The Importance of Erin's Law

It started when I was three years old, a small, brown eyed girl hiding in a house with a man ten times her size. 

I’d been taught stranger danger, but the people hurting me were not strangers.

I was abused by my grandmother’s boyfriend and her from age three to age eleven.

When it first began, I didn’t know it was wrong, but I knew that it felt wrong. 

I didn’t dare say a word as his hands explored my tiny body for years.

I never knew the word consent until it was too late, and I’d already been violated many times over.

I didn’t know what an unsafe secret was or how to explain what was happening to me to an adult.

How could I speak up and share this secret when I felt that my life depended on it?

“It’s our little secret” are words many children hear and keep to themselves.

It’s our job to ensure children’s safety, to educate, and to prevent abuse.

Luckily, there’s Erin’s law, which requires all public schools to implement a prevention-oriented child sexual abuse program. 

Erin’s law was first passed in 2009 in Illinois. My abuse happened in Massachusetts and started in 2005, not ending until 2013. 

Erin’s law has now been passed in thirty-eight states, unfortunately, Massachusetts is still not one of them. 

I was unable to get justice against my abuser, and he still lives in that state, and it wouldn’t surprise me if he’s still hurting other little children.

Erin’s law still isn’t passed in Florida, Kentucky, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, Hawaii, Arizona, Idaho, North Carolina, or Wisconsin either.

There are children whose abuse could be prevented with this law, it’s our job to act now. 

Please go to Erinslaw.org/get-involved/ to find out what you can do to help pass Erin’s law in the remaining 12 states to ensure that the eight years of abuse I suffered doesn’t happen to another young child.