
Content warning: This post deals with abuse, and might be triggering for some readers.
It was spring and the sport season was about to begin. My five-year-old would be starting t-ball, and my seven-year-old had agreed to take a crack at junior softball.
Neither had ever played before, but I loved both sports growing up, and somehow I convinced them both to give it a shot.
Among the flurry of emails that came out before the first practice was an appeal for parent volunteers. If you ever plan to set foot on the field, the note said, you’ve got to take bullying and child abuse prevention training. Thinking my experience as a teacher and as a former player might benefit my kids at some point, I signed up for the online class.
Watch: The signs of an abuser, told through his victim’s phone. Post continues below.
There were slides, naturally, and I read and clicked through them dutifully if a bit absently. I’d been a teacher and school administrator for 15-something years by this point, and I had seen this information presented in various ways dozens of times before.