I agree with Frank Murphy’s letter of March 17 that headlines can imply a certain amount of guilt if worded incorrectly, particularly about alleged child abuse. This can indeed be damaging to an accused person’s reputation if innocent and is, as Mr. Murphy succinctly pointed out, wrong. Newspapers do need to be as sensitive to the accused as to the alleged victim, until the case is tried in court and a verdict given.

I also appreciate Sharon Erickson’s letter of the same date, underscoring the necessity of due process in protecting teachers and I agree that all people ought to be protected in the same way. I was a teacher for many years. I know and am close to several teachers and wholly support their position and the difficulties they bear in dealing with children.

There was a third letter in support of teachers in the March 10 issue by Peter Szalai, president of Oak Harbor Education Association. He jumped all over Rick Shulte, Oak Harbor school superintendent, for saying it is “way too hard to fire a teacher.” I feel his letter is an overreaction to the comment by Shulte, closing with “What would (he) prefer? Pitchforks and torches?”

There has been only one letter from a parent, Angela Stack, outraged at not being informed by the school when the alleged incident took place, stating that “while (guilt or innocence) is being proven, our children should not have been in his class.” I agree, as a parent, and as a former child!

I am writing in support of the children. An abuse survivor myself, I have for many years done much research on the subject. Most people do not realize how extremely hard it is to prosecute any case of child abuse, let alone in a school. Evidence usually does not exist in tangible form. It is the word of a child or children against an adult or adults. A very large number of cases are never reported. Why? Because children are often told by the abuser or even a parent A) it is their own fault and they will be in trouble, B) no one will believe the child’s word against the adult’s, or C) there will be repercussions against the child if they speak up.

Now, the ones who do speak up to a responsible adult or parent are often A) not believed simply because they are children, B) teased and harassed at school once the allegations go public, and C) confused and intimidated by the court system and proceedings, and D) too frightened to effectively testify. This could indeed explain why, as Mr. Murphy says, “(A high) number of male teachers and school district employees . . . (are) accused of some impropriety, assumed to be guilty and when due process was followed . . . the accused were found to be innocent.” He adds that the person’s reputation is in question and “they carry the mental wound of the incident.”

I can’t help but wonder how many of those referred to above were in fact guilty and the case dismissed or the person found innocent simply because there is no physical evidence to dispel the shadow of a doubt, no way to prove the allegation and the only witness is a young child. Studies have shown that children rarely lie about sexual abuse. And yet studies also show that it is the rare case brought to court that the accused adult is ever prosecuted where there is no physical evidence such as medical reports. And the large majority of cases go unreported in the first place.

Our government has given children more rights today than they ever had when I was a child in the 1950’s. Back then, therapy was only for the insane, and the words “child abuse” were not in the American lexicon. Today we have Child Protective Services, laws making it a duty of any school employee to report suspicions of child abuse, locally we have CADA doing a huge amount of work to protect children and battered wives. But the justice system is still not adequate in its handling of child abuse cases, and largely ineffective.

The damage done to a child by sexual abuse is extremely debilitating and lifelong in most cases. How it is handled can make all the difference in the world to a child. If the child is helped to feel speaking up is the right thing to do, the safe thing to do, and given the proper support, the damage can be minimized. But I am afraid that most of the time, depending on the extent of abuse, the result can be serious brain injury that lasts throughout life.

Is it not worth the “mental wound” and reputation problems caused some accused teachers to try and help even one single child who may have been deeply damaged for life?

TerryAnn Gallagher lives in Coupeville.