She Remembered
In this episode of Catch The Message, Victor shares a triumphant moment a young girl shared with him. After seeing his program in 3rd grade, she realized she connected as a survivor. Fear, however, overpowered her. Years later, as a sophomore, she heard him speak again.
VICTOR
Hey everybody, welcome to Catch the Message. My name is Victor, and I have Deanna with me. Hey, Deanna.
DEANNA
Hi everybody.
VICTOR
We wanna say thanks for joining us today. Uh, we, I, I wanted to record this as soon as possible because, uh, again, for those of you that are new, maybe just watching this one for the first time, this specific podcast is all about just sharing quick little stories and inspirational moments that we've had with students and staff at the schools that we present at. Again, we present on all different types of, of topics, but one that we really spend a lot of our time on is something called, uh, Erin's Law, which is a law that requires that public schools in 38 states, some , uh, mandate it, some recommend it, um, but it's all about sexual abuse, awareness and prevention. And, um, I have created a curriculum called Be Seen and Heard that we've been taking to schools now since 2014. And Deanna is a great advocate and voice for this curriculum.
But we were recently at a high school, and this is so powerful to me. I had a girl come up to me afterwards, and she just came up very, very, it is very respectful, and said, Victor and I, and she was so happy to see me, and she's like, Victor. Um, and she's, I think she said she's a sophomore, and she said, Victor, um, thank you. I, I thought it was you that was coming here today. I saw you when I was in third grade at my elementary school, which was in another town like miles and miles away. And she said, Victor, I connected with your story in third grade, but I didn't say anything, Victor. I, I didn't know what to do. And I was so kind of confused, but I wanted to come to you and talk to you, and, and I didn't.
And I eventually told, I told my mom and, um, my mom because it was someone in my family, she told me not, not to say anything and not to talk about it, which to me is so sad because again, it's all about sweeping it under the carpet. Yeah. Right. And so the, the key here though is that, you know, I, I don't think she's talked about it since. So she, she saw us present, we worked together, uh, Deanna and I did, and we shared our stories, and she came up and she shared, like, you know, you could tell she still was very, you know, she had tears in her eyes. And I kind of said, Hey, you need to, you know, talk to your counselor. And high schools always have, it seems to me, a really good team of psychiatrists and social workers. So I said, please spend time with your counselor if you can't today. And of course, they were, you know, it was later in the day, if you can't today, start, start Monday and really start to heal. And I think that is huge because it's, it showed her confidence and it showed her her. She was very courageous to do so.
DEANNA
Absolutely. And it shows the importance of really whether the law is mandated or suggested or encouraged. It, it, it shows the importance of teaching about this every single year. You know, there could be times where someone hears me speak Victor four years in a row, right? And then you come in and it happens to be that a boy, while I do say it happens to boys, where a boy sees you and just makes that connection that moment and says, today's the day. You know, what do we say that, uh, disclosures happen when courage meets opportunity, right? She had courage before, and it's possible she's had opportunities before, but when did they meet? It happened in that auditorium. And, you know, and, and you know, at the end of the day, I think this also says something about us' presenters. It was the last presentation of the day. And, you know, we, we both had stuff to do yesterday and you know, for a lot of people, job is a job. You pack up your stuff, you go home. And we waited because that's, that's who we are as, as these safe people. And I agree. I think it was very powerful.
VICTOR
Yeah. And it's interesting too, uh, a side note, I had, uh, the assistant principal come up to me yesterday, I don't know if you were with me or heard, but she's like, it's amazing that you guys, you started at seven 30 this morning. You're finishing your last presentation at three o'clock. You had the same energy you had from the first presentation to the last. And I said, well, first of all, it's what we do. It's what we're passionate about, but it's what they deserve. They, they deserve us to be at the top of our game. And even if we're not feeling it in terms of we're tired, which I was mm-hmm. , and I know we were, we have to come across like we did at seven 30 in the morning. It's like, it's like an actor or a performer, you know, you have to do what you have to do.
And, and that's what's so great about this survivor led curriculum that we're so, so proud of. So again, we, we are here to help kids. We're here to help staff, uh, teachers come up to us all the time. If you can be so kind, if this is something that you, whether you're an educator listening and watching this, or you're a parent, uh, guardian, please share this with your schools and, uh, have us come out through either in person, we go to a lot of, you know, we're back in person at a lot of schools. We do livestream presentations, and we also have an online, uh, uh, curriculum that you would facilitate in your schools. So thank you, everyone, catch the message and we will see you next time. Thank you.
