Alaska Safe Children’s Act

In 2017, Alaska began implementing the Alaska Safe Children’s Act, which is the combination of Erin’s Law and Bree’s Law. Together these laws require Alaskan school districts to provide age appropriate information about childhood sexual abuse and teen dating violence to students and staff. WISH has been supporting the Ketchikan Borough School District implementation of this act by offering developmentally appropriate lessons for students to all schools in the district.

BODY SAFETY PRESENTATIONS

To help the school district to comply with Erin’s Law, WISH offers developmentally appropriate lessons on body safety to elementary schools. These lessons help children increase their understanding of bodily autonomy and their right to say no to any touch. We help them practice assertive refusal skills and identify safe adults in their lives who can help them if they are harmed. We can present to children as young as pre-K all the way through seniors in high school.

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The Fourth R Program (R = Relationships) is a comprehensive school-based program designed to reduce violence, substance use, and other risk behaviors. The program is based on the premise that relationship skills are as important to learn in school as the other three R’s (Reading, wRiting, and aRithmetic). The program focuses on building healthy relationships and decision-making skills through interactive teaching methods such as role play. The Fourth R lessons provide a variety of discussion opportunities to process issues with peers and the teacher, as well as opportunities to examine individual beliefs and boundaries.

WISH facilitates Fourth R as a small group in the Revilla Alternative School. WISH also utilizes Fourth R lessons in healthy relationship classes at Kayhi.

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3 RS

In conjunction with public health, WISH facilitates 3 Rs lessons at Residential Youth Care (RYC). The 3 Rs stand for: Rights, Respect and Responsibility. This curriculum was designed by Advocates for Youth. The curriculum fully meets the National Sexuality Education Standards and seeks to address both the functional knowledge related to sexuality and the specific skills necessary to adopt healthy behaviors. Rights, Respect, Responsibility reflects the tenets of social learning theory, social cognitive theory and the social ecological model of prevention.

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HEALTHY RELATIONSHIPS CLASSES

WISH facilitates healthy relationship classes in the local middle schools. For one week, WISH staff engage students in activities that help students build life skills that decrease the chances they will become the victims or perpetrators of violence. These lessons apply to all relationships, including friendships, dating relationships and family relationships. WISH’s lessons help students better understand what a healthy relationship looks like, how to recognize unhealthy relationships and what they can do to help themselves or their friends in dangerous or unhealthy relationships.

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WISH has partnered with the Ketchikan Gateway Borough School District to bring interactive lessons to classrooms to help students better understand a variety of topics related to teen dating violence including:

  • Consent

  • Recognizing Warning Signs/Red Flags

  • Healthy and Unhealthy Relationships

  • Personal Boundaries and Personal Safety

  • Technology Abuse

  • Bullying

  • And more!

These lessons also help the school district meet the requirements of the Alaska Safe Children’s Act.

If you want more information or would like schedule a presentation in your classroom, please contact adrienne.g@wishak.org

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