taff photo by Mark Hughes
Shelly Stout, who works at Kids’ Space Child Advocacy Center, uses the doll Suzie to demonstrate that anything covered by the two-piece bathing suit is a private part of the child’s body. For boys, she uses a doll named Joe, outfitted in a bathing suit, to demonstrate the same thing. This type of instruction is oriented to pre-kindergarteners through second grade and is part of a sexual abuse prevention activity mandated by law through fifth grade. Stout provides similar instruction through the eighth grade.