‘When I Was a Teenager I Was Falsely Accused of Molesting 2 Kids’
We often cover the problem of false allegations on my blog, and recently Joshua, a reader, told me that as a teenager he had been falsely accused of molesting his next door neighbor’s kids. I asked him to tell us his story, and this is what he wrote:
Joshua’s Story
Back when I was a teenager I was falsely accused of molesting 2 kids I was babysitting at the time. One was a little girl; the other was a little boy.
I had babysat these two kids for a couple of years, as they lived next door. I would babysit them on average once a week after school until their mother returned home from work. I was known to be really good with kids even as a teenage boy.
Anyways, the situation started one day when I was sitting in my room and I heard my mother calling me from the front-door. As usual if my mother was calling me from another part of the house it was probably to give me trouble for something I did, telling me it was supper, or do chores. I never expected what happened next.
When I got to the top of the steps going down to the front door, my mother said I have something to ask you. I was like, “Okay what?”
“The neighbor tells me that you molested their kids. They say that their niece said that their daughter told their niece you had touched them in places you shouldn’t be.”
I was like, “What? I didn’t touch those kids? Why would I do something like that?” As it happened quite a few years ago I can’t particularly remember every detail of the conversation that came about and how I reacted but I remember being completely stunned. Then I remember my mother almost crying and then finally saying that she believed me.
This girl was also new to my high school at the time so I had just met her at school and found out she was related to the kids next door.
So I didn’t think much of it, until I went to school the next day. All of a sudden I could hear her telling the people at school that I molested her niece and nephew. I couldn’t believe how horrible I felt about someone saying that about me. I had my own troubles in my life with drugs and school; now I was being accused of molesting kids and now everyone in school was going to know.
I remember being in science class and her discussing this with the “popular kids” in school. (more…)
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Stumble It!
January 23rd, 2008 at 9:42 pm
This kind of reminds me of the story of 2 year old Abbie Rae in England. She got away from her daycare provider and was wandering around her little village. A bricklayer passing by in his truck saw the 2 year old wandering around, and one of the first things that went through his mind was that someone might accuse him of kidnapping her or molesting her, so he drove on without stopping. The little girl fell into a pond and died of drowning. It was her own mother who found the little girl in the pond. Sometimes men just learn to avoid kids and it only affects them. Sometimes they learn to avoid and we get tragedy.
January 23rd, 2008 at 10:23 pm
I used to teach self-defense classes and weight-training in a gym. One of three women who did child care at the gym was sick, another went off suddenly to have a baby, sooooooooo the remaining women asked if I would help her for three or four days.
Some of the mom’s thought it was just the “greatest, bestest, wonderfullest things ever” and I thought, damn, how patronizing. But that wasn’t as bad as the third degree some parents gave “Why do you work here” “why would a man work here”
Later I talked to men who wanted to teach Kindergarten but didn’t because of the way adults spoke to them, too much affection, or fear… neither felt honest. I thought … With two adults, sometimes three, taking care of your kids for a short work out, in a room where the windows were huge and no place to hide, shut the f#$# up …
Most liked my answer, “they asked me to help because two women are out and I said yet” When they learned that I had raised two kids myself as the primary caretaker of my son and daughter and could likely show a couple of you beginning “moms” a thing or two they felt more comfortable. But, the questioning is creepy … and I decided to not help the next time.