I talk a lot about healing for women and girls who have been violated, but today I need us to face something people keep refusing to say out loud: boys can be victims too. Growing up, I knew male friends who were exposed to sexual behavior far too young by babysitters, and I saw the damage follow them. People brushed it off, joked about it, or acted like a boy could not really be violated that way, and that silence is exactly how children get left unprotected.

When adults only picture one kind of victim and one kind of abuser, children fall through the cracks. Boys may show sudden changes in behavior, secrecy, fear, withdrawal, or sexualized behavior that is not appropriate for their age, and too many adults miss those signs because they are looking through the wrong lens. We also have to stop assuming someone is safe just because she is a woman, a relative, a babysitter, or a trusted family friend.

That is why I am calling on state child welfare agencies, public school systems, and the officials who oversee mandated reporter training to require child abuse education that clearly includes boys as victims and female caregivers as possible abusers. Training for educators, childcare workers, and other mandated reporters should teach the warning signs, challenge harmful stereotypes, and make it clear that protecting children means protecting all children. If we want adults to act in time, then we have to give them training that reflects reality.

Please sign this petition if you believe every child deserves to be seen, believed, and protected. We cannot keep letting shame, stereotypes, and denial stop adults from recognizing abuse when it is right in front of them. Boys need protection too, and they need it now.