National sex education

Any idea that this was a subtle kind of sexual abuse disappeared when testimony began in the Jerry Sandusky trial with Victim #4 saying he was treated like a girlfriend. (AP Photo/Centre Daily Times, Nabil K. Mark)

Any idea that this was a subtle kind of sexual abuse disappeared when testimony began in the Jerry Sandusky trial with Victim #4 saying he was treated like a girlfriend.

“Very often he said he ended up between Sandusky’s legs or his thighs were being kissed,” said CBS’ Barry Bagnato.

What Bagnato heard in that courtroom depicted something more than horseplay.

“At some point he said it escalated, his hand being placed on body parts. In his words, ‘He’d get erect and try to sneakily put it in my mouth.'”

And why would a kid — even a 12 year old — let this go on and and on? Because he needed a father figure, and those gifts:

“Golf clubs, snowboards, drum sets and trips,” said Bagnato.

Victim #4 is now 28 and says he regrets not coming forward sooner — which might have spared the other boys.

And I bring this up because I was reading an elementary school sex curriculum today — designed for 5th graders — kids the age that Victim #4 was when this all happened.

Here’s what it says:

You have a right not to be touched on your private parts.

You have the right not to look at other peoples’ private parts.

— Even if “The person is older and bigger, promises to do favors or buy gifts, or you liked the touch to begin with, it took you a long time to get up the courage to tell, or the person is in charge.

The curriculum points out that this kind of exploitation happens gradually. And it teaches you to SAY NO, to LEAVE, and to BE RUDE.

It’s the kind of course that tends to draw complaints from parents because teachers sometimes have to answer questions like “What is oral sex?” And it can get graphic. But so is what we’re hearing in that courtroom.

Do you want a kid who will just let it go on, or one who recognizes perversion immediately and has the courage to pull the alarm the moment it happens?