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What does your school teach about preventing child abuse, trafficking and exploitation? What does your school teach about sex and STDs? Is your state an opt-in or opt-out for their health and wellness curriculum? How can you get involved with this type of prevention education?
What does your school teach about preventing child abuse, trafficking and exploitation? What does your school teach about sex and STDs? Is your state an opt-in or opt-out for their health and wellness curriculum? How can you get involved with this type of prevention education?
Ashton Martinez is the Director of Education and Community Engagement at the Paluxy River Children’s Advocacy Center, where she leads initiatives to educate and empower communities in preventing child abuse, trafficking, and exploitation. With a decade of experience in child advocacy, community education, and volunteer coordination, she’s passionate about early intervention and building protective programs that reach children, parents, and educators. Ashton is a dynamic speaker and advocate, committed to equipping families with knowledge and resources to foster safe, supportive environments for children.
Transcription is done by an AI software. While technology is an incredible tool to automate this process, there will be misspellings and typos that might accompany it. Please keep that in mind as you work through it.
Speaker 1:
Welcome to the Next Talk podcast. We are a nonprofit passionate about keeping kids safe online. We’re learning together how to navigate tech, culture and faith with our kids. Today we are joined by Ashton Martinez, and I want to have Ashton introduce herself and tell you the organization that she works for. They are really helping a lot of kids. Ashton, can you tell our listeners about your organization and who you are?
Speaker 2:
Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me. My name is Ashton Martinez and I’m the Director of Education and Community Engagement at the Paluxy River Children’s Advocacy Center. So if you are not familiar with what a child advocacy center is, the kind of way that I like to explain it is we are a child-friendly kind of community-based facility that offers advocacy for children and families who abuse has been a part of their story, right. So we typically deal with sexual abuse and physical abuse in our center and I can go into a little bit more detail about kind of the three parts of an advocacy center.
Speaker 2:
But we kind of bring this multidisciplinary approach to child abuse. So advocacy centers were created out of a need for children who had been abused to basically only have to tell their story one time, and so that’s why advocacy centers kind of were created to bring together all of the entities if you will, law enforcement, cps advocacy here, if you will law enforcement, cps advocacy here, counseling medical personnel if needed. Altogether the child would have to tell their story one time to a forensic interviewer at our center and then that way it would kind of help with the integrity of the case throughout, and then we also have counseling for that child. Any child that comes through a child advocacy center gets counseling right for the duration of that need. And then we provide family advocacy for the non-offending caregiver. So we walk through with that caregiver or family member, whoever it may be the duration of that case. And then what I do most of is prevention and education within schools and the communities that we serve. That’s kind of in a nutshell.
Speaker 1:
That’s amazing. And child advocacy centers they’re typically the acronym is CAC, right, that’s what you guys refer to them as.
Speaker 2:
CACs. You’ll sometimes hear people call them CACs too, like I’ve heard that too. But yeah, cacs is usually what and they all have different names. Um, like ours is Plexiglas River Children’s Advocacy Center. There are other advocacy centers, um, that don’t have child advocacy center in the name, but that’s what they are. So sometimes you don’t even realize. Maybe that’s what’s in your community until you dig a little deeper.
Speaker 1:
But there CAC and I got to meet Ashton because they she had me into the community as a prevention right. This is part of your prevention piece.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, part of what we do like is try to bring people from the outside in who are experts in their field, and so I was a listener of Next Talk and actually watched a Zoom or something that you had done with another CAC, I think, and then listened to Next Talk for a while and then thought, oh, I need to reach out. So I reached out and you guys came to our neck of the woods, if you will, and you came and did a presentation. It was amazing. We got so much good feedback, so thank you for that.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, and we we educated on the online dangers and what to look for and how important that obviously the communication piece is at home. I mean, that’s, that’s really part of the prevention piece, so kids can notice and be alarmed of the warning signs. And then also when something happens, immediately they know uh-oh, a line’s been crossed here. I need to tell somebody.
Speaker 2:
And I just want to say something you guys you and you guys do so well at Next Talk is just make it so relatable for the parent and the caregiver. As someone who’s been in prevention education and I’ve listened to a lot of speakers and a lot of trainings and a lot of like there’s something to be said about making it like relatable and a little like more understandable. That, because that’s what drew me to you guys as a parent I was like OK, this is one of the first times I’ve heard someone speak and I feel encouraged, like as a parent.
