McAlester News-Capital, McAlester, OK

Local News

May 13, 2008

Protecting our children is this woman’s passion

By Susan Brittingham

There is one driving force in this determined young woman’s life: protecting defenseless children.

“I’ll stand up for the right thing, even if it makes somebody mad,” Jessica Gilliam said. “The child is the most important thing. We’ve got to protect the children.”

Gilliam was recently honored as A Friend of Child Advocacy by the Pittsburg County Child Advocacy Board for spending most of her adult life protecting children. “It was a surprise to be nominated, but when I got to thinking about it, I realized that I’m not talented, like musically or anything, but I am good with children.

“I will protect children. I guess that’s my talent. That’s what I’m good at.”

After all, “my entire career has basically been working with children. I worked as a campus police officer at McAlester, and I worked as a child welfare investigator for DHS for six months. Now I work with children through the district attorney’s office as a child sexual abuse forensic interviewer.

“We have got to protect our children, and that’s what I’m here to do.”

Gilliam’s job could make some people cry. Every day she goes to work and, on more days than most people would like to believe, has to console a child who has been physically or sexually abused.

She has to let that child know that he or she didn’t do anything wrong and that the person who did the wrong thing won’t be able to do it again.

How often does she have to do that? So many that it’s more than she’d care to admit out loud. Gilliam doesn’t like to look at statistics — especially since she has to live with their effects every day — but she does know that Pittsburg County has the highest child abuse rate in the state.

And Oklahoma is ranked third in the nation for child abuse.

“It’s unbelievable when you see the court docket,” she said. “The child abuse cases are heard on the last Thursday of the month and they last all day long.

“It’s nothing for them to start at 9 in the morning and carry on past 5 in the evening.

“And most of these families only come in every three months, so what you’re seeing are new people, new abuse cases, every week.

“It’s just unreal.”

While some of those cases are sexual in nature, some stem from parents who have drugs in the home and from medical neglect. “It’s just amazing how some people will treat children,” Gilliam said. “I have a child of my own now, and it’s hard to imagine treating a child that way.”

As a child sexual abuse forensic interviewer, Gilliam talks with young children and listens as they recount past horrors.

She went to Minnesota back in 2000 for the specialized training. “I was one of the first in the county,” she recalled.

“It’s a hard job at times, but I feel very strongly about what I’m doing.

“All I want to do is help children, and that’s what I get to do every day.”

Contact Susan Brittingham at 421-2029 or e-mail sbrittingham@mcalesternews.com.

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