Children are protected in multiple ways. When we don't provide education around domestic violence and intimate partner violence from a young age, children who witness that harm don't know that they're not alone. They may internalize and think it's their fault, that it's something that just happens to their family.
Instead, we need to open that door, because there's a window there too, and make sure they can hear that they're not alone. Best practices, again, are comprehensive conversations about it that don't shy away from talking about body parts, so children who are sexually abused or have experienced family violence in the home know what body parts are being touched so that they can tell someone. I was one of those children, and I wish somebody had given me real education around it.
Another thing that we really need to know for the best practices is for teachers to be educated about it too. Teachers need to know what to do with disclosures, and not only to send children away, because that's not what they need; they need help there in the school. They need to know what that looks like. We've seen protests across this country by students in the past six months who have said, “We're not getting the education we need about healthy relationships. Fix it.” We've seen this from B.C. to P.E.I. We need to listen to those children and youth and know that they need to be protected and cared for. Education that is comprehensive, not abstinence-based, is how to do it.