Speaker 1:
Thank you for saying that. That’s so sweet. We’re so glad it’s helpful. We always want to be real and relevant and practical. For sure, when I was talking to you and I came into your community after the event, you were talking to me about ways you’re getting involved in your public school in Texas as a parent not anything that you on a professional side and I thought it was so interesting and I thought you know, I don’t think a lot of parents know that they can get involved in their public schools this way. Now I do want to caution listeners. This is for Texas, only Texas public schools. And then at the end we’re going to talk about, maybe, if you’re outside of Texas, some questions that you could ask if you want to get involved. But, ashton, if you could like take our audience along on that conversation after that event and we were talking and telling our audience how you got involved in your kids school.
Speaker 2:
Kind of the way it all started was I was also a parent who was unaware, I didn’t know that I had access to, kind of like have conversations with the ISD that my own kids were in, and I have a five-year-old and an eight-year-old boy, so they’re in kindergarten and third grade. And it wasn’t until I came and started working at the advocacy center that I was introduced to like, hey, some new kind of terminology, a SHAC committee, for example. And what’s a SHAC committee? Right, and so that stands for a School Health Advisory Council. But you’ll often hear them referred to as SHAC committees, sometimes Student Health Advisory Council, sometimes people, but School Health Advisory Council, right. And so what is that? Well, we, as someone that’s a part of the education team at the advocacy center, I would sit in on those, and I learned a lot more that, oh, parents are on these SHAC committees. So that’s when I started my own personal kind of journey on what a SHAC committee is, not only professionally, but what that meant personally as well. And so I think something that parents in the state of Texas right, it is a part of the Texas education code that every school district have a SHAC committee. Okay, it’s, it’s in the law so, and those committees have to be made up. Those are all you can look this up on, like texasgov if you wanted to. But in those SHAC committees they have to consist of parents. The majority of that committee has to be parents. Now there can be some school administrators or like teachers, something like that, on their community members, but most of that committee has to be parents that on their community members, but most of that committee has to be parents. And what that committee does is it votes on, if you will, and makes decisions about a lot of things health related in our schools. But as it relates to what we’re doing at the CAC, and what I was really interested in as a parent was the education around child abuse, preventing, reporting, all of that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2:
The curriculum what’s being taught to my children? Is there anything being taught to my children? If so, what is that curriculum, that kind of stuff? And the SHAC committee is who decides that. So if you are a parent, that is kind of curious. You don’t really know what is being taught in your schools. You don’t really know if anything at all, and you want to start that conversation. A great place to look would be if your school. If your ISD has a SHAC committee, who that kind of who that person is at the ISD that runs it, then send them an email and just say, hey, I heard about this committee. I’m interested in knowing more about it. What can you tell me?
Speaker 1:
So you started serving on this SHAC committee in your school district. Now, this is not an electable position, not like school board, where you have to get elected, correct.
Speaker 2:
Nope, absolutely not. There are no like as far as like qualifications. Any parent can be interested in being on the SHAC committee. Now I know for my own personal for the ISD that my kids are in Right. They try to make sure that there’s a representative from each elementary school, and so I will say I went. I went in a year prior and expressed my interest in wanting to be on the SHAC committee and that elementary school that my kids went to already had that position filled, but they were rolling off the next year. So basically they said next year you’re the next one in line. So that might, you might could run into that potentially, but if so you can still like. What another thing that SHAC committees are required to do it’s in their law. The bylaws for SHAC committees is post their minutes. So even if you’re not on the committee itself, you want to know what they’re talking about, you want to know what they’re discussing, those kinds of things. The minutes have to be posted as well.
Speaker 1:
And who’s on the committee. I mean, a lot of people just don’t even know this committee exists, right, and that it’s even a requirement.
Speaker 2:
It’s not even that Some schools have them. Because it’s helpful. It’s actually in the Texas Education Code.
Speaker 1:
Well, and I think too, just I think this is your story and how you stumbled upon, I think is such a testament to how we assume we know what’s going on, but we don’t and even you in working in a CAC, didn’t know that this was a possibility for you to serve your school in this way, and so that’s one of the reasons why we wanted to do this show is just to say, hey, you want to get more involved with your kid’s school, what’s going on on the SHAC committee and figuring out what they’re doing, because that would also include, like sexual curriculum, all of that stuff is going to be included, all of that Sex ed, all of that.
