“Body Safety Theatre” Educates Westwood Youth About Sexual Abuse.

In the era of celebrities such as Anthony Rapp and athletes like Needham native Aly Raisman making headlines for coming forward about sexual abuse sexual abuse perpetrated against them as minors, Westwood’s Body Safety Theatre (BST) appears ripped from the headlines. The program is over thirty years old. “Research tells us sexual abuse occurs among all racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups, and unfortunately continues to be an issue today as it was thirty years ago,” says Westwood Youth & Family Services’ Nina Banozic, LICSW.

“Body Safety Theater (BST) is a live theater presentation performed by high school students designed to teach 3rd grade students how to identify potentially abusive situations and what to do in the event that sexual abuse occurs. The 35-minute presentation is comprised of three skits, all of which present a different abusive situation and solution, as well as six body safety rules,” explains Banozic.

The Mentors are volunteers from Westwood High School who present the material to the students in the form of three skits. [Fun fact: yours truly was a Mentor for three years in the early aughts, under the leadership of one of the original Mentors.] The program occurs at all five Westwood elementary schools. The schools’ Parent Teacher Organizations have contributed funding to Body Safety Theater since 2006.

Westwood Youth & Family Services provides a parent information packet about the BST program. It discusses the above mentioned six rules, signs of child sex abuse as well as important steps parents can take at home. There are also parent information meetings. “The Parent Information packets and the in-person Parent Information Sessions have always been a part of the BST program. Parent/guardian education and communication is, perhaps, the most important feature of the program because anything that the children see and hear through BST is only meant to be a jumping off point for conversations at home with their parents/guardians. We also know from annual parent surveys that parents appreciate the informational resources on this topic and the opportunity to see the exact performance that their children will see,” Banozic says.

Body Safety Theatre Parent Information Sessions will be the held at the Islington Community Center on Tuesday 4/23 from 6pm-7pm and on Wednesday 4/24 from 9:30-10:30am. The BST Performances will take place over two days, Monday 5/6 and Friday 5/10 at all five of the Westwood Elementary Schools.