What To Do If You Suspect Your Child Is Being Molested

I put up a post requesting for counsel from great friends on behalf of a friend who suspected that her daughter was being molested. Though it appears that there is no cause for concern in this case, I believe there is value in compiling the responses I got in a post. Who knows when such a post will come in handy? I'll try to organize the thoughts propounded in a way that the post will be coherent. Many thanks to everyone who took out the time to respond 

1. Be very wise and above all, let God guide your actions. It's very necessary here.

2. Remove your child out of the place of perceived danger IMMEDIATELY.

3. Take the child to the doctor for a check-up. This should help in ruling out the possibility of the child injuring himself/ herself by touching and scratching. 

4. If the place of perceived danger is a school, notify the school and get video footages of your child's class if they are available. Do not just leave the school without investigating because similar things could be happening to other innocent kids. Questions to ask include
- Does the child follow the school bus? 
- If you do school runs yourself, do you pick the child up late or drop him/her off too early?

5. Even if you suspect that the abuse took place/is taking place in a school, check other people that your child spends time with. Don't limit the sex of the offender to males, consider the females too. 
Questions to ask include
- Do you have a gateman?
- Who are the men living with you and around you?

6. If you're in a place where the police actually work, get the police involved! Do NOT take it lying down.

7. Talk to your child. Whatever information that can be extracted should be calmly obtained before it slips from his/her memory and before your panic causes him/her to clam up. Even if his/her speech is unclear, you may ask a few pre-emptive questions: point to the place and ask if anybody touched him/her there. When? Where? Today? In school? You may even mention a few names, likely and unlikely to gauge his/her answers and determine if they show a trend, and may be adjudged reliable. When he/she gives you an answer, even if it's not what you expected, don't ask him/her a second time.

8. Don't give out information to a lot of people.

9. Be very calm and be more vigilant.