Speaker 2:
Smaller school districts I want to give them like a shout out, because sometimes they’re just a little bit behind the curve right on getting things implemented. And so if you find that your ISD maybe doesn’t have a SHAC committee or maybe they’re a bigger school district and they don’t don’t assume that that’s intentional they may just need someone to express some interest. They may have had a change in staff or administration. Maybe they don’t even realize like, oh, this is kind of an area where we need to improve, because something that kind of helps prove the need, if you will, of a SHAC committee is Jenna’s Law, which, again, some parents don’t know that there’s a law that was implemented in 2009 in the state of Texas, basically, that requires public schools to provide this prevention, education of child abuse, how to recognize and report that to staff and to children that are in public schools and to children that are in public schools, and then, in 2017, I believe, is when it was amended to include sex trafficking from the age of seventh grade and older.
Speaker 2:
So there is a law in Texas that states that schools have to be providing this education, which Right SHAC committees within ISDs help make the decisions on that curriculum. And, as a parent, that’s how you can be on the front lines, kind of helping make those decisions. And, like for me, when I, when I did get on my boys SHAC committee for our ISD, they were already in the midst of reviewing some curriculum. So I was encouraged because I’m like you know they’re already kind of doing some of the things and so they approved a curriculum and that’ll actually roll out this year for the first time, which I’m excited about. But yeah, so, if that helps, a little bit of background to knowing about that law.
Speaker 1:
I think that’s great and you can.
Speaker 1:
you can see on those timestamps of those laws how we’re evolving and trying to educate as technology becomes part of the situation, because with sex trafficking, I immediately go to more of the technology side of that, even the online grooming and stuff that’s happening, so that’s great.
Speaker 1:
I also think it’s wonderful that you said you know, just because a school may not have a shack committee or may not have updated curriculum yet, it’s not that they don’t want to do it, and I think that’s so important not to ever assume the worst of your kid’s school For sure. I think we live in a hostile environment where critical eyes and everything and everybody’s like you stand up for your kids and you be combative. But I think we need to be really careful with that, because we’ve got so many overworked teachers and school administrators and they are doing the best they can and so many times this is on a to-do list but then an emergency happens and it keeps getting pushed back. So I do think we need to give some grace here If you run into your school district and you don’t have they don’t have a shack committee or they’re kind of behind in getting this up and running.
Speaker 2:
It’s one of those things if you come in kind of accusatory well, I know that you’re supposed to have this, this and may not turn out the way you would hope, whereas if you come in as a hey, this is something I learned, something I would love to be a part of, you know, probably the outcome would be more positive, and I would just encourage anyone, if you discover that, to kind of approach it that way Absolutely, and joining it too.
Speaker 1:
I mean you have people who’ve served on there and have rolled out curriculum that may or may need to be updated, and just give grace, because we’re I think most of us are just doing the best we can do here and getting and getting the um, getting the right curriculum, out to the kids.
Speaker 1:
I do want to shout out to my kids are in the public school and, um, you know, I’ve got one in college, but my son is still in a public school. I’ve never been involved in a shack committee. I have interviewed someone else who was an RN, who was on a shack committee and helped determine this. But I will say one of the things that I have appreciated at my kids’ school, that I have loved so much as a parent, is I get a notice every time we’re getting ready to start sex ed that I can come to this meeting and I go and they have every day’s material laid out on a table where I can see exactly what is being taught every day, and they respect that. I want to see what’s being taught and then I can carry on the conversation at home and add my faith to it, or you know, however, I want to adjust, to put it through the spiritual lens that I, that you know we would in our home, and to your point.
Speaker 2:
So getting the notice, senate Bill 9 is another piece of like legislature, so Senate Bill 9 came through in 2023, actually. So we used to be an opt out state. Now we are opt in, meaning you will get that notice and schools are required they can send those notices no less than 14 days prior to the curriculum that’s going to be taught, with a detail of what they’re going to go over. And then you have to opt in for your child to attend that curriculum and that has to be received by the school, right? As opposed to, oh, the letter goes home and it gets lost and it never comes back. It used to be an opt out and so if you didn’t get that, you assumed that it was okay that they went. Now it’s very much black and white, more of an opt-in. But, to your point, part of that opt-in is creating opportunities for you to see the curriculum before it’s given to them, right? So we do like parent information meetings so we can go over our curriculum.
Speaker 2:
So, however your school decides to deliver that, I would encourage anyone with questions because sometimes it is scary if you hear sex ed or prevention education. I had a mom email me the other day and she has a third grader and she said you know, I’m just curious, like what is the verbiage that we use for sexual abuse? That’s a valid concern of a third grader? I have a third grader, you know. I was so glad she reached out. But that’s what those education kind of informative meetings are for. If you have any questions, go to those so they can answer them and you can see the curriculum.
