As an adult male who interacts with children daily as a part of my job, not all adult/minor interactions are an attempt at grooming, and it is toxic to assume so.
The amount of times I have had kids NEED an expression of love from someone and come to me for it is, well, quite high. However we live in a world where adult men, especially queer adult men, are only seen as predators when interacting with children, so I have had to be SO careful, sometimes to the detriment of the kid’s emotional well being. Sometimes they just needed a hug because a family member died - I very, very rarely end up hugging these students though.
Grooming/pedophilia is a VERY serious accusation. We all can agree that when it happens, it is vile and should be swiftly and harshly dealt with. But you have to make sure you have incontrovertible evidence before stating it as fact.
Comments
Dw the groomer in question today has been seen in games and on the blogs page discussing inappropriate things with minors and that’s just what they will say in public who knows what they’re saying in pms but ur so right !!
100%. honestly im glad to be out of the classroom now! i taught 5-6 year olds. we had a training this last school year on grooming and it literally said to "watch for adults who use soft touch or play with students hair" ... like... what was me ?! my kiddos loved when i did their hair at recess or when i would let them play with my hair lol. just scary these days any little thing can be taken out of context.
Yeah it is very possible for an adult to have an older brother/older sister relationship that could be meaningful and helpful to someone younger. It's just disgusting that some adults abuse that type of dynamic for evil.
brookie_cookie fr. If it were up to hr I would be a complete robot who only cared about test scores and other metrics, because anything else is a liability. Then we wonder why youth depression rates are at an all time high.
sebbers I fully agree that it is disgusting and I understand why everyone needs to keep a watchful eye.