thought it was helpful. Sen. Barrow It was extremely helpful. There have been bills passed that do not allow us to get into specifics, so how that informa- tion is now shared or conveyed to young people is very questionable to me. Unless you have a teacher who recognizes that something is happening and says, "Hey, what's going on with you?" and begins to probe a little bit, I don't know if we really have an avenue that young people can feel comfortable in really knowing what's good and what's bad. Editor That seems like something we should teach children — that these parts are private. We need to give that child the understand- ing that some things are not OK and per- mission to tell someone what is happening to them if somebody tries to touch them. Sen. Barrow Someone gave a perfect exam- ple in a committee in 2022. I remember this very vividly because I had never thought about it like that. Amother told her daugh- ter, "Don't let nobody touch your cook- ies." The daughter did not understand that “cookies” [meant] her private part. Come to find out, somebody had been molesting or touching her in that inappropriate place and it wasn't until something else [hap- pened that it] came out. They were talking about wording. The girl never understood that “cookies,” was her mom was referring to a private area. She was only 10. So, we were talking about how we properly con- vey messaging to our children so that they all understand, "This is your private area. It is called a vagina. No one is supposed to touch your private area in your vagina area.” We need to all be saying the same thing, but we are saying other words that oftentimes kids don't understand. She thought her mother literally meant her cookies — if she had cookies, tell them, "You don't touch my cookies." But come to find out, somebody was. Editor Who is the child most likely to con- fide in first when disclosing sexual abuse? Sen. Barrow What do you mean? Editor I f they're going to tell that they're be- ing sexually abused, is there somebody that they're normally sharing that with? Sen. Barrow It's hard to say, depending on the child’s different relationships. The people that I think are the last to find out are parents. So, I would say either a friend or maybe a teacher or someone from the school system. Too often, I think parents are the last to find out. Sometimes, again, it's because of the relationships, because of the individual as a person that you just would not suspect. Parents feel trusting of those individuals and just think noth- ing would never happen. And then what they tell the child in terms of what's going to happen … children don't know any dif- ferent. They believe them. And so, I think parents oftentimes are the last ones unless they're having these open conversations often to say, "Hey, we always talk about the anatomy of the body." And I think that may be a good way to do it: "This is a good touch, bad touch." And doing that often. If they don't have that rapport with their kids, the likelihood of them telling them is slim to none. Editor Are there other measures you plan to introduce to address the broader issue of sexual assault in Louisiana beyond this law? Sen. Barrow One of the things that I'm very concerned about, the other part of this, is human trafficking. It is literally all around us. Editor D efine human trafficking. Sen. Barrow Human trafficking is taking an individual and using them to commit sexual acts for money. This bothers me so much because it's happening a lot, and sometimes it's happening in plain sight. The one thing that I've seen too much is parents or loved ones who are trafficking their children for drugs, for money, for be- ing able to live where they are. It doesn't matter about the income. We can't be fooled by that either.It's happening with boys and girls, moms and dads, caregivers. It's something that I try to watch and mon- itor very closely. But it's happening more often than you would imagine. Sometimes it can be the person living next to you. It is very bad. I am so concerned about the game [Super Bowl LIX] coming here. Loui- siana is a prime spot for human traffick- ing because of our interstate, our port, the many avenues by which people can be moved. All the children that you see disap- pearing can often be a part of that sexual ring. The people involved in it would blow your mind. I'm not going to make no big