Speaker 1:
So that that opt in, that changed in 2023. Is that what you said? Yes, okay, so that’s a new thing because that was the latest.
Speaker 2:
that was the latest update, um you know to it was in 2023.
Speaker 1:
Yes, Okay, yeah, because I I was an opt out. I’m pretty sure, but it’s switched now to an opt in.
Speaker 2:
Now it’s an opt in, you have to have explicit consent that they’re allowed to go. It was opt-out before that.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, the other thing that I will say, too, is this I went almost every year, except like the last year, because I knew what was happening. But I went almost every year to those meetings and I was shocked at how many parents did not go. I just want to say to our listeners it’s really important that when you get information on health, wellness, prevention, education, anything like that, you want to be involved in those conversations, because they’re always going to tie into to the online stuff that we’re talking about at Next Talk. The grooming, the manipulation all of that stuff is going to be included in that, and it’s a great tie in when you’ve been saying this stuff at home and then the school now says it, and then you can circle back and tie it all together and it really is like a village speaking into your kid to make sure they’re safe.
Speaker 2:
Yes, absolutely, and I say that even to my friends Say that you are a listener who does attend these meetings and maybe you do have a little bit more information, like I encourage my friends to attend these things. I’m like when you get that, go, yes, listen, and sometimes I just think people think, oh, this is really and truly. Once they’re there, they’re like, oh, this is important information. I’m really glad I attended. It’s one of those sometimes you just have to like kind of rip the bandaid off and do something that feels a little bit out of the ordinary for you and in the end it really is beneficial.
Speaker 1:
I remember in sixth grade, when my little sixth grader was being told the definition of anal and oral sex, I was like whoa, what, what? And then I went and she was like listen, we’re just told, we’re just telling them that it is sex and STDs, and it was no more, that there wasn’t anything graphic there. That was left up to conversations at home.
Speaker 2:
if we were going to have those conversations, which we did, which speaks to the importance of those conversations, because if you’re not having them at home, they’re going to ask friends. They’re going to ask friends of friends.
Speaker 1:
they’re going to ask the internet, and we all know what happens when, when, that happens Well, and I remember as a parent of a young, of a young middle schooler for the first time. I just remember thinking it’s too soon, too fast, like we don’t need to cover this. But the way it was presented in our sex ed class was we don’t want them thinking that they can’t, there’s not consequences of that, like there’s STDs involved with that. We need, they need to make sure that that is sex and we’re not going to get into the graphics of it and answer detailed questions about it. But they do need to know it is, it is intercourse, and I just that was eyeopening to me of okay, we’re not, nobody’s pushing an agenda on my kid here. It’s literally like the definition and we the fact of that. It is sex, that it is sex and there are consequences from it.
Speaker 3:
And so.
Speaker 1:
I would again. I remember that I almost got a defensive. What are you trying to push on my kid, this sexual life stuff so fast? That’s not always the case, and so we just need to pause and really look at the curriculum. And what are they trying to do in this curriculum and what does it look like?
Speaker 2:
And the way that you do that is by attending those meetings, getting on your SHAC committee and things like that. That’s how you get involved. You can be an active participant.
Speaker 1:
And at least be in the know. Even if the SHAC committee is full and you can’t serve, you’re in the know, you know who’s on it and you’re watching the minutes and that sort of thing.
Speaker 2:
Yes, you can ask the questions. You know, if you see something in those minutes and you have a question email the secretary email, the one I mean the names are listed there and your district should provide whoever it is that’s kind of in charge, if you will, of the committee, who’s kind of spearheading it. But you can just shoot an email hey, I have a question about this. You know Absolutely, and they’ll answer that.
Speaker 1:
So we’re talking about Texas public schools right now. We have a lot of listeners across the US and say they’re out there and, like man, I want to get involved. They’re out there and, like man, I want to get involved. How does my sex ed curriculum get passed and who makes those decisions? What kinds of questions or who do you think they should contact for that information?
