I am so very sorry that the entire situation has happened. It must be very very hard to not try to shake or slap some sense into Katie at least on the "protect your children" front. Of course that route won't accomplish anything, but it is still very tempting. You just don't ever know if the family of a classmate is sane or not. So many monsters are able to look and seem perfectly normal,
Hopefully Kayla will feel comfortable telling you if anything happened. If she isn't comfortable talking to you, maybe the school counselor could help, or a past teacher could. Just be careful she isn't asked so many times and in ways that make her start to believe she was abused even if facts prove beyond a doubt that she wasn't. that can happen after as few as 3 times the same or basically the same thing is asked. Kids and teens are especially prone to this. It may be that a forensic interview is needed because people who do these interviews with kids are trained to ask questions in ways that greatly reduce the chance that she will start to believe something happened when it didn't. Here if there is any chance a child has been abused, they do a forensic interview right away an use this as a basis to either go forward or conclude that no abuse happened.
I hope and pray that Kayla has not ever been abused, left alone with the type of monster who would abuse her in any way, and that Katie and M learn from this and start to protect their children from this type of person. If Kayla's attitude has changed dramatically in any way it can be a sign of abuse. Esp if she thinks her parents had some idea that the friend's parents were abusive. Many monsters tell the kids that their parents know and want the abuse to happen, so it could be a reason for Kayla to be rebellious lately. Or the recent problems could be due to something else, but this should be considered at least.
Hopefully Kayla will feel comfortable telling you if anything happened. If she isn't comfortable talking to you, maybe the school counselor could help, or a past teacher could. Just be careful she isn't asked so many times and in ways that make her start to believe she was abused even if facts prove beyond a doubt that she wasn't. that can happen after as few as 3 times the same or basically the same thing is asked. Kids and teens are especially prone to this. It may be that a forensic interview is needed because people who do these interviews with kids are trained to ask questions in ways that greatly reduce the chance that she will start to believe something happened when it didn't. Here if there is any chance a child has been abused, they do a forensic interview right away an use this as a basis to either go forward or conclude that no abuse happened.
I hope and pray that Kayla has not ever been abused, left alone with the type of monster who would abuse her in any way, and that Katie and M learn from this and start to protect their children from this type of person. If Kayla's attitude has changed dramatically in any way it can be a sign of abuse. Esp if she thinks her parents had some idea that the friend's parents were abusive. Many monsters tell the kids that their parents know and want the abuse to happen, so it could be a reason for Kayla to be rebellious lately. Or the recent problems could be due to something else, but this should be considered at least.