Speaker 2:
Great question. So the first thing that I would do, depending on the state that I’m in, would be to you know, sometimes Google is our friend would be to you know sometimes Google is our friend to ask Google what laws are in place in my state that requires public education, you know, to educate my kids on if it’s sex ed you’re curious about if it’s prevention education, because I mentioned Jenna’s law here in the state of Texas, but 35 other states in the United States have Aaron’s law, which is a very similar law. Okay, so there’s a good chance right that your state falls under Aaron’s law which says, hey, we require all public schools to give this curriculum Right, and so that would kind of give you again a foothold to start that conversation with your ISD. I know New York has a Senate bill, oregon has a Senate bill, oregon has a Senate bill that requires those things. So if it’s not Jenna’s law, if it’s not Aaron’s law, it could be a Senate bill. So start just trying to figure out if there is a law in place. I would say the majority of states in the United States have a law in place.
Speaker 2:
Once you figure out what that is, go to your ISD and just say hey, I’m curious what we’re doing to fulfill this, to fulfill Aaron’s law, to fulfill Senate bill, whatever. What curriculum are we teaching our kids? I don’t know that they have to have a shack committee, right. I don’t. I’m not super. I know Texas Education Code. We have shack committees are required. They may call it something else. You can look into your gov, kind of, and see what your education code says.
Speaker 2:
But I think you can start the conversation simply by saying I know Aaron’s law or I know this Senate bill says that this is supposed to be provided to all public school students. What are we doing to meet that law in this ISD, if you’re not aware? And that should start the conversation. And you could even say I’ve heard of student or school health advisory councils. Do we have anything like that here? Kind of starting those conversations, I think is just the easiest way to do it and that and they’ll get you to the right person. There’s going to be someone that’s over health curriculum for an ISD, right, just like there’s somebody who’s over English curriculum and math curriculum and things like that. And then you just kind of go from there and decide is this something they’re already doing? Your state may not be an opt-in state right. So they may. You may not even realize that they’re already doing that, and they just aren’t required to send the permission slip home, right?
Speaker 2:
Well and that’s a question that you need to know as a parent.
Speaker 2:
If that’s what I, that’s kind of what that, if you’re, if you don’t know, I would ask because it could be that they’re already doing it and they don’t have to send the permission slip home to do that. So it’s worth asking kind of on all fronts for all that information. What is the curriculum? If they aren’t doing it? What can we do to get that in place? If they are doing it, have you been notified? Did you even know? You know that was happening.
Speaker 1:
So I think that’s great because and again I want to reiterate, this is not an accusatory. This is not assuming the school is doing anything wrong. That’s not what we’re saying. We just want you to know what your kid is being taught so you can have the conversations at home, fill in the gaps or whatever else, and that you just need to know that. You need to know what is being taught to your children and being involved in their education. One other question for you, ashton how have you liked serving on this committee?
Speaker 2:
On the shack.
Speaker 2:
So I’ve enjoyed it for a couple of reasons.
Speaker 2:
One, it makes me feel like an active participant right, and just like what my kids are being educated about when it comes to those important kind of hot topics sometimes.
Speaker 2:
But also I didn’t realize I mean we kind of like get to hear from the head of like nutrition because that falls under the health umbrella, so we get updates like from the head of nutrition for our ISD and we talk about things that I didn’t even realize.
Speaker 2:
You know the school nurse doesn’t update and we just all of our schools got EpiPens like in the nurse’s office and that was a big deal because we didn’t have that, and so it really keeps me in the know about so many things and just meeting kind of community members and other parents who are kind of just concerned with the same things and want to do good. That’s what I’ve loved so much about serving on the SHAC committee in my personal role. I’m on several SHAC committees professionally, which is great too. It looks a little bit different but I have enjoyed like the collaborative round table kind of feel that SHAC committees have. They’re not super formal, they really are collaborative, just a place for everybody to come together and make decisions on what’s best for kids just a place for everybody to come together and make decisions on what’s best for kids.
Speaker 1:
I love that. I love that so much. We need more parents being involved in the public schools. I mean they do so much for our kids. I mean so much and I think the more we can get involved and help and be part of the process, I mean it truly takes all of us. Absolutely, I agree. Well, thank you so much for doing this show. I think it was super helpful. If we get any questions, I may be sending them your way, if that’s okay.
Speaker 2:
Absolutely Always send them my way. I’m so thankful to have been here and hope that this information gives somebody out there just a little bit of you know what. I’m going to take this information and be proactive with it, because we know knowledge is power. Sometimes we want to do better. We just don’t know how. So maybe you, being a part of your local SHAC committee or asking questions for your ISD near you, can kind of help you do that Absolutely.
Speaker 1:
Thank you so much, ashton, full of great information. Thank you.
Speaker 2:
Bye.
Speaker 3:
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